Agenda

Mentoring is a great opportunity to deliver a rewarding and potentially life-changing experience for both the mentor and the mentee. It is one of the most important things a person can do to enhance their career and professional life. The benefits of mentoring consists of a myriad of opportunities. For individuals, good mentoring can lead to greater career success, including promotions, raises, and increased opportunities. Also in the context of youth, both formal and informal mentoring have the potential to benefit in a wide range of areas while bridging opportunity gaps for black male youth. This workshop will provide best practices in creating and sustaining a rewarding mentoring relationship with life-long impartation.

Networking pioneer and guru George Fraser is known as the “King of Networking.” He proposed effective networking to the black community in 1994 in his book Success Runs in Our Race. Fraser defined effective networking as follows: “Effective networking is the identification, building and developing of relationships for the purposes of sharing information and resources.” Fraser said that networking is consistent with garnering information and equated it with a source of power. This workshop will discuss the integrated components of professional networking, how to be an effective networker and how leveraging your network to unlock possible opportunities for career advancement.

There is a general consensus that states the media portrayals of black men and boys are linked to negative real-world outcomes. Media of all types collectively offer a distorted representation of the lives and reality of black males. In addition, Black males are underrepresented in various facets of the media’s portrayal of the world. Many important dimensions of black males’ stories are largely untold in the media — in particular how the lives of black men and boys are affected by larger contexts.This panel will discuss the implications of the public bias both conscious and unconscious — that help create barriers to advancement and adverse effects for Black males.

Anyone can learn how to be a good, effective leader, if by using their talents, skills, and resources to motivate and positively impact the lives of others as well as accomplish organization-wide goals. And more broadly, one can lead in many contexts beyond the workplace, in any community or sphere of influence. Leadership does not belong to those at the top of the organizational hierarchy, nor does it only apply to people who have what we would commonly consider the qualities of leadership. It’s also important to note that though we often refer to leadership as a singular skill, in reality, it’s an accumulation of skills (most of which can be developed through experience and training) that are uniquely influenced by an individual’s personality and background. This panel discussion will offer insight into what constitutes an effective leader and how to develop those leadership skills to bring about purposeful change.

It is no secret that the corporate world has a diversity problem. A lack of diversity in the top ranks consistently places high on the list of roadblocks keeping that dream from being attainable for Black men. If corporate America wants to create a more equitable and inclusive workplace it truly needs to be intentional in its approach to capitulate false narratives and prioritize anti-racism efforts in-house. This panel discussion will focus on how organizations can affect real change by looking into their own internal processes by addressing those systems that were created to be inequitable and commit to removing the barriers that keep qualified Black men from development and advancement opportunities.

During this “Rap Session” guest speakers will provide an open dialogue outlining habits and routines you can incorporate into your life that will help you on the road to career success. Among them, how to set goals, make decisions, plan careers, and maintain a competitive advantage that will help you achieve success in the short term, and also more long-term skills you can actively develop for your career.

While race and culture remain important variables in creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. Nevertheless, the legacies of racial and ethnic constructs can be spotted in everything from housing to education (health). Racial and ethnic prejudices affect the distribution of wealth, power, and opportunity. This panel will provide a comprehensive approach to race and culture and its direct effect on top leadership positions held by racial minorities.

Microaggression, brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative prejudicial slights and insults toward any group. Racism, and its associated microaggressions, have blighted the careers of Black professionals for generations, across all industries. Subsequently it is those very systemic barriers that have caused trauma and scars in ways which have been ignored.This panel discussion will focus on the impact of these subtle racial expressions from the perspective of the people being victimized, the psychological understanding of the whole process of stigmatization and bias and a plan for overcoming this potential threat to career success.