WORK is a pop-up conference exploring creative and entrepreneurial approaches to work.
WORK RETURNS ON JANUARY 11, 2020.
presented by BBATX (#bossbabesATX)
powered by Texas MSTC and Texas MBA
10 AM to 6 PM on January 11, 2020 @ Rowling Hall in Austin, Texas
$27 registration
MEET OUR WINTER 2020 SPEAKERS BELOW.
Obsessed with music from an early age, singer/songwriter Jackie Venson immersed herself in its study, attending the Berklee College of Music to practice classical piano. Abandoning the straight-laced world of classical for the raw power of blues and soul, Venson has since been tirelessly honing her skills into an intoxicating amalgam of Blues, Rock, R&B and Soul with deeply heartfelt lyrics. Having just released her latest studio album “Joy”, Venson is in the midst of her global “Joy to the World” tour, which will see her playing shows all the way from Alaska to Austria and back!
Lilly Wunsch has been a natural foods entrepreneur for the past seven years. She co-founded 4th & Heart ghee butter and grew the company to over 5,000 stores nationwide before leaving to shake up the energy bar space with OHi Superfood Bars. OHi bars are fresh from the fridge, so you don't have to sacrifice real food when you're on-the-go. She loves serving people by providing better yummy food options where you don't have to sacrifice feeling satisfied to feel nourished.
Pooja is a mother, Austin Community Leader, Attorney, City Council Commissioner and a small business owner with all-women employees. She is also nonprofit founder addressing the immediate legal, economic, and housing needs of immigrant women and children who are survivors of domestic abuse and assault. Pooja frequently speaks on television and on panels in the Austin area fighting for the rights of all women and a more inclusive Austin.
Kelly Krause is a content and brand curator and community-builder living in Austin, TX.
From 2010-2019, she held several positions with SXSW including head of Press & Publicity, and most recently curated Keynotes, Featured Speakers, and style & tech-related content for the conference. Currently she oversees brand & community initiatives for lululemon in the Southwest, and works with an Auberge Hotel in Austin, the Commodore Perry Estate on brand strategy.
In her spare time, she's a contributor for Forbes, focusing on women that keep empathy of the forefront of business, and also writes a monthly column for Camille Styles. She also serves as a mentor for WIT, a teen entrepreneur program. Most recently she passed The Court of Master Sommeliers Level 1 Introductory Course to further fuel her love for wine and the industry.
Sylvia Butanda is the deputy executive director for Latinitas where she manages year round digital media and technology enrichment programs for girls, development and operations. She takes strong pride in her culture and storytelling roots that led her to Latinitas and, since then, has enjoyed the opportunities to positively impact her community.
She is originally from Brownsville, TX and graduated from the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. She was awarded the 2018 Out of School Time Champion Award from Learn all the Time Network (LATT) for her work in empowering girls and young women in Central Texas with media and technology training.
Hope is a connector, collaborator and all around food enthusiast. She has over 10 years of career experience in the food and events industry with roles ranging from Catering Director for The Peached Tortilla to brand management for food & beverage companies such as CatSpring Yaupon, KeVita and PepsiCo. In the last year, she has branched off to focus on her own ventures that marry her passions and past experiences. Hope is co-founder of The Elephant Table, a collaborative dinner party concept focusing on giving creatives and brands an empowering platform to share their story. Most recently she’s co-founded The Glitter Queens, an eco-friendly pop-up glitter bar concept and she also acts as the Sponsor Manager for local Austin culinary and music fest, Hot Luck. Whether quite literally or figuratively, Hope's goal in each of her roles is to make everyone around her sparkle.
Caren is the founder and president of Gold Rush Vinyl in Austin, Texas. Before starting Gold Rush, Caren was Head of Music App Partnerships at Google, after launching both Google Music and Google Play. She also led business development efforts at Songkick and Paste magazine, and worked as a band manager, which helped her see the vinyl opportunity. Caren holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BBA from Emory University. The Beatles are still her favorite band of all time.
Chelsea Francis is a photographer, editor, connector, and all around people person residing in Austin, TX. She's most passionate about helping people see the beauty in their own lives, a good cup of coffee, helping businesses thrive, and finding a great slice of pizza. When she's not answering emails, she's writing and editing pieces for Pass/Fail, hosting networking events, and shooting photographs for incredible companies both in Austin and elsewhere.
Beth Hitchcock is a model, stylist and body positive activist. Having been in the fashion industry for 10 years, she has worked with some of the countries leading fashion retailers. She recently cofounded the project ‘Living Above the Rules’, which aims to support women in their journey to body confidence.
Claudia Yoli Ferla is a Dreamer and dedicated community activist born in Venezuela and raised in El Paso, Texas. As the Co-Executive Director of Deeds Not Words, she advocates on behalf of young Texans everywhere looking to find their voices to affect change in their communities.
Riley Blanks is a communication artist in every sense of the word. She is a photographer, commercial model actress and compelling storyteller. In March of 2018 she founded Woke Beauty. Inspired by her mom, Riley's mission is to provide an uplifting photographic experience that liberates and empowers all women. In July 2019 Woke Beauty was featured in Forbes; she has grown her business exponentially through community engagement and a thriving social media following.
Elisa Sepulveda is dedicated to empowering Hispanics and other underserved communities to create generational wealth through entrepreneurship. She is first generation American, with family hailing from Puerto Rico and Cuba. Elisa is currently the Managing Director of Texas for the Riveter, a community and coworking space by women for everyone. At the Riveter, she leads team to deliver programming to women and people of color to help them advance in their careers, regardless of industry, function, or company size. Elisa is also a Local Director for Founder Institute, a global idea stage accelerator program that is running in over 300 cities across the globe. Elisa is also a Notley Fellow, where she helps social impact companies and nonprofits grow their businesses and expand their impact.
Nicole Swartz is an attorney for women business owners. She helps women start and grow their businesses with formation, contracts, trademarks, copyrights, and funding. Nicole is featured as an expert in Forbes, the Washington Post, Girlboss, Brit + Co, and CNBC, and teaches women entrepreneurs at conferences like Alt Summit, Craftcation, SXSW, and Magic: the world's largest apparel tradeshow.
Mélissa Peng aka Curly Executive is a Texas-based Serial Entrepreneur, Business Coach, and YouTuber. Mélissa earned her MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and held roles with marketing behemoths including Procter & Gamble, Macy’s, and NBC Universal. After 10 years of successfully climbing the corporate ladder and earning the title of Director of Marketing at the age of 30, she left corporate and her six-figure salary to build a lifestyle focused on pursuing her many passions and her newfound purpose of helping others do the same. Mélissa is a woman of color and the daughter of a lifelong entrepreneur, this grant’s purpose is to support fellow women of color entrepreneurs in pursuing their passions and taking strategic risks in business.
Talan is a mid-western transplant that swapped snow for sunshine and moved to Texas to get her M.A. in communication studies from Texas State. After graduation, she fell in love with Austin and decided to stay. When she was young Talan was a competitive figure skater but in college switched her ice skates for killer suits and was the national runner-up in informative and impromptu speaking. She currently works at a government consulting firm and recently started her own business, Pitch, a public speaking coaching service for young professionals. Talan has two dogs that she loves more than anything, a one-eyed pug named Mad-eye Moody and a border collie mix named cookie monster.
Jen Sarduy was voted "most likely to enjoy 6 AM team activities" in high school, and that remains true to this day. In 2018, Jen co-founded Re+Birth Equity Alliance, believing that organizing is intersectional and nuanced, she works to center the most marginalized and vulnerable. Passionate about people and driven by change, she works to build both bridges and power within her community. In 2020 she hopes to keep more of her plants alive. Jen lives in Fort Worth, Texas.
Donnet Bruce is a result-driven entrepreneur and connector. Working hands-on with brands to facilitate each to break through to the next level through integrative marketing, Donnet focuses her services on branding, integrated marketing, and impactful experiential strategy. With a Master’s Degree in Integrated Marketing Communications and a background in Sociology, Donnet has both the experience as well as the educational foundation necessary to connect brands to the right influencers to catapult them into success. She has worked on brand transformation projects and events such as BlackTech Week, SoFlo Brunch Series, Blogalicious, InfluencerCon, and Social Media Week. She has also applied her brand-building skills in her own hair care business, Nubian Oasis, established in 2014.
With over 12 years of extensive experience in the art of headshots, Tonya Dailey provides top notch photography for business professionals. Her client list has included; CenterPoint Energy, Joe's Crab Shack, Wells Fargo, Bank of Texas, and many other companies. Tonya also has experience working with models and actors and is approved by several top agencies in the US. Her shoots mirror her personality, easy-going, fun, and awesome to work with. Though her studio is located in the heart of Houston, Texas, Tonya travels throughout the United States for corporate jobs.
Kristen is a multi-media content creator who is passionate about brand marketing and the world of digital publishing. Kristen specializes in developing and executing social media strategies, creating content for brands, reworking brand identities, and copywriting. Kristen started her career out as a writer, reporting on topics of news, dating, pop culture, and technology. Her love for social media and content creation eventually led her to pivot to brand marketing, where she worked for Tito's Handmade Vodka managing their website and social media. Kristen now works for Snap Kitchen as their Social Media Strategist, and freelances on the side creating content and social strategy for lifestyle, food, and CPG brands. Offline, Kristen can be found swimming at barton springs, dining at the newest restaurant in town, or at a local show.
Jasmine is the Executive Director/Founder of the grassroots 510c3 Collegiate Mom Coalition, speaker, community organizer and mentor to college mothers. Originally from Houston TX, Jasmine Robinson moved to Austin Texas with her 2 daughters Kenadie (10) and Kimora (8) after getting married to her college sweetheart, Tracey Robinson. She earned her Bachelors of Science in Architecture and received her Masters of Science in Community Development at Prairie View A&M University.
Elise is the founder of La Mystica, which offers support to entrepreneurs, therapeutic practitioners and creatives through Emotional Freedom Technique and other supporting, contemplative practices.
Ashley Connell, CEO and Founder of Prowess Project, has been an unstoppable tech marketer and entrepreneur in both Austin and London over the past 13 years of her career. With a keen ability to marry the art and science of marketing, she has honed her dynamic skills in key positions including launching and driving all European marketing initiatives during her tenure at Spiceworks, and managing Global Field Marketing at SanDisk. One part fearless entrepreneur, one part fearless women’s advocate, Ashley championed Prowess Project and is now changing the lives of frustrated managers, women seeking meaningful part time work, and doing all she can to close the gender gap. In her pretty much non-existent spare time she enjoys yoga, walks with her dog, cheering on her beloved Longhorns, and spaghetti and meatballs.
Priscilla Castro is the Director of Marketing at Planoly, the very first visual Instagram planner that has allowed creatives, influencers and content marketers like Estée Lauder, Glossier, and Mariana Hewitt plan out their content in advance, schedule, post, and engage with their followers all in one place. With the creation of Planoly's newest app StoriesEdit, anyone can create amazing graphic Stories templates and seamlessly schedule them with Planoly to meet all your Instagram content strategy goals.
Prior to Planoly, Priscilla lived as a Los Angeles native creating digital content and strategies for brands like Create & Cultivate, Makeful, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, BeautyCon, Filter Magazine, and many others. With 5+ years working in social media, Priscilla has witnessed the ever-changing landscape of digital and has taken note in how brands and content creators can maximize their use of social media through unique, valuable, and strategic content.
Jessica Tremblay is a designer and front-end developer for IBM Design. She has lived and worked in Austin, Texas since 2002, and is a graduate of UT Austin with a BFA in Studio Art. Jessica spends her day working on scaling the practice of design thinking internally at IBM and externally with clients. She is also a member of the AIGA Austin and Design Ranch boards. In her spare time, Jessica enjoys traveling, drinking a glass of fine red wine, and chilling on her couch with her cats playing Zelda.
Saxelby is an emotional management coach and facilitator based in Austin, Texas. She wants us all to have healthier relationships, be open to diverse points of view, lead with empathy, embrace vulnerability, create cool things, collaborate and kick ass.
Sydney Greene is a graduate of Arizona State University (Go Sun Devils!), where she studied Journalism and Mass Communications and minored in Women and Gender Studies. In 2018, Sydney moved to Austin, Texas to work as a fellow with the Texas Tribune, where she reported on immigration, healthcare, and politics. She now works as a Digital Content Coordinator at Deeds Not Words.
Native Austinite Krystal Craig is the Managing Co-Owner and Chocolatier/Pastry Chef of Intero Restaurant, and Co-Owner/Senior Pilates Instructor for Centerlined Precision Studio. As a self taught chocolatier and health enthusiast, Krystal's entrepreneurial drive led her to follow her passions in starting a first chocolate company at 21 years old while simultaneously beginning her Pilates practice.
Kayla is a filmmaker and photographed based in Austin, Texas. She is the co-director of FemBeat, a film production team sharing stories by womxn and wisdom for everyone, and a partner at Breakfast, a boutique social content and strategy agency. Through FemBeat, she aims to candidly explore different feminist experiences and the intersections that inform them.
Victoria is an entrepreneur, a truth-teller and a wordsmith. She’s also a member of the Fembeat team.
Nik Sallie is a trademark attorney and branding expert, who works with entrepreneurs to create legally protected, soul-injected brands.