The 2025 NBIC Unity Week begins with an energizing and thought-provoking opening session designed to set the tone for the days ahead. Participants will be inspired by a dynamic keynote conversation that challenges assumptions, celebrates progress, and explores what true innovation and leadership look like in today’s business landscape. Expect bold ideas, unexpected insights, and a few surprises as we come together to ignite a new era of collective impact.

SEGMENT I:
From Abstract to Implementation: How Business and Putting AI to Work and How You Can Too

SEGMENT II:
Women’s Economic Impact Report Highlights

SEGMENT lll:
Next Chapter Leadership: Strength, Health, and Opportunity — A Conversation with AARP’s Executive Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Edna Kane-Williams

The final round of the 2025 WBENC Pitch ACCELERATE National Pitch Competition, held during Unity Week, will spotlight exceptional pitches that clearly articulate a company’s value proposition and make a lasting impact on judges and audiences alike.

WBENCPitch is a signature WBENC program featuring a series of pitch competitions and educational sessions to help business leaders hone their business pitch, gain meaningful exposure, and compete for grants and other prizes to invest in their business.

Join on Zoom here: https://events.zoom.us/ej/ArvxiiKRxfnydaX7NmD3IS9kWIFd3neRT78jZ90WE1wmz82nw3cW~A3euAHFsA71P3xib-JccvEOtgdMmW7rKd-dAY3pceQRwQuy-4E-BFoxS3HIIA

In this fireside chat, corporate leaders and small business experts share real-world insights on how entrepreneurs can successfully engage with large enterprises. Topics include managing risk and compliance, building authentic relationships beyond procurement, and developing internal allies within corporations. Speakers will also unpack negotiation strategies and how to identify win-win opportunities.

You’ll learn:

• How to communicate reliability and risk readiness
• Ways to build long-term, trust-based corporate relationships
• When to push, pause, or walk away in negotiations

Whether you’re newly certified or growing your corporate partnerships, this session offers practical tools to navigate—and thrive—in the corporate maze.

As you think about your marketing strategy for 2026, it's a good time to evaluate the effectiveness of your brand messaging. Are you making adjustments, holding the line or not sure what to do? The WBENC Forum Marketing Team brings you an experienced panel to help you understand what is most important to your brand in this shifting landscape. The session will explore Branding for Impact: Purpose, Position and Promise. You will hear from brand strategists as well as an expert panel who will share their best practices in branding that has staying power.

You will learn:

• How to craft an effective and authentic brand story
• Ways to keep your brand consistent as your business grows and changes
• Data points to track to measure the effectiveness of your brand

The panel includes WBENC-certified WBEs:

·      Gia Machlin, President and CEO, EcoPlum

·      Julie Lilliston, Julie Lilliston Communications

·      Barb Bosha, Bosha Design +Communications

·      Brooke Foley, Jayne Agency

If you are a business owner navigating growth, change in your industry, or  want to be more strategic in your branding, this session is for you.

In today’s interconnected healthcare and business environment, small business owners are directly impacted by policies that shape innovation, access, and affordability — even when those policies seem far removed from their daily operations. This session, led by Kate Sikora, Deputy Vice President of Policy and Research at PhRMA, takes you inside the policymaking landscape to show how federal and state policies governing pharmaceutical innovation, supply chains, and market access can inform broader lessons for every small business leader.

Kate will explore how intermediaries like pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) influence the cost of medicines and, more broadly, how these middlemen across sectors affect pricing, transparency, and the access for patients. Drawing on PhRMA’s deep engagement with policymakers, she will highlight what’s at stake for healthcare policy, innovation incentives, and the broader business environment.

Participants will gain:

• A behind-the-scenes look at how PBMs and other middlemen impact pricing, patient access, and reimbursement — and what that means for small business margins.
• Actionable insights on current legislative and regulatory trends impacting innovation, competition, and consumer trust.
• Strategies for advocacy and engagement, empowering business owners to influence policies that affect their industries.

Whether you’re in healthcare, manufacturing, or professional services, this session will help you understand the policymaking ecosystem that defines your competitive environment. Walk away with a clearer view of how the principles driving healthcare policy reform can strengthen your own advocacy, partnerships, and growth strategy.