AWBC to Host the 2017 Women’s Business Centers Leadership Conference in D.C.

Alexandria, VA, Sept. 11, 2017 -- The Association of Women’s Business Centers (AWBC) annual Women’s Business Centers Leadership Conference will take place from Tuesday, September 12th to Thursday, September 14th in Alexandria, Virginia. The conference will include keynote speeches from SBA Administrator Linda McMahon, Rep. Stephanie Murphy (FL-7), Rep. Steven Knight (CA-25) and numerous women business leaders and entrepreneurs. In addition to three days of seminars, Women’s Business Center (WBC) leaders will visit Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with their respective Member of Congress to talk about the profound impact WBCs are having on the local economy in each district. 

“The AWBC’s Leadership Conference has been a magnificent asset for women’s entrepreneurship across the country,” said AWBC President and CEO Antonella Pianalto. “Our conference equips WBC leaders with the knowledge, tools, and resources needed to help women entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses, which results in more jobs across the country. With help from WBCs, the number of women-owned businesses have increased by 45 percent in the last decade. In fact, if U.S.-based women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have the 10th largest GDP in the world, ahead of Canada, Mexico, and even Russia. We hold this conference to bring these leaders together to network and share best practices so that the WBC program can continue to give women opportunity, and to have a major impact on our nation’s economy.” 

Leaders from more than 150 Women’s Business Center locations, which span across the country, will descend on Washington D.C. to learn from experts on a wide array of topics – from access to capital and expanding grant funding, to client programming tools and best practices in social media; tools that these women’s business centers will take back to help women entrepreneurs in their respective communities. 

Here in Washington, AWBC is celebrating the recent passage of key women’s entrepreneurship legislation by the House of Representatives (H.R. 1680 – Women’s Business Centers Improvement Act), which would modernize the Women’s Business Center program. Currently the legislation rests in the Senate, and AWBC is working hard to advance it to the desk of the president. This key legislation is what makes WBC resources possible for women entrepreneurs, which will be a point of emphasis this week during the conference and on Capitol Hill. 

For real-time updates and conference related info, follow AWBC on twitter at @AWBC_USA and through the hashtag #AWBCLead17. 

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About AWBC (www.awbc.com): AWBC is a national non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1998. The AWBC works to secure economic justice and entrepreneurial opportunities for women by supporting and sustaining a national network of over 150 Women’s Business Centers (WBC). WBCs help women succeed in business by providing training, mentoring, business development and financing opportunities to over 145,000 women entrepreneurs each year in every state in the union. 

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/8378160f-9059-4d6e-88c0-ad18301050b6

Kenny Cunningham
Association of Women's Business Centers 
7037859067
[email protected]