TRANSCRIPT
USBLN
OCTOBER 2, 2013
9:45 A.M. PST
Creating Marketplace Opportunities through Entrepreneurship
-and-
Special Feature:
Revealing the Entrepreneurial Idol of 2013
Captioning Provided By:
Caption First, Inc.
P.O. Box 3066
Monument, CO 80132
18778255234
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This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.
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> Ladies and gentlemen, we ask that you please find your seats. The program is going to begin shortly. (Alarm)
> May I have your attention, please. May I have your attention, please. The alarm you're hearing is being investigated. Please stand by. May I have your attention please. The alarm you're hearing is being investigated. Please stand by.
> As soon as we know more, we'll communicate with you. Please stay in your seats for the moment.
> Hotel announcer: The alarm you're hearing is being investigated. Please stand by.
> May I have your attention, please. The alarm you're hearing is being investigated. Please stand by. May I have your attention please. The alarm you're hearing is being investigated. Please stand by.
> May I have your attention, please, may I have your attention, please, the alarm is declared false. There is no condition within the building. May I have your attention, please, the alarm has been declared false. Thank you.
(Applause.)
> Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Our program is about to begin. Thank you.
MUSIC: I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath
Scared to rock the boat and make a mess
So I sat quietly, agreed politely
I guess that I forgot I had a choice
I let you push me past the breaking point
I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything
You held me down, but I got up (HEY!)
Already brushing off the dust
You hear my voice, you hear that sound
Like thunder gonna shake the ground
You held me down, but I got up (HEY!)
Get ready cause I’ve had enough
I see it all, I see it now
I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar
Oh ohohohohoh
Oh ohohohohoh
Oh ohohohohoh
You’re gonna hear me roar.
> Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our co-chairs for the supplier chain track, director of supplier diversity for Sodexo Darlene Fuller, and director for supplier diversity for OfficeMax, Tony Billinger
(Applause.)
> TONY BILLINGER: Good morning.
> Morning!
> TONY BILLINGER: Rail really, I really had a blast over the last few days. On behalf of OfficeMax. I'd like to thank USBLN for allowing us to be your participant and be a corporate sponsor and corporate partner. Diversity and inclusion is really at the core of the OfficeMax culture. I am a firm believer in all of the various ways that we communicate today, whether it's in cyberspace, social media. But this conference has reaffirmed for me that there is nothing, absolutely nothing that replaces simple human interaction.
(Applause.)
I've met some great people over the last few days and been part of really great discussions and again, I want to thank you. I would be remiss if I didn't thank Patricia Richards.
(Cheers and applause.)
Patricia has guided Darlene and I through this process of being co-chairs. And I'd like to thank you for your leadership.
Again, thank you, Patricia, thank you. And I look forward to seeing you all next year in Orlando.
(Applause.)
> DARLENE FULLER: Hi. I hope everybody did enjoy conference. I personally made a lot of new connections, which were great. Learned a lot of things from my peers and some of the DOBEs from the sessions I attended. But I really want to thank all of its staff, for all the work they did, the panelists who agreed to share some of their learnings as well as participants. So actively engaged and asked questions during all the sessions. So thanks a lot. Because it made the conference a wonderful conference. I'm hoping everybody else enjoyed it as much as me.
(Applause.)
I am blessed to work for a company that nurtures and includes an environment that includes disabled owned businesses for their employees, their workforce, their clients, and their vendors. And I applaud all of your companies who are here that do the same.
I really but what worries me the most is as I look around, there are a lot of major companies that are not here in this room with us. And I think that we all need to be ambassadors to really reach out when we go back to those companies and talk to them about what we've learned, how it's important to include disabledowned businesses in their supply chain, to include disabled workers within their workforce. Because it's only by pressure from other peers, competitors, that we really are going to grow this organization and really have a totally inclusive environment.
So as I I love these Tshirts. We really need to tell these people to get in the game.
(Applause.)
And the thing is it's so wonderful is as they go through that journey, they have a great organization, USBLN, that we should also encourage them to join because they can help them to reach those goals. I also ask being on the supplier diversity side, that all of you, as you DOBEs as you go out, please talk to other people you know. Ask them to get certified. Corporations. As you look at your supply chain and go out and meet new people, talk to them about this certification process. Because we want to include DOBEs in our supply chain. But, if they're not certified, we could have a hard time finding them. So I really ask all of you to be an ambassador for the disabled community and help us to grow so the room is twice this size. Even though a lot of people have left, I appreciate you all staying. Thanks and see you in Orlando.
(Applause.)
Next? Next we have a short clip PSA that we want you to watch.
(Video)
> Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the director Disability Supplier Diversity Program, USBLN, Patricia Richards.
> PATRICIA RICHARDS: Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. We're so happy to see you here this morning. Have you had a great conference?
(Cheers and applause.)
I have. We really appreciate your involvement. I really can't say it better than Darlene and Tony. But again, thank you everyone that was contributed to the success of the conference. Our moderators, our panelists, those that attended the sessions and participated, thank you so much.
And again, Tony and Tony Billinger, Darlene Fuller, thank you so much for stepping forward and taking the leadership role in making sure we had such fantastic topics and such a fantastic supply chain track. So thank you very much. Let's thank them.
(Applause.)
You know, we did do a little prospecting because we went out and we really talked to companies that weren't quite sure they were ready to join USBLN and DSDP. And we were able to get them to come here and many of them that I talked to said they were so glad that they did. Because they get it now.
And so we look forward to joining having them join us next year as members.
The theme of today is creating marketplace opportunities through entrepreneurship. And you just saw wonderful video in fact, it was created by one of our current DOBEs. Andy Houghton. And I hope you enjoyed it. Yay, Andy.
(Applause.)
And he also came up with a concept of getting in the game. I like that, right? You've seen a few shirts around with Get in the Game. I'd like to start out by talking about, those of you in the room, get in the game. And you also saw I'm in the game. So we're looking at both sides of the equation. Right? So I would like to start by recognizing our DOBEs that are wearing I'm in the game Tshirts. Could you please stand? Yeah. And some of our disabilityowned businesses that are getting certified also joined us with that. Also we'd like to recognize our DSDP corporate members that are wearing shirts encouraging suppliers to get in the game. So let's remain standing. I'd just like to see how many we've got I want to see those shirts out there. Okay? So our DSDP corporate members, can I see you stand as well. DSDP corporate members that are wearing shirts?
Our USBLN board members are wearing shirts. Supporting this. Our USBLN team members as well as our wonderful event production company, the special events people are wearing Tshirts. Yeah. They've been great. And also our student advisory council members. Thank you so much. They're wearing the shirts too. So thank you all. Students stand up. They've been helping as volunteers and just everywhere trying to make sure they're successful. Yay, students.
So, again, you know, the message today, the theme today is all about the power of entrepreneurship. Just as important as jobs, employment, we need to have the opportunity, people need to have the opportunity to go into business, to be entrepreneurs, to be risk takers. And this is what this event today celebrates.
And so of that question me the clicker, I'm supposed to remember to change it. If we're not ready yet, let's see. Let's talk about why supplier diversity. I'm going to try to go through this very quickly because I want to honor the fact that I know that you have flights to catch. But just bear with us for the next hour or so and really focus on entrepreneurship. So when you talk about why supplier diversity, you know, one of the things is compliance. Many corporations require federal government requires participation of people from diverse communities. But it's also about the total circle, if you will, of corporate advocacy around employment, marketing and supplier diversity. It's a holistic approach, if you will, to reaching the community.
There's a strong business case of the changing demographics. If you look at the increasing numbers of various representatives from different groups. It's about the buying power. And we've heard a lot about that during the conference today about this week about the buying power of persons with disabilities.
It's about brand loyalty. You've heard about that, too. Capability and agility. This is what we talk a lot about. Capability, agility, innovation of disabilityowned firms. And, of course, it is the right thing to do. So what words come to mind when you think about disabilityowned businesses and what they can provide? It's about having a seat at the table. It's about competition. It's about opportunity, change, creativity, transformation. It's about economic development. It's about community. It's about all of those wonderful things that really ensure that our U.S. economy is strong and that our communities are strong.
It's about basically it's about business and it's about success.
So what I would like to do next is to share with you a little bit about our disability supplier diversity program.
The disability supplier diversity program is USBLN's flagship program. It offers corporations and government agencies a reliable way to identify disabilityowned businesses including service owned veteran owned businesses considering access to a growing pool of suppliers to choose from to run their operations and it goes beyond certification. It's about business information, education, you know, that access to information is so critical. And really, bringing together both parties like we did yesterday in our business exchange match makers. We had great sessions yesterday and we're going to track the success of real business opportunities as we go forward in the next over the next few months. So that really is about our disability supplier diversity program. And I think all of our corporate members that have contributed to that. So let's talk about that. I would like to share with you our wonderful founding partners who stepped forward four years ago, five years ago and supported the formation of the Disability Supplier Diversity Program. I'm going to take a minute and share their names with you, EY, Marriott, Sun Trust, Southwest Airlines, IBM, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, KPMG, Sodexo, WellPoint, Wells Fargo. WalMart, Merck, Qualcomm, Microsoft. Our founding partners. So thank you guys so much.
(Applause.)
But you'll see from the screen or I should see and you'll see from the screen that we've been growing the number of members. So I'd like for you to look at that screen and if you don't see your corporation's name on there, come see me. Call me. You should be represented but I'd like to thank all of our DSDP corporate members for their support, their ongoing support of the utilization and growth of disabilityowned firms
(Applause.)
So what we need you to do is help us. We want you to help us grow disabilityowned businesses. So, if you're not a member, join. If you are a member, become active in a number of different ways. Utilize our tools. You've heard about Disability Equality Index which has a supplier diversity component in it. You've heard about the gold standard. We'll be happy to share with you more information on that. You've perhaps heard about supplier connection. Important portal that allows both corporations and disabilityowned businesses to connect.
Help us increase the number of disability and services disabled veteran owned businesses that are represented in the supply chain and invite those suppliers to become certified. Participate in our committees, DSDP committees, learn and share best and next practices. And promote industry inclusion with your peers and your supplier networks. I want to ask a shout out to our BLN leaders and ask our BLNs to help us. And we've had some great success this year in working with several BLNs, but we're asking your help as well.
And now it is my pleasure thank you for your attention, it's my pleasure to introduce to you Jill Houghton, who is the executive director of USBLN as you know. I would like to say just a couple of things. Jill is a wonderful champion and advocate for DSDP. And she's a very smart woman because she hired me.
(Laughter)
So thank you, Jill.
But what I will say about this, Jill didn't simply hire good talent. And I think that she hired me and she hired Cami. Will you stand up who is the DSDP coordinator. Thank you, Cami.
(Applause)
But Jill went beyond just hiring good talent. She continues to be a wonderful champion and advocate wherever she goes. So, if she's out there talking about USBLN, she's also talking about DSDP. And the utilization of disabilityowned businesses. Whether she's talking the national Governor's Association Conference or talking at the national NILG conference or if she's talking or working with the national business consortium developed by NGLCC.
Or whether she's on a radio program. Disability Matters by Joyce Bender talking about business opportunities for disability entrepreneurs.
That's what's important and that's how proud I am to work for her and to work for USBLN. So thank you, Jill so much.
(Applause.)
> JILL HOUGHTON:
Let me just say something. She doesn't work for me. She works WITH me.
> PATRICIA RICHARDS: I'm a little bossy.
> JILL HOUGHTON: .
We're so lucky to have Patricia and Cami leading this program. So I've got a question for you. Are you in the game? Okay. Come on. Let's do it again. Are you in the game? Yeah. Let's get in the game, baby, this is a great program. And speaking of being in the game, on your table you have evaluations and they are a key component to this prize drawing that we're going to do before we before we meet this awesome speaker that we have for the day.
So you've got an evaluation. And I think, according to my talking points and I'm looking at Anita, where are you people are supposed to fill these out right now.
> We usually do it towards the end.
> JILL HOUGHTON:
But in my notes, I'm supposed to be doing an award right now. Is that wrong?
> We usually do it at the end.
> JILL HOUGHTON:
Okay. So we're going to listen to Anita because when Anita talks, we listen. So thank you, Anita. We're going to change it up. Okay. So speaking about being in the game, we're in for a treat. With us today is a awesome individual who happens to be, oh, by the way, a 5time Paralympic medal winner. A 4time world champion who is currently preparing to go back to the games in Russia, who is a soughtafter motivational speaker by corporate America. And guess what? Her name is Stephani Victor. And she's here today to be with us. She's also a friend. So Stephani.
(Applause.)
> STEPHANI VICTOR: Thank you. Jill is a smart lady, I can attest to that.
And a friend. "Lights! Camera! Access!" Yeah! That's the theme. And that is my life story! Yes. I love it. Does access provide? Access provides us opportunity. And what I'm going to share with you today is that without opportunity, greatness is missed. So we don't want to miss greatness in our lives by shutting down opportunities.