Community Joins for Prosperity Conference

This weekend numerous small and large businesses from throughout the region gathered at California State University San Bernardino for the Inland Prosperity Conference, held on February 8. The purpose of this conference is to help businesses get noticed. With the support of Bank of America, the Inland Empire Women’s Business Center held the event as their second conference. The themes of the event were “take action” and “stay positive”. The goals of the conference were simple. According to the event's Director, Nicole Kinney, the aim was to "bring national and international resources to business owners in the Inland Empire." She shared that this would encourage business growth and development and increase visibility and economic growth. Kinney also shared that while this was their second time holding the conference, the organization had been around for ten years, acting as a business counseling organization. A local on-campus club, the Latino Business Student Association, had one of their own. Student representative Litzuly Gonzalez revealed that this was the first time the club was attending the event, signifying that the club is growing in influence. Guests were allowed to visit the booths until it was time to gather at the smaller tables before the stage, to hear the speakers. Each speaker represented one of the numerous booths and their topics would be related to them. Michelle Skiljan, served as MC, taking the stage and opening with her story of a transformed life of hard work and perseverance that has since led her to serve as the executive director of IEWBC. Skiljan then went on to introduce a panel of women who have successful books published which teach optimistic and even disheartened entrepreneurs what steps to take to move forward in their business. Sandy Cappelli, Lori Estrada, Ursula Mentjes, and Amanda Johnson told their life stories and what inspired them to write their books. Cappelli spoke about overcoming the loss of her child; Estrada the loss of her husband, Ruben A. Estrada, and how it was his last wish to have his book published; Ursula Mentjes discussed her journey in creating the successful sales coaching and training firm, Sales Coach Now; and Johnson discussed the success of her best-selling book, “Upside-Down Mommy: How a Caterpillar Transformed One Mommy's Breakdown into Breakthrough” a book which asserts everyone has a story inside worth sharing. Johnson and the other three speakers had powerful words of advice for anyone who has thought about writing a book: "Write the story you want to write." The workshops and breakout sessions covered various topics such as “Top 5 Ways to Attract Corporate Sponsors” and “How to Build a Wildly Successful Business”. Some of the women and the few men who were in attendance had already published books and established businesses and some were beginning to put their business ideas into action, but everyone there had something to learn and share.