Chicago’s Premier Event for Emerging Women Leaders
The Most Valuable 8 Hours of the Year
What if the next eight hours mattered more than the next eight months?
Launchpad is designed as an intensive leadership experience where every conversation, connection and insight is intentional.
In one concentrated day, participants gain:
• Executive-level perspectives
• Career acceleration strategies
• Peer networks
• Professional visibility
• Inspiration to take the next leadership leap
The intensity isn’t measured by time spent. It’s measured by opportunities created.
Give her eight hours. Watch what she does with the next eight years.
- Monday, September 14, 2026
- 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM
- Hyatt Regency Hotel, Chicago
- Includes networking luncheon and reception following the program.
2026 Sessions:
Session One: Enterprise Leadership with Jodi Blackwood, Managing Director, Practice Leader, ZRG Consulting
This session enhances participants’ ability to think and act as enterprise leaders. Participants gain a clearer understanding of what it means to operate from an enterprise leadership lens and what they need to do to adopt an enterprise leadership approach. Participants reflect on the shifts they can make in their mindset, behaviors, actions, and capabilities to show up as enterprise leaders and develop a plan for making those shifts.
Session Two: A Seat at the Table: Mastering Your Keynote & Communication Skills with Meridith Elliott Powell
Meridith is a Hall of Fame Speaker, Business Growth Strategist, and Expert in Thriving in Uncertainty, and former C-suite executive. In today’s fast-moving, uncertain marketplace, your ability to communicate is no longer a soft skill, it’s your greatest competitive advantage. Whether you’re leading a team, selling an idea, or stepping onto a stage, your message has the power to inspire action… or get lost in the noise. This session reveals how to master your voice, own your message, and communicate with clarity, confidence, and purpose—especially under pressure and in the face of uncertainty. Meridith shares practical strategies to: build unshakable confidence and presence, craft messages that connect, engage, and drive action, turn uncertainty into a platform for influence, and communicate in a way that inspires trust, buy-in, and results.
Session Three: AI and the Executive of the Future: Leading with Judgment in the Age of Intelligent Systems with Bharath Thota, Partner, Kearney Analytics
AI is quickly becoming part of how organizations set strategy, redesign work, allocate resources, and make critical decisions. For executives, the challenge is no longer whether to use AI, but where it can create real advantage, where human judgment must remain central, and how to build the priorities, guardrails, governance, and capabilities needed to use it responsibly. In this session, Bharath Thota will help participants demystify the AI landscape, identify high-value use cases, move from experimentation to scaled impact, and avoid common traps of unfocused pilots or over-automation. Participants will leave with a practical leadership lens for deciding when to leverage AI, when to pause, and how to prepare themselves and their teams for an AI-enabled future.
Session Four: C-Suite Ready: Making the Developmental Moves that Matter with Dr. Robert S. Rubin, Professor of Management and Associate Dean of Executive Education and Corporate Relations, DePaul University
The path to the C-suite is not defined simply by bigger roles, broader titles, or greater visibility. It is shaped by the moments that stretch leaders’ judgment, test their resilience, and expand their capacity to lead at the enterprise level. In this session, participants will learn to evaluate the qualities of developmental experiences that reliably accelerate readiness for chief officer roles and for their own career paths. The session also explores how common behavioral traps can slow or even derail executive growth. Participants will leave with a practical framework for evaluating future assignments and strengthening their C-suite readiness.
What People are Saying About Launchpad:
Great mix of soft skills that are vital for strong leadership and genuine discussions and connections fostering networking.
Speakers were outstanding. The topics were related to my career and the people I work with. I was able to take something away from each session.
It is great to have dedicated time focusing on leadership and discussion with other leaders. It’s brainstorming and reflection that helps center you in the kind of professional you want to be, among the chaos of day- to-day work.
2026 Universe Sponsors
2026 Rocket Sponsors
