Black Women Leaders and Entrepreneurs Converge on Miami for Future Festival

Some communities are born of geographical proximity, others of persecution. In rare cases, communities are created accidentally, like when someone mistakenly cc's dozens of people on an email chain and facilitates scores of new connections and fresh collaborations.

Such is the case with She Builds Global Initiative, a community encompassing 30 cities on four continents. Founded by Shaïna Silva, a Haitian-American entrepreneur and innovation architect, She Builds aims to accelerate socio-economic growth in Haiti and beyond by equipping Black female changemakers and professionals with the tools they need to make a difference in fields like technology, business, government, media, entertainment, sports, fashion, music, and art.

She Builds Global Initiative members and any interested parties will gather in the Magic City on June 8 to 10 for the 2023 Future Festival. Ticket options include $25 for virtual admission or $260 for access to three days of events, which feature a competition of young entrepreneurs pitching their business plans for the chance to win a $10,000 seed grant and a red-carpet gala honoring women leading their industries.

Silva says the Future Festival gathers women from the African diaspora and continent for discussion and action around "infrastructure, connectivity, the environment, how FinTech can be used as a catalyst for economic prosperity in the Caribbean," as well as the small businesses and massive corporations that make up the multi-billion dollar global beauty industry, to name a few.

"The birth of She Builds was an accident that ended up being a call to the community to amplify our impact, meet in person, and strengthen. The Future Festival is how we bring the global community together to talk about how technology is disrupting different industries and how we, as entrepreneurs of color, are taking advantage of that disruption instead of being disrupted by it," she says. "Right now, we're going through a very interesting time when, post-George Floyd, a lot of companies and organizations have come face-to-face with the reality that we need to do more when it comes to racial injustice. There's been a lot more attention being put into how do we invest in Black communities, Black entrepreneurs, and specifically Black women. So, when we have platforms that are enabling this desire or duty to happen, like She Builds, we can be the bridge to connect the resources that exist to the people who need them. There doesn't have to be a struggle."

The mission of She Builds — investing in women of color, bridging the digital divide, and driving workforce equity and inclusion — is personally meaningful for Silva, who currently works for Meta and serves as founder and CEO of S3 Ventures, a global innovation studio keeping organizations competitive in the digital age.
"As a woman living in the corporate environment and seeing small business communities struggling to become those large unicorns like Meta, where I work, I notice that it's actually not that the unicorn is better. It's because the unicorn has access, and the smaller businesses just don't have a seat at the table," she says. "I really make it intentional to solve for exactly that. How can I translate the privileges I have, create greater access and open all of the doors that have been opened for me?"

The Future Festival kicks off June 8 at 7 p.m. at the Little Haiti Cultural Center with what Silva calls "our version of the Met Gala," a welcome cocktail party whose dress code is "futuristic chic as inspired by the Haitian Revolution." Events continue the following day at Morplay Academy in Wynwood with panels, keynote presentations, workshops, industry round tables, and a small business marketplace running through June 10.

Veronika Chatelin, a senior program officer at New York-based grantmaking network Open Society Foundations who co-leads a global initiative for the restitution of African cultural heritage, will share with Future Festival participants details of her work at the intersection of social justice, human rights, and socially engaged arts.

"Being of Haitian descent, there has always been a curiosity to connect with my culture through various art forms. Through my search to connect, I found that there have been so many misshaped versions and narrations of Black history and Black culture," Chatelin says. "My story, my parents' histories, and theirs before that have always been told through the lenses of others, and this is mainly because we, as Black people, have not been given proper space and resources to preserve and honor our culture in thoughtful ways. We have been too distracted with trying to survive in this world as Black women to focus on the beauty and the positive aspects of our culture. By working in cultural preservation, I'm able to connect histories, spread knowledge and work with Black and BIPOC communities to restore dignity and celebrate our cultures."
A highlight of the 2023 Future Festival for Silva is a pitch competition held June 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Urban in Overtown. Powered by Pharrell Williams' nonprofit initiative Black Ambition, the competition features six entrepreneurs who pitch their business plans to a jury of investors for the opportunity to secure $10,000 in seed grant funds.

"It's close to home for me to be able to address a problem that I faced in my entrepreneurial journey, which is not having access to free capital," Silva says. "This is a platform to pitch in front of esteemed investors, to tell your story, and share what your business is trying to solve. And guess what? These investors represent large companies, and they reach women."

The festival wraps up June 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Little Haiti's Future of Cities Climate and Innovation Hub with the Future Awards Gala, a ceremony and celebration honoring women paving the path and breaking glass ceilings in their respective industries.

"We recognize that we need to celebrate some of these women whose voices are not always amplified, whose stories are not always told, but who are doing incredible things," Silva says.

Gathering the She Builds community in Miami, which is becoming an international destination for innovation, is a fitting metaphor for the global reach of Silva's passion to empower, inspire and invest in Black women.

"Whether you are Nigerian or Jamaican, whether you are from Ghana or South Africa, whether you are Afro-Brazilian or African-American, the challenges we face are similar. If we can have conversations with each other using different perspectives, we might be able to accelerate finding those solutions," she says. "I hope that participants and presenters leave the Future Festival with a profound sense of hope and possibility, that they carry with them the belief that their voices matter, their stories are valuable, and their contributions can create lasting change. Ultimately, I want them to leave with a clear understanding that they are part of a larger movement for social progress and that their individual actions, no matter how small, can have a ripple effect that extends far beyond the festival itself."

Future Festival 2023. Thursday, June 8, through Saturday, June 10, at various locations; shebuildsinitiative.com. Ticket prices vary.