Not sure how to launch your business? Looking to improve your elevator pitch to new investors? Wanting to gain confidence speaking in front of others?

Join Emma Willis (Impact.) and Emily Tomlinson (TheatreSquared) along with other experts in the field, for a 2 hour interactive workshop where participants will network, write, edit, and practice pitching their business to new investors, banks, and potential clients. This workshop is for women wanting to get into business.

Date: February 27, 2024

Time: 5:00 - 7:00 pm - Workshop

The Facilitators:

 

Emma Willis

CEO, Impact.

She/Her/Hers

  • Emma Willis’ career has spanned from marketing to financial  services to business strategy and thought leadership, focusing on higher education savings plans and resources. Willis recently was named chief operating officer for  Bentonville-based Venture Noire, a nonprofit focused on  supporting Black entrepreneurs. She joined as a board member in September 2020 before  transitioning to a full-time position. The position will allow  her to reduce work travel. She also worked as chief operating officer at Sootchy from  December 2020 through June 2021. Sootchy is a Los Angeles based fintech startup that helps people save money for  college. She initially joined Sootchy as a consultant. The lack  of technology adoption in 529 savings plans led her to join  Sootchy full-time. 

    “What’s really interesting about my life [is] there are so many intersections in what I do,” she  said. “A lot of times, it’s hard for people to imagine how I can hold so many positions, but I look  for natural synergy in most of the work I have going on.” 

    While a consultant, she was a senior strategist with marketing agency MHP/Team SI and helped  to launch its Northwest Arkansas office. Before that role, the Little Rock native worked for the  state for about 10 years, overseeing its 529 plan and establishing technology for its account  holders. 

    As executive director of the Arkansas 529 Education Investment Plan, she led the program’s  assets to increase from $600 million to $1 billion and released Gift Arkansas 529, the first state run plan app in the United States. 

    She earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Philander Smith College in May  2006. She serves as a board member for Junior Achievement of Northwest Arkansas and is an  active mentor. She enjoys hiking, reading and road trips.

Emily Tomlinson

Education Manager, TheatreSquared

She/Her/Hers

  • A University of Arkansas graduate, Emily has extensive experience both as a teaching artist and an actor. She has spent summers teaching at TheatreSquared’s Summer Shakespeare Academy, working with youth at Arts Live Theatre, and has toured Arkansas with Trike Theatre – Northwest Arkansas’ Professional Theatre for Youth. As an actor, Emily has appeared in numerous shows including Uncle, What God Hath Wrought, and Swimming with Van Gogh, Staging the Daffy Dame (TheatreSquared), Cinderella Confidential (Trike Theatre), As You Like It (Classical Edge Theatre Company),The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and Macbeth. Emily holds a BA in Drama from the University of Arkansas and an MFA in Performing Arts from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

 

Huge thanks to our Sponsors

Presenting Sponsor

 
 

Access Level Sponsors

 
 

Interested in being a sponsor?

Barrier Breakers is free to all participants. Interested in learning more about sponsoring Barrier Breakers or other TheatreSquared programs?

Contact Chris Seawood, Corporate and Institutional Giving Manager, at 479-777-7036 or chris@theatre2.org.

$5000 Presenting Sponsor Recieves:

  • “Presented by Your Company Name” with logo on all promotional collateral

  • Logo recognition on lobby signage at the event

  • Spoken recognition from stage at the beginning of the event

  • Logo recognition at the “T2 Show Sponsor” level throughout the year on the sponsor page of all production programs and T2 website

  • Twenty (20) prime seating tickets to be used for a selected production

  • Invitations to the Season Unveiling, Playwrights Breakfast, and opening night receptions

$2500 Acess Level Sponsors Recieve :

  • “Access Level Sponsor Your Company Name” on all promotional collateral

  • Name recognition on lobby signage at the event

  • Spoken recognition from stage at the beginning of the event

  • Logo recognition at the “T2 Partners” sponsorship level throughout the year on the sponsor page of all production programs and the T2 website

  • Twenty (10) prime seating tickets to be used for a selected production