One IBM Leadership Summit 2025

Bringing communities together to usher in a new kind of leadership.

Role: Co-Creator, Program Strategist & Facilitator
Focus: Community Strategy · Cross-BRG Collaboration · Leadership Development · Program Design · Experience Strategy

The Background

For five years, I had been involved with the Familia Leadership Summit in different capacities.I had served on planning committees, participated in panels, and eventually had the opportunity to speak as a keynote. Over time, the summit became more than an event. It became a space where people could connect, learn from one another, access leadership resources, and see themselves represented in conversations about career growth and opportunity.

That history made the next chapter especially important.

As the external environment around DEI programs began to change, I started thinking about how we could preserve the value the summit had created while also opening the experience to an even broader community.

Rather than letting the momentum disappear, I reached out to the other Business Resource Groups across IBM’s Austin campus with a question:

What if we built something together?

That question became the foundation for the One IBM Leadership Summit.

The Opportunity

The goal was not simply to rename an existing event. We had an opportunity to rethink what a leadership summit could look like when multiple communities came together around shared needs. Instead of designing the program around assumptions, we started by listening.

We asked people across our communities questions like:

What are you seeing in your workplace and career right now?
What skills do you want more support developing?
What conversations feel most relevant?
What resources would actually help you move forward?
What would make a leadership event worth attending?

Those conversations gave us a much clearer picture of what people were asking for. The themes were broader than any single community. People wanted help understanding emerging technology. They wanted stronger leadership skills, access to resources and more candid conversations with executives.

And early-career employees wanted programming that actually spoke to where they were in their journey.

Community inspired programming

AI was rapidly becoming part of everyday work, but many employees were still trying to understand how to use it effectively.
Programming around prompt engineering helped make AI feel more approachable and practical, giving attendees tools they could begin applying immediately.
The summit created space to talk about leadership beyond job titles.
Sessions focused on the skills people need to communicate, influence, collaborate, and grow within a large organization.
We wanted attendees to leave with more than inspiration.
The program connected people with resources, tools, and information they could use to support their professional development after the event.
Panels with IBM executives gave employees direct access to leadership perspectives and created space for candid conversations about career development, leadership, and navigating change.
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We also created dedicated programming for early-career employees.
This was important because someone just beginning their career often has very different questions from someone who has already spent years navigating a large organization.
The goal was to create an experience where both groups could find something meaningful.