Count Down To Power Up: Leave With Connections, Inspiration, Solutions You Need Now
The resource-packed agenda for this year’s Take The Lead Power Up Conference, "Audacity: Leadership in Action" August 25-26 in Washington, D.C. is filled with unique opportunities that can alter your leadership path whether you participate in person or virtually.
The conference on Women’s Equality Day, August 26, now in its sixth year, features 46 esteemed speakers across industries of finance, health, AI, entrepreneurship, caretaking, public leadership and workplace issues. It’s where you learn more and leave with a plan. It’s called Power Up because it is where you learn how to use the power you already have.
There is nothing I would love more than to see you in person in DC at the Power Up Conference. I cannot wait to feel the energy in the room.
But if you can’t be there, the conference will come to you.** You can participate virtually as though you are in the room. Just register for the livestream virtual option.
**We will not have permission to replay my fireside chat with Margaret Atwood for the general public per her contract. However you can see it all and get the replay of it all if you register for the livestream here: 🔗 www.thepowerupconference.com.
Can you feel it? The energy is building. The excitement is at its peak. Power Up 2026: Audacity: Leadership in Action starts tomorrow.
Washington, D.C. is ready. The stage is set. And the most audacious women in leadership are counting down right along with you.
Tomorrow, Margaret Atwood takes the keynote stage live and in person. Minda Harts, Jamia Wilson, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, and Wanjiku Kamau are among the extraordinary voices waiting to pour into you. Bold panels. Real conversations. And The BETTY Concert closing out the evening in the most powerful and celebratory way possible.
This is it. The room is filling. This is the experience you have been waiting for. Do not let it pass you by.
Meet Leseliey Welch — 2026 Power Tool Champion for Power Tool #7: Create a Movement (The Movement Maker). A public health strategist, professional dreamer, poet, and CEO of Birth Center Equity, Leseliey co-founded Detroit’s first freestanding community birth center, Birth Detroit, and now leads a national movement investing in Black, Indigenous, and people of color led birth centers across the country — guided by her conviction that it is only impossible until it is done. Join us in celebrating her at Power Up 2026 in Washington, DC, on August 25–26!
A new LinkedIn report shows AI is growing, as is the gender gap. "In the U.S., AI job postings have roughly doubled since 2023, and the typical posting lists about $177,000 in compensation, compared with $80,000 for a non-AI role. But women are far less likely to be hired into these opportunities. They accounted for just 26% of U.S. AI hires in 2025, compared with 50% of hires into non-AI occupations. The gap grows at the top: across 27 countries, women hold only 13% of C-suite AI leadership roles at AI companies." Read more here.
Take The Lead prepares, develops, inspires, and propels all women of all diversities and intersectionalities to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions across all sectors. Learn more at www.taketheleadwomen.com.
