Every year, Cannes is the place where global leaders show up to discuss, dialogue and diligently suggest a creative and cultural path forward. This year, like those in the past, the WIE Suite and its members showed up with ideas, opinions and daring new moves.
At this year’s Cannes Lions Festival, four major women’s organizations came together as collaborators not competitors to model a world we want to see. The WIE Suite, Chief, MAKERS Women and Leading Women Defined Foundation hosted our first ever joint event - a power lunch, uniting our respective communities around a common goal, advancing women in the workplace.
The afternoon kicked off with remarks from Alicin Williamson, President of MAKERS, Allison Moore, CEO of Chief, Debra Lee, Founder of Leading Women Defined, and The WIE Suite’s founder Dee Poku.
In her speech Dee shared a little about the membership criteria at The WIE Suite - women who want to use their success to make an impact. She referenced the times we’re in and reminded guests that in the face of inequity and injustice, we should remember Florynce Kennedy’s powerful words: “Don’t agonize, organize.”
And organizing can take many forms. For WIE, it’s action oriented community building. Bringing together women who can use their power and influence to drive opportunities for one another.
One small action daily. Opening a door of opportunity for a woman of color, making a valuable introduction, amplifying a win. Anything that brings us visibility and helps level the playing field, can make such an incredible difference.
The following evening, The WIE Suite hosted its sixth annual Women Leaders Dinner. In partnership with HearstLab and Statusphere, attendees arrived at Le Sud restaurant at the Martinez Hotel. The intimate gathering featured leaders and culture creators with conversation focused on influence.
LaToya Christian, Managing Director at GroupM and WIE member, shared how powerful the week was and the benefit of those one-on-one conversations. “These gatherings gave my trip an extra dose of meaningful connections and conversations … and the dinner sparked such a wonderful desire for continued connection among attendees.”
Earlier in the week, WIE founder, Dee Poku, joined a panel hosted by LinkedIn, where she spoke about the platform's value as a powerful tool for entrepreneurs. She shared how she has used LinkedIn to strategically grow The WIE Suite's membership community while emphasizing the importance of balancing authenticity with strategy -- always beginning with what is true and speaking from the heart. When asked about the role of joy in her career, she reflected on how entrepreneurship allowed her to solve for her own pain point: the isolation she experienced while rising through the ranks. That insight led her to build a community that now connects thousands of women through The WIE Suite’s membership and gatherings. In doing so, she has crafted her perfect job, a role rooted in purpose and connection, and a source of pure joy.
