‘Be bold’ at the inaugural Bold Conference in Green Bay

Rich Palzewic

Staff

November 4, 2024

GREEN BAY – The ColorBold Business Association is set to host its first annual Bold Conference Nov. 7-8 in Green Bay – which aims to bring more awareness to the organization.

Ramona Hallmon, chairwoman of the ColorBold Business Association board, said the two-day hybrid entrepreneurial/professional event – which will take place virtually and at 610 S. Broadway – will include training, inspiration, networking, resources, food trucks, vendors, awards and more.

“The biggest part of the conference is to give business owners exposure to information to show how you can get the funding support you need,” Hallmon said. “How can you develop as a leader? It will be all of these things under one roof.”

According to ColorBold’s website (colorbold.org), speakers scheduled to participate include:

• Ramona Hallmon
• Sam Rikkers (deputy secretary/COO, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation)
• Eric Genrich (mayor, City of Green Bay)
• Kimyatta Ratliff (president/CEO, ColorBold)
• Maurice Thomas (Forward 48)
• Christine Gunderson (Leadership Green Bay)
• Christina Thor (9to5 Wisconsin)
• Amaad Rivera Wagner (chief of staff, City of Green Bay)

“I am also a business owner myself (RamonaVation) and so motivation is my business,” Hallmon said. “I am a motivational speaker, and I speak from the spaces of leadership and development and people development.”

Hallmon said her presentation at the conference is titled “Shift Happens.”

“You’re going to have to make tough decisions and tough choices, things you have to let go of and things you have to grab a hold of in life,” she said. “In life, we know shift happens, and you don’t want to get lost in the shift.”

Hallmon said other conference topics include:

• Making AI work for me
• Funding opportunities
• Leading in your community

“Because the first day of the conference is virtual, participants will be able to tap into those pieces of how to start that nonprofit, how to start that business,” Hallmon said. “Then we’re going to bring speakers into the location so people can get that more in-depth connection with organizations and people they need to connect to.”

Hallmon said though this is the inaugural Bold Conference, it was inspired by a similar event ColorBold organized last year.

“Last year at this time, we did an event where we brought business owners, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders and professionals of color all together,” she said. “This is an expansion of that event. With that event, we had an excellent turnout, so we’re expecting even greater numbers this year.”

Hallmon said she’s really excited about the event.

“I’m just beside myself and so happy about the event,” she said. “For all of the hard work and exposure we’ve gotten from our business owners, and now being able to bring everybody under one roof, it’s very exciting. I can’t wait to see the impact because I’m expecting it to have a great impact on their lives.”

For more information on the conference or to register, head to colorbold.org.

What is ColorBold?

Hallmon said ColorBold’s mission is “to serve new and establishing entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders of color.”

“When we say color, we say all color,” she said. “We’re a bridge to organizations that desire to reach people of color. We do this to impact the community – the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) community.”

Hallmon said ColorBold has three main pillars.

“It’s about making sure that we grow, connect people and ensure people have a seat at the table,” she said. “We grow our business owners and our nonprofit leaders. We connect them to other businesses and nonprofit organizations of color and then also organizations that can support them, and then they have the seat at the table.”

Hallmon said giving people a seat at the table is really what ColorBold is all about.

“This is our bread and butter because, in so many rooms with business owners – business owners of color, we are not in those rooms,” she said. “How do we get a seat at the table to make an impact?”

Hallmon said as board chair, it’s her job to make sure ColorBold stays true to its mission.

“The board makes sure of the branding, and we are true to what we say we’re going to do,” she said.

Hallmon said the nonprofit ColorBold dates back to 2017, “but it came in the form of a different name.”

“It was originally called Regional People of Color Business Association and was formed by Fit Oshkosh,” she said. “It dissipated in 2020, and when it did that, we picked up and rebranded it as ColorBold. We’ve officially had our nonprofit status for about two years now.”

The rebranding, Hallmon said, took place amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That was interesting,” she laughed. “We’re going to rebrand, we’re going to help people of color, but how are we going to do this in this trying time? What we found was that amid COVID, there were so many different grant opportunities and things that helped businesses put out there. The challenge was, once we sat around the table, we started to get calls immediately from people who didn’t know where to get the information and resources they needed.”

Hallmon said though everybody was trying to get their legs underneath themselves, “We had to start tearing down walls and start opening the door to get business owners of color to the resources.”

“That was a journey in itself,” she said. “That’s where we really started doing the work, even before we even had our 501(c)(3).”