Washington, DC (CapitalWirePR) July 09, 2008--Following presentations in the other principal U.S. cities, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, Dialogue on Diversity’s 2008 Entrepreneurship/IT Conference returns on Friday, July 18th to its home at the National Press Club in Washington.  The Conference again this year brings women entrepreneurs of the metropolitan area’s many diverse communities together for a day of transforming ideas on cutting-edge technology and on the year’s new departures in marketing and management technique.  Admission to the Conference is free.  Register by e-mail at dialog.div@prodigy.net, giving name, affiliation, address, and telephone.

 “Dialogue on Diversity”, notes its President, Ma. Cristina Caballero, “is an international network of women entrepreneurs dedicated to the advance of constructive dialogue among women -- and men -- of America’s diverse ethnic and cultural communities.  The key to effective entrepreneurship – especially in times of economic downturn -- is the aggressive adoption of contemporary technology by the women founding business enterprises at record breaking rates in all corners of the country.”      

 United States Treasurer, the Hon. Anna Escobedo Cabral, will be keynote speaker for the Lunch session getting underway at 12:30 p.m.  Other highlights of the Midday session will be the presentation of the Dialogue’s International Award to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee;  and special recognition of Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez, dean of Latino leadership in the Washington region, now a member the Maryland House of Delegates;  followed by  special honors for Sonia Gutierrez, the charismatic founder and head of the Carlos Rosario Charter School, the nationally renowned model adult education institute that has taken shape in Northwest Washington under her leadership.

 A dominant theme in the 2008 Conference will be the lure for small business of the diverse supply chains of large corporate purchasing behemoths and of the federal agencies of equally formidable bulk. The techniques women and ethnic entrepreneurs must employ to compete in the stiff rivalry for the purchasing dollars, the process of qualifying with rating groups such as MSDC and SBA (the “admission ticket” to the competition), and the agility permitting fast turn-around and innovative techniques – all this is the subject of the morning’s seminars. 

 Speakers include Kenneth Clark, head of the MD/DC Minority Supplier Development Council, Theresa Alvillar Speake, Director of the Department of Energy’s supplier diversity effort, S.B.A.’s Washington District Office Director Eugene Cornelius, and Denise Rodriguez, OSDBU Director at DOT.  Antonio Monroig, Esq. a long-time friend of the Ana G. Mendez University System of San Juan, Puerto Rico, outlines that academic body’s performance in the supplier diversity field, while John Marshall of Verizon brings the perspective of the large, socially conscious firm from the private sector. 

 Susan Gonzales of Comcast is featured at the midday session with a commentary on the impending switchover from analog to digital image transmission in the world of television.  For the Diversity Roundtable at 1:00 p.m. women excelling in both business and civic fields offer an in-depth exploration of the nature of the interaction of diverse cultures in contemporary economic and social life.

Program segments on wireless and other innovative information/communications technology, on both the hardware and software fronts, and HD innovations, fill the remainder of the day’s crowded schedule -- along with much needed expert instruction on the vital springs of capital access, the arcane arts of financial management, and sound business organization techniques.

Corporate and organizational support for the 2008 Conference includes Verizon, Southwest Airlines, Comcast, the MD/DC MSDC, SBA, MBDA, GWHCC, and others listed at Dialogue’s Web-site.