Coffee Collaborative: Women, Leadership & the Power of Gathering
As we move through the second half of 2026, one theme keeps surfacing across our community: gathering matters more than ever.
TechNexus and the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay invite women and non-binary founders, investors, executives, operators, community builders, and advocates to a relaxed morning of coffee, conversation, and connection.
We’re creating a room where people shaping companies, communities, and ideas can meet one another, exchange perspectives, talk honestly about leadership, and what becomes possible when the right people gather in person.
Drop in beginning at 8:30 for coffee and a light breakfast. Around 9:00, we’ll briefly welcome the room before the Women’s Leadership Center shares its founder story, introduces its new Geneva Lake campus, and offers a glimpse of the vision taking shape in Williams Bay.
From there, we’ll move through a few lightly facilitated, rotating table conversations inspired by our theme, The Power of Gathering. Open networking will follow, with time to explore the Center’s ideas and resources and meet its team.
The formal gathering concludes at 10:30, but guests are welcome to remain at TechNexus and cowork for the day.
Light is the point: a room to gather, real conversation, and just enough structure to get strangers and acquaintances talking about leadership — and why being in the same room still counts.
Hosted by TechNexus, an innovation and community platform grounded in the belief that Chicago grows stronger when the right people come together, in partnership with the Women’s Leadership Center at Williams Bay. Founded by Ann M. Drake, the Center is a unique convening space designed for collaboration by Jeanne Gang and Studio Gang, to ensure that women are at the forefront of solving complex challenges. Located on the stunning shores of Geneva Lake in southeastern Wisconsin, the Women’s Leadership Center recently began hosting high-impact convenings. MarySue Barrett, Sammy Goldstein, and Jemma York look forward to sharing information about how the Center can support women founders and funders and to exploring partnership potential.