Driving Diversity: Empowering Young Women of Color
Helping organizations leverage technology to be more responsive and expand their reach is a common denominator for many Prime 8 consulting engagements. We’re particularly proud of projects where the initiatives we help launch and operationalize have a direct impact on the lives of young people, especially those in historically disenfranchised communities.
A great example is our collaboration with BLACK GIRLS ROCK® and Microsoft to build on a shared vision of using technology to help build leadership skills among young women of color.
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO GIVE BACK
Beverly Bond was a highly successful model and DJ when she found herself looking for ways to give back to her community. This search led first to BLACK GIRLS ROCK®, a multifaceted set of media, entertainment, philanthropic, and lifestyle activities that she developed to honor the achievements of women of color.
Based on that success, Bond created BLACK GIRLS LEAD™, a series of live events and workshops dedicated to nourishing and inspiring teenaged women of color to become future leaders.
The Challenge: Recreating the Energy of Live Events in an Online Setting
Millions of people got to know BLACK GIRLS ROCK through its annual awards ceremony aired on BET, while the live summits sponsored by BLACK GIRLS LEAD brought together hundreds of girls in workshops focused on developing skills and talents.
But when the COVID pandemic hit, BLACK GIRLS LEAD had to quickly shift gears, taking its successful formula for live events and bringing it online.
Beverly saw right away that special care would be needed to duplicate the personal interaction and energy that made the in-person events such a success. But buried inside the challenge, she saw a major opportunity to leverage technology to virtually extend the reach and impact of BLACK GIRLS LEAD, getting more girls involved and connecting to more communities.
MEETING THE CHALLENGE: MICROSOFT AND PRIME 8
That’s when Microsoft and Prime 8 were enlisted to put together the building blocks for the newly reformulated BLACK GIRLS LEAD and meet the challenge of expanding reach and impact.
Technology Infrastructure
BLACK GIRLS LEAD developed a strategic partnership with Microsoft to provide access to the technology solutions needed to enable the expanded outreach. This included using Microsoft Teams and the Microsoft Store as well as programs such as Sway and Flip.
Operational Architect
Prime 8 took charge as the solution architect — designing, implementing, and operationalizing this new initiative, managing the relationship with Microsoft and using the Microsoft technology to expand the offerings, engage more participants and make an even greater impact.
The Solution: Creating Seamless Virtual Events
The first result of the Prime 8/Microsoft/BLACK GIRLS LEAD collaboration was the 2022 Virtual Global Leadership Conference, a four-day digital conference in July of that year for girls ages 13-17, designed to elevate critical thinking, foster leadership, educate and inspire.
More than 1,000 attended online, tuning in to keynotes and taking part in workshops, panels, and masterclasses on STEM, arts, entrepreneurship, career development, financial literacy, creative writing, and social impact, led by prominent educators and thought leaders.
Prime 8 consultants were heavily involved in every aspect of the event, from establishing the overall approach and implementing the technology to contributing content and being available for all four days to produce the event itself.
BUILDING ON THE MOMENTUM
The 2022 virtual event was a huge success and our team at Prime 8 immediately began to think about ways to build on the momentum and continue to expand the reach and impact.
After some serious brainstorming, we suggested adding a monthly book club to the BLACK GIRLS LEAD repertoire of programs. This program checked several boxes:
Literacy. Beverly is deeply concerned about the low literacy rates among young Black women and was actively looking for ways to address this problem.
Predictable rhythm. Going monthly would give BLACK GIRLS LEAD a much more predictable cadence to its outreach — critically important when engagement goes virtual.
Engaging educators. Focusing on books and literacy would help expand the BLACK GIRLS LEAD connection to involve schools and teachers—an important constituency — in a direct and programmatic way.
Including alumni. And in a first, a concerted effort would be made to use the book club session to include the many alums of the BLACK GIRLS LEAD programs.
Prime 8 played a multi-faceted role in the book club initiative as program director, operational partner, relationship manager, event lead, and marketing lead. We were actively engaged in choosing the books, creating learning and teaching guides, running the events themselves and producing the marketing needed to ensure the program reached as wide an audience as possible.
DEVELOPING THE MARKETING TO DRIVE ATTENDANCE
Because the program would never succeed if no one knew about it, we focused heavily on marketing and promotions:
Creating the marketing materials
Distributing them through all of the Microsoft-owned and -operated channels
Providing them to BLACK GIRLS LEAD to push them out through all of their organic social channels, newsletters, etc.
The book club sessions themselves were first distributed as live events managed via Microsoft Store and then posted for on-demand viewing — an ideal scenario for reaching educators who need to be able to tune in at times that work as part of a classroom schedule.
Finally, Beverly would rebroadcast the book club sessions on her Instagram and Facebook channels.
The Results: Reaching a Dramatically Expanded Audience
Going virtual using the Microsoft infrastructure helped BLACK GIRLS LEAD to scale its megaphone in the following ways:
The online format for the leadership summit made it possible to accept 20 times the number of participants — a 2,000% increase.
Through the various channels, some 3000-5000 people tuned in and watched the book clubs.
The biggest result is that the program is now fully operational in a sustainable way. By establishing a scalable technology infrastructure and a clear set of operations, BLACK GIRLS LEAD now has a repeatable process that Beverly and her organization can continue to run on their own without either Prime 8 or Microsoft involvement.
PRIME 8’s ROLE
The Prime 8 consultant team was involved in every aspect of the solution:
Developing overall ideas
Coordinating planning and implementation for all events, including recruiting talent and developing content
Handling day of event execution
Ensuring effective communication and collaboration between Microsoft, BLACK GIRLS LEAD, and other involved teams
Developing and executing the marketing campaigns to drive demand and attendance
Ultimately, handing off event management responsibilities to BLACK GIRLS LEAD
MICROSOFT’S ROLE
Microsoft provided access to an extensive set of solutions:
Microsoft Teams, providing a secure, robust and scalable program for supporting the events
Microsoft Store, simplifying event registration
Sway, creating interactive digital stories
Flip, the video discussion and sharing app
Working directly with Microsoft, Prime 8 consultants developed innovative ways to get all of these solutions to work together to support a common objective.
In fact, the Flip team at Microsoft is now using the BLACK GIRLS LEAD book clubs as a case study of how to create curriculum using the Flip solution.
A GREAT EXAMPLE OF SHARED VISION AND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Prime 8's collaboration with BLACK GIRLS LEAD and Microsoft exemplifies our commitment to working at every level of a project — from supporting the development of the overall vision and creating content to managing the often-intense blocking and tackling required for event coordination, marketing and promotion, and technology implementation.
We see this project as a template, serving as an in-depth example of how shared vision and strategic partnerships can create positive, long-lasting impacts on diverse communities.
What Can Prime 8 Do for You?
Are you looking to build the strengths and sustainable processes that will take your organization into the future? Talk to Prime 8 about how we can collaborate with you to find the opportunities buried inside challenges and dramatically extend your reach and influence. Connect with us to discuss your vision today.
