Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The women-focused festival Create & Cultivate has grown into one of the largest business events of its kind, blending celebrity keynotes, AI-powered networking, and brand activations that wow attendees and sponsors alike. In this episode of the Convene Podcast, the team unpacks what makes the event so successful, the debates around women-only spaces, and how such formats are reshaping the future of networking.
Links:
· How Create & Cultivate Built a Business Event Women Want to Attend Every Year: https://www.bizbash.com/event-production-planning/inside-the-2025-create-and-cultivate-festival
· 40-year-old sold her company for $22 million—2 years later she bought it back and is launching a ‘Coachella for career women’: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/17/jaclyn-johnson-bought-back-create-cultivate-and-planned-a-coachella-for-career-women.html
· Why Are These Women-Only Networking Spaces So Popular?: https://www.pcma.org/why-are-these-women-only-networking-spaces-so-popular/
· Why Female-Focused Conferences Are More Important Than Ever: https://www.bizbash.com/event-production-planning/why-female-focused-conferences-are-more-important-than-ever
Get News Junkie: https://www.pcma.org/campaign/news-junkie/
Meet the Convene Editors: https://www.pcma.org/contact/
· Michelle Russell, Editor in Chief
· Barbara Palmer, Deputy Editor
· Jennifer N. Dienst, Senior Editor
· Kate Mulcrone, Managing Digital Editor
· Magdalina Atanassova, Digital Media Editor
Follow Convene:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pcmaconvene/
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@pcmaconvene
Contact Information: For any questions, reach out to Magdalina Atanassova, matanassova(at)pcma(dot)org.
Sponsorships and Partnerships: Reach 36,000 qualified meeting organizers with Convene, the multi-award-winning magazine for the business events industry. Contact our sales team: https://www.pcma.org/advertise-sponsorship/
Music: Inspirational Cinematic Piano with Orchestra
Creators and Guests
What is PCMA Convene Podcast?
Since 1986, Convene has been delivering award-winning content that helps event professionals plan and execute innovative and successful events. Join the Convene editors as we dive into the latest topics of interest to — and some flying under the radar of — the business events community.
Convene Talk, ep. 76/Aug 29, 2025
*Note: the transcript is AI generated, excuse typos and inaccuracies
Magdalina Atanassova: This is the Convene Podcast. It's time for another Convene Talk. Jen, take it away.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Thanks, Maggie.
So I want to chat today about an article I saw on Biz Bash that talks about Create and Cultivate.
So Create and Cultivate is a festival that's been around for about 10 years now.
They bill themselves as the largest festival for women in business in the world and I think it's acquired quite a following since it's launched in the past 10 years.
It's known for having some really big names for its speakers, its entertainment, and also its brand activations, which it had more than 150at this year's event.
This year's event was interesting for a few different reasons.
The festival was essentially a relaunch of the event brand.
The founder, Jacqueline Johnson actually sold the brand a few years ago and then bought it back back and then they worked on the format previously it was, it was mostly one off one day events and what they did was they expanded it and kind of tweaked it into a two day festival which kicked off earlier this year.
I find it interesting, I was actually on a press trip years ago with Jacqueline and met her. She was there as a influencer. She was really cool to talk to.
I just remember her being just like a really interesting person to be around. We were there with Marriott talking about how events were evolving and she kind of shared some of her insight.
So anyway,
what's interesting about it is how it continues to find success and reinvent itself more than a decade later.
This year saw a couple different changes, larger changes besides just the expanded format. So Biz Bash and there was another great article by CNBC which we'll link down in the notes,
talked about how they tapped AI to help with their networking.
One of the big things that draws women to this event. I should note that this is a event designed for women, specifically younger women who are interested in business and entrepreneurship.
Career minded women.
So a lot of the focus of the programming is on connecting them with each other with these bigger brands. A lot of them are content creators,
a lot of them are in creative fields trying to build their own careers.
So they use this AI platform that allowed them to kind of note the kind of person they were looking to meet,
whether it was like a venture capitalist or a lawyer to help them build their business.
And then the system actually paired them up for a 15 minute session. And according to the article,
they actually had 10,000 meetings scheduled for just the weekend alone.
So another kind of big facet or another Big draw of the event is its lineup of big names. It's known, I think a few years back, they had Kim Kardashian.
This year for their show, which was sold out, they had Doechii, they had Sierra, they had Aisha Curry and Britney Snow in the lineup.
And it's kind of a mix of entertainment and keynotes and celebrity panels.
So that it's interesting because we've talked about that in the past, like do celebs celebrities draw attendees? And in this case it seems like, yes, it really does. And that might be due to the demographic.
You know, I just thought it was really cool that this, this is a example of how women are continuing to look to female focused spaces to further their careers and just in business events in general.
I wrote an article last year about platform called the Female Quotient,
who has equality lounges at male dominated events like CES can,
the World Economic Forum, I believe,
and that is also continually growing. I got to speak with the team and they told me that at CES they've had to expand the equality lounge space that they have, which is for women only,
to meet the demand anyway. So I feel like this isn't necessarily a trend. I feel like it's, it's pretty obvious that women are looking to meet with each other, be inspired by each other, which I really, really love.
I'm curious to know what you all think about this and if you've noticed other events doing the same or if you've ever experienced this in person at an event.
Magdalina Atanassova: So I can jump in and actually it just made me think of the special programming at IMEX and I'm thinking IMEX, America, IMEX Frankfurt, they both have dedicated tracks for women in events.
That just came when you were speaking about the equality launches,
which was interesting.
But while I love the examples and the fact that, yes, we do need such events and I know why they're out there.
A couple of things made an impression on me. The first thing was it's so heavily focused on companies doing activations there and they also covered such a wide spectrum of what women do.
So from cooking to,
you know, entrepreneurship to being influencers to everything in between.
And you could do your nails and listen to business.
It was like all over the place also. It was very colorful,
very lively and wow, I love that. I was like,
yes,
but do we see only women as buyers?
You know,
I know there's support. I know these events are built so that women can build up their networks,
which is very important.
I do understand that. But also we do have to consider that we need men as part of our networks as well.
And something that I heard a while back, I can't remember where,
but it kind of, it's embedded in my head, is that while we need to learn women,
you know, to support women, to open the doors for other women, we also have to teach men how to open these doors and how to pass on their privilege and, you know, their power onto women.
So I like those events. But also we don't have to exclude men because then it becomes us versus them. And that's not the point.
I believe we always need to work together and learn from each other. Also teach men what our struggles are,
why do we experience them and how can they actually be helpful? Because I'm sure a lot of men would like to help, just they don't know how.
So that should be an important conversation embedded in these events.
Kate, what do you think to your.
Kate Mulcrone: Point about taking a space set aside for women in business and then kind of turning it into a shopping activation?
Yes, I think that bringing women together to network with each other without the distractions or the competition is great,
but going so far that it kind of resembles,
say, Gwyneth Paltrow's in Goop Health conference is where you lose me.
Because I really would want, if I went to this event,
I would want the focus to be on business.
And my reason for going would be the hosted buyer model where I know that I'm going to this networking event because I'm going to specifically meet with these like four people I want to meet.
And then anything else that happens is a happy accident.
Whereas I'm not going so that I can like be inspired and have girl time and possibly hear about like an llm.
And so, yeah, I do think that networking events for women need to be really careful to be be for women and not for a specific type of woman who would go to something for women.
And it's a delicate balance to strike.
Michelle Russell: Michelle,
I don't know that I have an answer. I see both sides, so I see both sides to the argument. But I do agree that having an event for women changes the dynamic.
And for some women they just need to have that.
And I would say probably some sectors. So Barbara wrote a story for our August issue on the it's the Society of Women Engineers.
And I see the reason to have an event for women only in sectors that are male dominant.
Also, there have been some conversations about particular sectors that I would say there's more of an a chance at an event for women to be harassed or to feel uncomfortable.
And so I understand the rationale for having something for women only where they just don't have to worry about that being, you know, a challenge or a situation.
But I agree with you.
You need to foster this kind of like equity with having men involved. You need to enroll them would be what I would say is a more HR kind of term.
But for certain sectors, I see there being a need to have only women so that they don't. They want to come and know that they're not going to have to deal with any kinds of challenges in terms of having men there.
So I see both sides.
Jennifer N. Dienst: I think that this event specifically create and cultivate is kind of honed in on women who are interested in certain types of careers and doing certain things. It's not so broad that it's like anyone and everyone.
For example,
this year they created something called a creator compound and a focus on all things content creation and online marketing.
There's also a central court stage for women in sports, which sounds cool, and a test kitchen for women in food and beverage.
And something that she told and Jacqueline Johnson told CNBC is we're creating specificity in the content and you get to choose your own adventure like where you want to spend your time at the conference and who you want to learn from.
So it does seem like they are being quite intentional in who they're trying to reach in terms of what these women do.
I think if I was a content creator,
I could see myself being really interested in this. Like you said, Maggie, like there's a, you know, over 150 brand activations and some of them are with brands that are quite significant.
To me that feels like twofold, like they're trying obviously to,
I'm, I'm sure they're making,
you know, some money off of that.
But there it also serves a purpose if, if you've got women who are content creators coming into that space, like looking at a brand activation and potentially getting to meet with them, maybe they're trying to find form brand partnerships of their own.
That seems like a great opportunity. I'm kind of making a few assumptions there, but that's kind of just what the article is leading me to. Believe me personally, I kind of love the idea that I'm, I'm a girl's girl.
I feel safest in women only spaces. Love men, men are great, fabulous, want to be around them too. But I really do feel at my best and at my most like authentic self when I'm in the company of women.
And I relish, relish, relish the time that I get to spend with my female friends and people who I. Women that I work with, because I feel like I learned so much from them.
So I understand and love that spaces like this exist. But you're so right, like, it shouldn't be either or shouldn't be only. You know what I mean? Like, we need all types of spaces, like a thousand percent.
Magdalina Atanassova: I actually like the fact that there was a comment that sponsors were wowed by the engagement on site.
So that's great because they were so clearly aligned with the goal of the event. So that's why they saw amazing results, which I feel is often missing at events.
You have to force people to go and see the sponsors just because they're not so well aligned. And also,
I believe it was the founder that said that they really wanted to be action oriented. So they are not showing up just with their sign and yes, we're here,
Come see us.
But they are doing something to provide value to those participants. And of course, there was comment that somebody got a tattoo on site,
and I relate to that. I've gotten a tattoo on site as well at IMEX.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Would you ever do that, Maggie?
Magdalina Atanassova: I've done it. I've done it. I actually have done it. Oh, you've done it at an event at IMAX Frankfurt.
So at the New Zealand stand back in 2019,
there was a tattooist, a Maori tattooist that they brought,
who was there to create a tattoo on the spot. That's a Maori tattoo. And he was tattooing people for free right there and then.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Wow, that's so cool.
Magdalina Atanassova: And I saw it in their daily, you know, in the daily newspaper, which was printed back then. I don't know if they still do it.
And I just called my husband, I'm like,
so how about that?
He was like, what the hell, go for it. You know, when. When else would you find a mori,
an actual Maori, to make a tattoo for you?
Jennifer N. Dienst: Yeah.
Magdalina Atanassova: So, yeah,
I left with a tattoo and the whole idea was that the next year I would go again to IMEX Frankfurt and the same tattoos would be there. But of course, Covid came along and that never happened.
But I actually am saving space to continue that tattoo that we've started back in 2019. But I feel I need to go now to New Zealand to do that. But I like a challenge.
Jennifer N. Dienst: What a great example of, like a destination,
really making,
like a connection, you know what I mean? The fact that you now want to go back and continue building on that tattoo. And that all stemmed from an experience that you had.
I'm assuming this was the New Zealand exhibit booth, like at IMEX. Okay. Yeah. Like,
wow, that's really, really. That's a really cool story.
I was wondering about that. When I read that part of the story, I was like, what's. I, I, I don't have any tattoos.
I can't imagine committing to one.
But I love seeing other people's tattoos. So I was wondering, I'm like, are there how many people are actually coming up to this booth and going through with it? But I'm glad you shared that because I think that's a really cool example.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. Anything else we should add?
Jennifer N. Dienst: I don't think so. I think we hit the nail on the head. I, I really didn't have much more to expand on than that. Yeah.
Magdalina Atanassova: Maybe with just one last quote that Jacqueline Johnson was quoted in one of the,
one of the two articles you mentioned.
She said, we're beyond hustle culture. We've gotten to a place where people want to enjoy what they're building. And I really clicked with that. I really,
I get it. I know what she's talking about.
It's nice. And at the end of the day, I just want to say I love that she's supporting women in this way and creating something so specific and providing such a specific support to women creators, because I feel that's her intended audience.
So kudos, and I'm looking forward to see what she'll do next year, what will be new and exciting.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Me too.
Magdalina Atanassova: I think.
Michelle Russell: Yeah. Just to follow up on that, I think that is something that women have not been great about in the workplace is supporting each other. So it is nice that there's an event where they just lift each other up rather than.
Which is. I think my generation, baby boomers is guilty of that, of not being.
We're not as into team sports as boys when we were young. And so we didn't learn, like, to be part of a team. It was more like, especially if you're trying to carve out a career for yourself in an industry where there aren't a lot of other women,
you didn't feel like other women could necessarily help you. So that is,
that is a nice thing for these women only events is that it's turning the tide and women are being more supportive of one another.
A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.
Magdalina Atanassova: Yeah. An awesome way to end the conversation. So thank you.
Michelle Russell: Thanks, guys.
Jennifer N. Dienst: Thank you.
Magdalina Atanassova: Remember to subscribe to the Convene Podcast on your favorite listening platform to stay updated with our latest episodes. For further industry insights from the Convene team, head over to PCMA.org/convene. My name is Maggie. Stay inspired. Keep inspiring. And until next time.