The ForceBrands team was in Baltimore during Expo East 2018 and was proud to host several industry events on Friday from Founder Hour, to the Expo East Afterparty, to Rise Up.

Following the success of the inaugural Rise Up forum ForceBrands hosted in partnership with VMG Partners at Expo West in March, ForceBrands continued the conversation with an intimate networking opportunity that highlighted workplace diversity and collaboration.

“ForceBrands was thrilled to host our second Rise Up forum in partnership with VMG Partners following the success of our inaugural experience at Expo West,” Jennifer Smith, ForceBrands’ Director of Brand Marketing and Communications, said. “It’s amazing to see passionate professionals come together to support each other in our shared mission to make the future of the industry more diverse — we were pleased to see so many great conversations unfolding throughout the night.”

Rise Up’s mission is to bring together diverse professionals within the CPG industry to crowdsource and share ideas about how to accelerate careers to ultimately create more diversity at the leadership level. Nearly 25 people, from Brand Managers to CEOs, attended Rise Up at Expo East which took place at Bar Vazquez in Baltimore.

“Our industry is full of some of the most generous, humble, ambitious, and incredible people — truly amazing operators — but we still have a long way to go until our teams reflect the diversity of consumers that we serve,” Cassie Nielsen, VP of Talent at VMG Partners, said. “I am really encouraged to see an event full of individuals motivated to improve that, and I am optimistic about how our industry will evolve.”

ForceBrands and VMG Partners look forward to continuing this conversation at future Rise Up forums.

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