Conferences and Meetings

ICIC

The Mission

Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) is a national nonprofit research and advisory organization founded by renowned Harvard Business School Professor Michael E. Porter and headed by CEO Steve Grossman. ICIC is the leading authority on U.S. inner city economies and the businesses that thrive there. Its mission is to drive economic prosperity in America’s inner cities through private sector investment to create jobs, income and wealth for local residents.

The Message

ICIC’s annual event, the Inner City 100 Conference & Awards, is the premier networking and management education event for fast-growing urban businesses. It is designed to spotlight successful inner-city firms, celebrate their growth and offer continuing education and networking opportunities. Business owners from around the country come together to exchange best practices and learn from headline conference speakers.

The Moment

LPA has produced four Inner City 100 Conference & Awards at different locations including UMass Boston and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Hynes Convention Center, Seaport World Trade Center and the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Young artists from Artists for Humanity were commissioned every year to create unique recognition plaques for award winners. Featured speakers have included Governor Charlie Baker, Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company, Irene Li of Mei Mei, Shazi Visram of Happy Family Brands, Sue Spence of FedEx, Ryder Booth of Chevron, Stewart Atkinson of Proctor and Gamble Company and Professor Michael E. Porter.

The Moment

Heartbroken by the murder of their client Dorothy at the hands of her abuser and frustrated with a flawed system, the JGCC staff vowed to develop a new approach to keep victims of domestic violence safe from potential homicide.

The Message

The Domestic Violence High Risk Team Model (DVHRT) is a multidisciplinary, collaborative team approach that uses risk assessment to identify high risk offenders - those who are most likely to murder or physically assault their partners - and hold them accountable while increasing the safety of the intended victim through immediate access to victim services. By tracking lethality factors and violent behavior patterns, homicides are prevented.

The Moment

The inaugural Driving Change Conference invited attendees from across the United States to Learn, Implement and Prevent. The two-day conference featured nationally recognized experts and focused on the guiding principles and promising practices of the Domestic Violence High Risk Team Model. Then First Lady of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Diane B. Patrick galvanized the opening plenary session with her courageous first-person account of being a survivor. JGCC held their second Driving Change Conference, continuing to educate communities on this model and its improvements. Conference attendees uniformly rated the education experience as “excellent” and comments included “excellent and renowned presenters made it a very valuable experience” and “critical to anyone in the domestic violence prevention field.”