Cultivating Connections

Nearly 20 years ago, two women sat down at a business conference in Atlanta and began talking about what they wished conferences could be.

One was Cindy Chace, then working in marketing for UPS. The other was Diane Sears, a business owner and longtime advocate for women entrepreneurs. They had met through the world of women's business organizations and kept running into each other at events.

That conversation in Atlanta eventually moved to a cocktail napkin. And on that napkin, the beginnings of Go for the Greens were born.

Chace had been traveling the East Coast for UPS, studying conferences and looking closely at what worked and what didn't. Sears was doing the same thing on a national level, experimenting with ways to introduce business owners to corporate buyers. The two women talked about creating an event that was smaller and more personal, where business owners wouldn't disappear into a crowd. Sears brought her experience with procurement and business matchmaking to the conversation. Chace brought another idea: golf.

"I've always felt golf is an important place for people to do networking, and I wanted to get women involved in using this tool the way men do," Chace recalls. "My father was a big golfer, and he taught me early in life that the golf course is where the big business deals get made."

Then sustainability entered the conversation. UPS was placing a growing emphasis on green practices, including designing delivery routes so trucks would make only righthand turns instead of burning fuel waiting at traffic lights to turn left.

The women began putting the pieces together: business growth, golf, and sustainability. What did they all have in common?

"All of these things were represented by the color green," Sears says. "With my limited golf knowledge at the time, I came up with the slogan 'Go for the Greens' and asked Cindy, 'Does this work?'" They enlisted a graphic designer to create a logo for their new brand.

Sears had relationships with Walt Disney World, Chace was with UPS, and they approached both companies with their idea. Each agreed to sponsor the inaugural event if the women could raise the rest of the money.

They did.

The first Go for the Greens attracted about 125 people. It was a one-day conference followed by golf on Saturday, and the plan was for it to be "one and done," Chace says.

Then something unexpected happened. At the golf event, and later in emails and thank you letters, attendees started asking a question neither founder had anticipated:

"When is next year's event?"

Sears and Chace originally intended to hand the conference model over to another organization. They even presented the idea to the organization's national board.

Instead, they received some surprising advice: You have something important here. Bottle it.

So they did.

Rather than create another membership organization, they formed the Go for the Greens Foundation, a Florida-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

And 19 years later, there is something particularly unusual about the organization: Go for the Greens still has no paid staff.

Both the Foundation and its annual conference are 100% volunteer-run, powered by an extraordinary team of award-winning board members, planning committee members and volunteers who give their time, expertise and energy to make the work possible.

Some volunteers who helped during the very first Go for the Greens conference are still involved today. Others have stepped away when life demanded it, and found their way back.

That longevity says something about the community Sears and Chace created. The people behind Go for the Greens aren't simply producing an annual conference. They believe in its mission and have become part of the family that sustains it.

Chace jokes that volunteering with Go for the Greens is a little like the Hotel California described in the 1976 song by The Eagles rock band: "You can check out but you can never leave."

The Foundation also deliberately chose not to become a membership organization. Instead of competing with organizations that serve women business owners and other entrepreneurs, Go for the Greens works alongside them, helping create connections and directing people toward partner organizations that can continue supporting their growth.

Its signature annual conference has grown dramatically, but Chace and Sears have deliberately resisted turning it into a massive convention.

They call it a "boutique conference," intentionally kept to roughly 250 to 300 participants so attendees can actually find one another again after an initial introduction. Chace estimates about 40% of attendees every year are return participants, with people now coming from around the globe.

That intimacy may be the most important part of the Go for the Greens formula.

For an entrepreneur walking alone into a conference ballroom, networking can be intimidating, particularly for someone who doesn't already see a familiar face in the room.

Go for the Greens works hard to change that experience.

"I think the thing people notice the most when they walk into the conference is that it's really warm," Sears says.

At Go for the Greens, she explains, someone is likely to approach newcomers, welcome them and help them find their way. And because the event is intentionally small, the person you meet at breakfast may be the person you encounter again at lunch, during a roundtable, at a reception, while watching fireworks at EPCOT, or on the golf course.

Corporate representatives aren't separated behind velvet ropes. They're standing in the same buffet line, attending the same sessions, and participating in the same social experiences as business owners.

For LGBTQ entrepreneurs, and for corporate and nonprofit leaders committed to creating workplaces, business networks and supply chains where people from different backgrounds can thrive, that kind of environment matters.

Relationships rarely begin with an RFP. They begin when people have an opportunity to know one another.

Chace describes the conference as creating those opportunities everywhere. The founders can't guarantee that a conversation will turn into a contract, partnership or lifelong friendship. What they can do is create an environment where those conversations are much more likely to happen.

"The opportunities are all over at Go for the Greens," she says. "We're proud to say we've heard a lot of success stories from our attendees over the years."

That philosophy has become the theme of Go for the Greens 2026: Cultivating Connections.

The conference takes place October 1–3, 2026, at Disney's BoardWalk Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida. And from the opening reception to the final golf luncheon, this year's program puts relationship-building at the center.

Connections in Motion, a new progressive-style welcome reception the evening of Wednesday, September 30, will give attendees an opportunity to rotate among stations to meet featured speakers and sponsors.

During the conference's educational segments on Thursday and Friday, October 1 and 2, corporate-focused sessions will explore what it takes to build relationships that lead to opportunities and what today's buyers want from suppliers. Business owners can participate in executive roundtables to talk about common challenges and get each other's insights. And the conference's signature Concierge Connections B2B meet-and-greets create small-group conversations among corporate and government sourcing professionals, women business owners, nonprofit leaders and other attendees in a speed-dating type of format.

The conference program also extends well beyond contracting. Sessions explore confidence, leadership, wellness, public policy, the impact of women-owned businesses, and even some golf tips.

Keynote speaker Tina Rae VanSteenbergen will challenge conventional thinking about confidence with "Debunking the Confidence Myth: Getting Real About Confidence." Her message emphasizes that confidence isn't something people simply acquire after achieving success. It changes from day to day, and we can help build it in one another through genuine support and encouragement.

Another keynote, Chris Rollins, brings the theme of connection down to its most human level with "Make Moments Matter: How Human Connection Becomes Your Legacy." Before they are business owners, corporate leaders, partners or potential clients, Rollins reminds audiences, people are human beings who want to feel seen, heard and valued. And while big opportunities may bring people together, trust is often built, or broken, in much smaller moments: a conversation, an introduction or an expression of genuine curiosity.

Rollins calls this Ripple Effect Thinking: recognizing that seemingly small human interactions can reach much further than we realize. They shape relationships, open doors, influence what happens next and ultimately become part of how people remember us.

It's a message that seems tailor-made for Go for the Greens. After all, the conference was built on the belief that a meaningful connection doesn't have to begin in a boardroom. It can happen in a lunch line, around a roundtable, during a reception, on a golf course, or in a conversation that neither person realizes will matter until much later.

Golf has been part of Go for the Greens since that first cocktail-napkin conversation, but attendees don't need to be experienced golfers, or golfers at all, to participate in the conference.

On Saturday, October 3, participants can choose between an 18-hole scramble at Disney's Magnolia Golf Course and a golf clinic designed to make the sport accessible to newer golfers. Both groups come back together afterward for lunch and awards.

The larger idea is less about a scorecard than about what happens when people spend time together away from a conference table.

As Chace puts it, you learn a lot about people on a golf course. And it's difficult to replicate the kind of relationship-building that can happen when people have two, three or four hours to talk, laugh and get to know one another.

There is another group at Go for the Greens whose presence changes the conference dynamic: young women participating in the foundation's Mentorship Experience.

The conference-within-a-conference gives mentees opportunities to learn alongside business owners and corporate leaders, experience the event and see different possibilities for their own futures. Mentees will take the main stage to share what they've learned and offer attendees a glimpse of what the future may hold.

For business and nonprofit leaders, that creates another reason to become involved. Supporting Go for the Greens isn't only about today's contracts and connections. It is also an investment in who will be sitting at those business tables tomorrow.

The connections made at Go for the Greens aren't only about growing businesses. They're also about taking care of the community that has grown around the conference.

That spirit of service starts with the people running Go for the Greens itself. With no paid staff, volunteers don't simply help at the conference. They are the people who make the foundation's work possible.

And over the years, that spirit of service has found another deeply personal expression.

Many members of the Go for the Greens family have been touched by cancer, particularly breast cancer. As a result, raising awareness and funds for cancer research has become an important part of the annual event.

Throughout the conference, attendees have several opportunities to turn their participation into support. The annual golf event helps raise funds, as does Step Up Against Cancer, a steps-counting challenge Thursday and Friday that gets attendees moving to compete for prizes. Silent auction items and the sale of golf flags provide additional ways to contribute.

Funds raised through these activities are donated to Susan G. Komen Rally for the Cure, extending the impact of the conference well beyond the people in the room.

It's another expression of the philosophy that has shaped the organization from the beginning: Connections matter most when we use them to help one another.

Nearly 20 years after two women sketched an idea on a cocktail napkin, thousands of conversations later, the premise remains the same: You never really know what can grow from one meaningful connection. Sometimes it's a contract. Sometimes it's a friendship. Sometimes it's a community.

Registration for the 2026 Go for the Greens Conference is open, and sponsorship opportunities are available. Visit goforthegreens.org to learn more, register or explore ways your organization can become involved.