FORMATTED TRANSCRIPT

USBLN CONFERENCE 2014 ORLANDO, FLORIDASEPTEMBER 30, 2014

11:45 a.m. ET CRYSTAL D/E

Building Your Business; Enhancing Your BrandMARKETPLACE PLENARY

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>> Please enjoy your lunch. The program will begin in 10 minutes.

>> Ladies and gentlemen, please silence all cell phones and mobile devices. Program is about to begin. Thank you.

>> Please welcome to the stage, Mr. Apoorva Gandhi, vice president of Multicultural Markets and Alliances at Marriott International Incorporated and marketplace track chair for the USBLN 17th annual conference.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Good morning, everyone. Good afternoon. How's everyone doing today? Enjoying their lunch? Thanks everyone for coming. My name is Apoorva Gandhi. I'm vice president for multicultural affairs for Marriott International.

I want to thank you for coming today, hundreds of thousands of associates. I want to thank USBLN for everything you do. It is -- it's not a far stretch for us at Marriott to be partnered USBLN because we share the same goals and same vision which is inclusion for everyone. Whether you work for us, do business with us as a supplier, whether you own one of our hotels and especially if you're staying with us. To all of you, I hope you're having a good experience. If you are, please tell a friend, if not, please tell me. I tell you it's a real honor to

be on this stage with all of you today. It's also a double honor and I want to thank Jill Houghton for asking me to serve on the board of USBLN. It's something I cherish and something I'll take very seriously and something I hope I will live up to the expectations of this great group here. It is interesting because when Jill first came to me and said Apoorva, you know, we're looking for people be you know to be on this board who are bald and want to go places they've never gone before, I was thinking to myself, okay. That's kind of an interesting request. I said bald. I said what? I said gee, I'm happy to do it but I'm not sure I understand the bald thing. She said no, no, Apoorva, I want you to be bold, bold, I said Okay. I can do that. So I hope I can make her proud. I will pledge on being on the board and on your marketplace track to be not just bald but bold as we move forward.

So first of all, folks who are very bold.I want to thank Ernst & Young if she's here, there she is.

All right. I want to thank her for all the work with the program planning committee. We've had a lot of fun on the phone and a lot of time planning out what I hope to be really fun, innovative and interesting sessions for folks on the marketplace track. So we're really looking forward to that. And there have been really great representatives accompanying us on this journey in planning. Folks from Deb Dagit consulting. And if Deb is here, maybe she can raise her hand. There she is. Our friends at the Federal Reserve Bank. And you should be especially nice to them because they control all the money. Okay Florida Blue if they're here. Friends at IBM, they have all the data. The Job Accommodation Network. That's very important. We all know it all starts and ends with jobs.

Our friends at Lowe's. Are they here? I spend a lot of money with you guys. My house is still not done my wife said.

>> It never stops?>> APOORVA GANDHI: I know, I thought it would stop but it

never stops. Merck. It was an honor to have the executive from Merck today. So thank you to Merck. PwC. They're the auditors so you have to be careful. Qualcomm. A place where I know everyone started this morning which is Starbucks. TJX. Right? There they are. Our friends at Walgreens. And Wellpoint. So how about a big round of applause for all of our representatives. These are the companies that help make it happen. So thank you so much. I also want to talk a little bit more about the marketplace track because it's kind of a new track, right? Historically we've had such great sessions around workplace and folks -- the accommodations and how we can help all of our companies and our members learn about getting hired into great organizations and thriving and being everything that they can be.

Well, we also wanted to complement that veryWhich is something new. We said we landed on three chunks

of work. Or tracks so to speak. One is understanding what is the disability and inclusion market look like? What's the market value? How are we going to get companies excited about marketing towards everyone and building products. So the first step is to understand what that market value is. We're really excited. We're going to have great sessions to help people come back to their companies and to their workplaces with tangible dollar amounts that they can say and show people hey, look, there's serious money here and y'all better start thinking about it. So understanding the market is the first area.

Second area is once you understand the market, how do we ensure that we're making products and services accessible to everyone. It's good business. And we have a great lineup of panels that are going to talk about how do you innovate and make sure you make products everyone can use? That's just good business and that's just going to bring you a whole new market.

And then lastly, once we figure out what the market is, how we're going to make products, all right, how are we going to advertise? How with are we going to put our sales pitch together in a relevant, authentic, and appropriate way? That's really important. We have experts here who are going to talk us through that. So we hope that flow of understanding the market, creating products, and then marketing products is going to be something that will give you some great takeaways not to go put on a shelf in your office but takeaways you can use tomorrow. That you can use in your next meeting or in your next pitch to the corner office. And what we're going to show you to toll your friends and colleagues in other companies is that USBLN is the place to be with when you want to learn about this stuff. Okay?

All right. So I have the greatest job in the world. I get to look at diversity and inclusion from the fun side, right? Sales, marketing, PR, communications, I'm pinching myself up here.

All right, my friends, now listen. I've asked all of our panelists throughout the tracks, we're going to be provocative. We're going to shatter boundaries and we're going to talk candidly, okay?

This is what it's all about on the marketplace for this track. So ask hard questions. Our folks can take it. And we're going to learn some good stuff. Okay.

Now, we're going to start the session with a really important and critical celebration, which is the signing of the strategic alliance between the U.S. Department of Labor and their

Office of Disability Employment Policy and USBLN. So we would love to have Kathy Martinez who is the assistant secretary for disability employment policy at the Department of Labor and Ms. Jill Houghton our executive director of USBLN who are going to sign this alliance. Please sign. Okay. On your mark E get set, go. Fantastic. Let's give them a round of applause.

(Applause) Fantastic. I'd like to invite Kathy to come to the podium

to make a few remarks. Thank you, Kathy>> What a great guy this guy S. we're blessed to have him.

Good afternoon, everyone. You know how much I love you guys. I've been working woo hoo. I've been working here talking to folks and attending some of the sessions. I've been disguised myself as a sighted person.

So as always, it's a thrill to be here with you and signing this renewed alliance with USBLN just makes it much sweeter. But even without that added treat, this event is truly a highlight of my annual schedule. And, of course, that's partly because it's always the kickoff to one of my favorite times of year, national disability employment and awareness month. What we affectionately call it NDEAM at ODEP and NDEAM starts tomorrow. And I don't know if the timing of the USBLN every year right at the start of NDEAM is by design or by default. But either way, it's most appropriate. After all, this is inclusive of those of us with disabilities. So what better time could there be to get together to learn from each other's experiences. And what better time could there be to renew our commitment to working together to further our shared goals?

As you may already know, this year's NDEAM theme is expect, employ, empower. And I really love this theme. This is one of my favorite themes. Because it really reflects our holistic approach to disability inclusion.

Something USBLN's work very much reflects too. And like us, you recognize that advancing disability inclusion is a multifaceted issue, that it's about more than just one single thing.

The marketplace track is an amazing example of our commitment to disability inclusion. And you all know that disability inclusion isn't just about accommodations. Let's get off that track.

Or written policies. Or assistive technology. Or meeting regulation requirements. Or any other one thing. Those things are vital. Yes. But each is only one part of a whole. They're the essential elements that allow more people with disabilities to get hired and succeed on the job.

Which then has a cyclical effect that feeds a culture of inclusion. And that's really where we're heading. Toward a

culture of inclusion. That's really what we're all talking about here today. Positioning inclusion as a culture, as part of a culture and as the fabric of a culture. As a brand. Obviously, you all in the private sector are very familiar with the concept of branding. But have you considered how your diversity and inclusion efforts contribute to the brand? If you haven't, we're going to start right now.

When we talk about inclusion as a brand, we're talking about the image that you project. And this is where we have to start. And move beyond the plans, beyond the policies, beyond what we are going to do. And start with what -- and start just doing it and talking about -- instead of just talking about it. I want to say that Jenny has a sticker on her computer that I love. It's "do, not talk."

And I think that's a great example. And one obvious example of this is your -- is inclusive advertising. Nordstrom's comes to mind, I know you're going to be hearing from Nordstrom's and I know they have a great story to tell.

As do many of you.One of the things that I love about conferences is meeting

new people. And I love asking and answering the question who are you? And hearing what people have to say. And after all, we all have many ways of describing ourselves. We all have many identities. We want to make -- we have -- we have a campaign at ODEP. We have some stickers that I'm sure many of you have gotten. And they say, "Ask me who I am."

And we want you to wear them because we want you to talk about who you are.

There's a Web site also called "ask me who I am.org" where you can go to learn more about ODEP's latest PSA and get to know some of the folks with disabilities that are featured in our latest PSA. It's our hope that in time, all folks with disabilities can be fortunate as I am to be able to bring my whole self to work. And oh, yeah in the spirit of full disclosure, we all want to create buzz about this new PSA that ODEP will be releasing in a few weeks. And lucky for you, by virtue being here today, you get a sneak peek of this preview. So --

(Applause) Its official launch will be on October 14th at the White

House and there's some people you'll very likely recognize. Anyway, what I'd like to do now is I'd like to introduce to you nine people with disabilities who will tell you a little bit about who they are. And right now, let's roll the PSA.

(Captioned video)(Applause) >> KATHLEEN MARTINEZ: In case you didn't know, that was an

accessible version of the PSA and that is titled "who I am" was produced by our campaign for disability employment or CDE and it's soon will be officially debut at the White House and be distributed to broadcast and cable stations around the nation and USBLN is a founding member of that campaign and I would be remiss if I didn't note that the role they played in helping us develop and produce it was major.

And rest assured, we will let USBLN and the rest of the world know when the PSA is officially released. But, if you want to get another sneak peek before they release it, you can visit our Web site. Both -- you can visit ODEP's booth in the exhibit hall and also you can visit the Web site. And I've got to say that we're really pleased with the results of the combined efforts that USBLN and the other CDE members have produced. Because in a nutshell, we feel that this PSA really reflects what we're talking about when we say that disability is and must be branded as a natural part of diversity and that it needs to be taken down off that special shelf and woven in to the fabric of the diversity culture.

So I would like to thank you very much and ODEP is very proud to launch this PSA. Very proud to be -- to renew our alliance with BLN and I hope that some of you come up to me sometime in the near future in the next couple days and ask me who I am. Thank you very much.

(Applause) >> APOORVA GANDHI: Thank you, Kathy. That was wonderful.I really appreciate all the hard work that you're doing.So guys, I think we're about to have a really great treat.

I want to tell you, we have an amazing speaker who is about to join us now. And you know, I met him briefly. And let me tell you, this is a guy you guys want to get to know. We were just trading a few notes earlier. We have some things in common. He is at Ernst & young and I used to work at Arthur Anderson and became Accenture and kind of competitors back in the day. I remember we used to look at E and Y and say those guys have got their act together and with the gentleman, David O'Brien who we're going to hear from at the helm, now I know why they have it together. He's a guy with a great brain. Let's start there. He's in charge of all of their brand and marketing and communications. He's a full-on partner, which I know what that means. That means that's no joke. And he's a member of their executive leadership team. Over his 25 years at Ernst & Young, he's held clients all over the globe. He's known in the business as an executive who connects, empowers, creates opportunities and drives great team results. But not only is he a guy with a big plain. He's a guy with a big heart. Outside of Ernst & Young, he currently serves offer the board of the National Ability

Center in Park City Utah and the children of China pediatric foundation, an international health organization whose doctors perform life changing and lifesaving surgeries on nearly 700 orphans in India -- in China. Talk about the change you want to be in the world, David O'Brien gets it. Also, if that wasn't enough, and this is something David, we also share. We're both adoptive parents. You've been very kind to adopt four children, all of whom were born with special needs which is something that my daughter shares as well. So you're a very special guy in my book and thank you for that. All of his children are thriving and living life to the fullest today. So I want you all to put your hands together and wave them in the air for Mr. David O'Brien from Ernst & Young. Thank you.

(Applause) >>DAVID O'BRIEN: Thank you for having me out today. This

invitation came from Lori Golden who all of you know, rather persuasive person. Lori and I have developed a great relationship over the years. It's been a fantastic partnership because Lori has taught me so much. And what we've done is we've really teamed together well and because we've teamed together well and we've teamed with so many of my other Ernst & Young colleagues here, we've been able to get a message out and we've been able to be inclusive and authentic. That's the basis of my talk. I'm of Irish heritage. I'm a communicator, I'm naturally going to be a story teller. So bear with me here as I make a couple points, I'll build a couple stories along the way and have some slides and some examples.

The biggest point that I wanted to make today is that an authentic sense of purpose, an authentic sense of purpose is going to be your greatest brand asset.

And you know, just -- you think about all of our lives and what we do every day. All of us make judgments every single day, all of us make choices. Where do we get our coffee in the morning. Who clothes are we going to wear? What personal products are we going to wear? What car are we going to drive. Who do we want to work for? Who do we want to back? What news are we going to watch? Ultimately that all comes down to personal decisions. And if you have a personal connection and if a brand emanates some degree of authenticity.

At first for brands -- and people that are really, really smart at this, companies -- all the companies represented here have really smart brand and marketing folks. They're going to look at a brand character. So they'll look at a product and say well how does it make me feel, you know? Feel okay. That's first pass. How do I like the people that I interact with from that company? You go a little further, right? Now you're creating stickiness. I like what this company stands for.

You know? Go a little further on that.And then you know what? They really -- I really understand

them and they do what I feel and what I feel is really important. And when you have that, you have got purpose that begins to emanate and it begins to resonate and that makes all the difference in the world. And a lot of what we're going to be talking about here is how do we make this come alive and how do we make it come alive in a very, very inclusive way because I believe there's real power in that. There's brand advantage in that, there's fairness in that. Opportunity in that, opportunism in that and dynamism in that. So this is where I'd like to take us.

So think about the power of purpose and maybe a couple of examples of those who do it well. I was talking with Apoorva. I was staying at a Marriott hotel. We've got 3500 partners across town at the Marriott and we've done work there for forever. 6:15 this morning. Very first Marriott employee I run into, I've got to get into a room. Couldn't have had a better smile on her face. I talked to the person in charge of conferencing, big John, he's bringing in the crew after the band Chicago gets done playing and they're going to set up an entire theater for 3500 people. They're come in overnight. That is a brand connection. That is authenticity. That is letting the people tell the story about their brand. Ultimately, you know, a brand is going to emanate from the inside out. 70% of is going to be projected upon people. That's why this advertisement was so powerful. That's why I think if you bring the face of your firms together in an authentic in a very diverse and very inclusive way, it's got real power to it. Other brands that do this well, Johnson & Johnson, caring for the world one person at a time. We know that like -- with the products that we use, with how they project themselves. IBM, solutions for a smarter planet. Brilliant job in terms of how they projected that and also how they've grown. Amazon: To enable the freedom of choice. Spectacular. How many of us are loyal Amazon users? Whole host of others. Procter & Gamble. Patagonia. My favorite that I saw from Jenny earlier who is sitting at my table. She's got a little sticker on her computer. She's got a couple of them. But one is -- and please excuse me, okay?

"Do epic shit."All right? There it is. Okay?(Laughter) (Applause) But you think about -- you think about what a brand stands

for and how a brand has to be redefined and ultimately that employee basin, it's useful and diverse and want to change the world. What a tag line on that one. I'm not sure we could have

gotten away with it but they did.So ultimately, you want your company to really project

itself. And you want people around you, your own employees, your recruits, your suppliers, your stakeholders, your clients to also -- yeah, they stand for that, they stand for that. It's not just they do it pretty well. But no, they stand for it in every decision.

And at EY we undertook this effort. We looked at brand and we talked about competing in a space against other big big international consulting firms and we said we wanted to stand out. And a big thing that we undertook was this focus on purpose. Not a tag line, not a rebrand or a set of gloss but a deep discussion. It meant that we had to start from the top and have edgy conversations throughout the business. Look at our values. What do we stand for? What do we want to be? What don't we stand for at the end of the day? Where do we draw the line? Ultimately we had to embed this and we had to embed it with our people. With our people first. Because again, 70% of the brand is actually going to be driven by the people that sit around you. They're going to associate and say Caren, Mark, Chris, any of my colleagues, Lori. They represent the brand.

It had to start with the people. And we made a conscious choice about that. We connected with our people and it's a work of progress on this. Talked to suppliers. Clients, you know, business that's we chose to be in. Things that we chose that we're not going to be in. And ultimately, you know, we had to engage ourselves in the communities with us. But I believe the biggest drive of purpose and this is what it comes back to. The biggest driver of purpose is going to be culture. It's ultimately going to be how do you engage with each other? How inclusive are you? Does it really -- are you really, really taking that extra step here? And none of this is -- it can't be a feel good. In fact, what I love about our inclusiveness -- the group of partners that Caren chairs, Caren our global inclusiveness chair. But the group of partners she chairs is spectacular. These are edgy, edgy discussions. These are full of accountability.

You know? This is all about putting issues on the table. This is all about calling out biases. This is all about driving decisions in to the business. Holding yourselves accountable. Yes, the element of what the greater good is, but ultimately, hey, are we doing this right? And Caren holds us to a very, very high standard in all of this.

And as a result, we've got great partners that permeate the business and try to drive this further. So the whole focus on the inclusiveness advisory councils, and the edginess that has to be in that room, and ultimately all around the purpose of what we

want to project are to the end of authenticity, that's critical. That drives our brand.

So we were fortunate in this journey as well that when we thought about authenticity, and then we thought about diverse abilities and ultimately how do we bring the people in the firm with visible disabilities and invisible disabilities, how do we bring them to the fore? We were very, very fortunate that within our heritage, the Y in EY actually stands for Arthur young and Arthur Young was a man who trained and wanted to be a lawyer. And he had low vision and he was deaf. And he was told he couldn't practice law. But like a whole lot of folks that have to adapt because of a particular need, he was an entrepreneur. And so he didn't choose law but he chose accounting. And he thrived. Incredible entrepreneur. Hunt years later $28 billion organization, 600 offices around the world, leaders in the Fortune 500, 1000, largest number of IPOs, twice as many as next closest competitor. This guy built a brand. This guy built a powerful brand. And I believe that the seed of that brand was ultimately about entrepreneurship and looking beyond not someone's limitations but somebody's abilities.

And that to me, I think is very, very powerful.And so on top of that, we're also known for our culture.

And we're humble group. I'll be out there and I'll be more vocal about this. But we're a pretty humble lot. But our culture is something really special. It actually is the beacon that attracts the best talent to us. And a lot of this is how authentically we show ourselves. What I'm really, really proud to say this year is that we've put the face of disabilities but what Lori has really kind of shaped me to think diverse abilities and we put that forward and I want to tell you a quick quick story

When we start to talk about purpose and started to talk about projecting ourselves, a really important thing for us to do was to be visible with it. To be both visible externally and then celebrate and tell the story of our people. So we put a huge, huge emphasis on culture. And storytelling. And so we have these great programs internally. We call them journeys that inspire. And it tells a story of people from all different backgrounds and various decisions that they had to go through and personal struggles, et cetera. But ultimately how do they mature and multiply, how do they get back and how they're an important part of our culture.

But Caren, Lori and I cooked up a little idea. And we said let's just take a look at our location. We're at 7th avenue and 42nd street right in the heart of Times Square. Everybody's got a billboard there, flashing lights. Let's do a billboard. Not exactly an inexpensive proposition. Okay?

So I had to run this by -- it was within my signing authority, but I figured I'd better let a few folks know, CEO and others, they said you guys did what? Yeah. We're getting a billboard. Good, you put your sign up, et cetera. No, no, we're going to tell stories about people on that billboard. We are actually going to take month by month and we're going to tell stories of people that make a difference and that make a difference in our culture.

So we started with interns. Veterans Day came around and we had our veterans. December came around and I couldn't wait for this because we actually had Mark. We had Amand. We had Misty. We profiled them up on the billboard. And we told our story about our people with disabilities. And the tremendous change that they drive. Look at each of these individual stories and you look at the stories of people that didn't make that billboard. And they're spectacular. And it goes not to fairness and part of our culture and all that. No, these are extraordinary, extraordinary people. Whether it be Misty the young lady up there. Misty is battling some issues right now unfortunately. But here's a young lady that joined us at an administrative role. Went to college. Proceeded up the line just now. Critical in terms of our acquisition talent. Going out for our experienced recruits.

First class.Amand. The man in the wheelchair. And this guy is an

extraordinary guy. I used to see him get out of his car every day. We parked in the same place, came into his office, always there late, always surrounded by people, often times outside talking to folks. Here's a guy he's a tax executive in our practice. In our northeast practice. He's married. Terrific, terrific guy. Part of the culture.

Take Mark right over here, Mark, if you don't mind if you can wave real quick. What a story. What an amazing story. Mark's an executive with us. You know, he's actually -- Mark was with us before and after disability. You've been there on both sides of this. Mark and I just had the first time to meet but Lori has been advocating your story for some time.

And one of the things that Lori talked about was how Mark will reflect and say because of where I'm at right now, I see the world differently. I see the world better. I see it sometimes more slowly. I'm able to take more things in. I'm able to listen. I'm able to project. I'm able to encourage others and he's become this marvelous, marvelous beacon and people with see him and identify with him and associate and talk through and he's been an incredible leader of culture and in many others. He's the heart and soul of the practice, great partner. We've got a myriad of stories. So, if I have to leave something with you,

it's if you're in the inclusiveness or diversity space, get together with your communicators. Not just find each other in passing. But you have a heart and soul of the stories, the rich -- the rich, rich, stories about what people do. And let's find a way of projecting that further. And if you project that further, people are going to understand more. People are going to associate more. People are going to say hey, will you help me come out to this. You helped me be more courageous. You helped me think about how I can help a colleague more? You about we get to this point where it's more teaming and this whole sense that you know, all of us together are much, much better than one of us. And that's inclusiveness at the end of the day. And that's what's really going to drive change. I know I'm talking at stuff that you all accept. But I do think there is a very, very powerful mechanism here. The more we project it, the more understanding, acceptance and market opportunity we're going to have. All of this is an altruistic vision. But there is a very practical vision, too. A hugely practical vision. If you think about people that actually have to work through different challenges. They're survivors, they're entrepreneurs, they see the world differently. They've got ideas, okay?

They know how to project the brand turning and product development more. And the more we do that, the better the world is going to be. Ultimately the better our brands are going to be and that's ultimately something ha we all need to take on.

We're all encouraged to tell our stories. I tell my story, our CEO Steve Howe tells his story. His father nearly lost his life as a young man in an accident. His leg was compromised. He had to have a number of surgeries but ultimately had to walk around with a very, very high lift on his shoe.

And Steve always looked past this until one day he tells the story that one day he was in the barber shop, his mother called looking for the father. And the barber answers the phone and said why didn't you just tell me it was the guy with the big shoe. And Steve -- first time it hit him. This is somebody who's being identified with a bias or limitation. Not the case at all. Steve, our CEO has been an active champion. Always encouraging Caren, Lori, Chris, Teresa all of my friends here. Encouraging us to go further, to push this more. Just to be more bold with it. Because we just think that it's absolutely the right thing to do. Which leads me to a personal story if you don't mind. If you pop up the next slide. This is my gang here. My personal story. I've learned so much in the last 10 years with my colleagues in terms of opening my eyes to not only fairness, right thing to do, but opportunity. I've learned so much from my work with the National Ability Center, with the children of China pediatric foundation. And it all ultimately

came home and my wife Noreen and I had gotten married late in life and it came time for us to talk about a family and you know, anybody that's been through the adoption process, you know, there's lots and lots of paperwork, lots of interviews with social workers, lots of decisions that have to be made, et cetera.

And our social worker said to us why don't you guys adopt a special needs kid? Noreen and I looked at each other, there's trepidation and all sorts of things, how are we going to deal with this? But we adopted little Cai, the oldest one and she's a spina bifida kid and she'd gone through an amazing number of surgeries. Lots of kind of adaptive work. But today is nothing short of spectacular. I mean, nothing short of spectacular, phenomenal skier, on her blue belt in car at a, straight A student amazing kid top to bottom. And part of this was --

(Applause) I'll tell Cai that she got a round of applause. She'd

like that.But what it opened our eyes to was not the limitation but

really the exception and how do you bring more of that out. And so you know, the stories continue and I could be here all day but I'll go very briefly. We adopted Brendan. Brendan was abandoned after a botched surgery. Open surgical wounds found in China. Literally left for dead. And in the special needs wing of an orphanage. Hearing, low hearing, you know, low vision. And what he had to fight back with. But this kid is the smartest just funniest edgiest guy. He's going to do something great for humanity. Brendan is probably going to be a hedge fund manager and then as typical we've got our Chinese/Irish twins, those are born in the same year, okay?

Not necessarily fraternal twins, but we've got Sean and Yi. And these are great stories. These are two more spina bifida kids who are doing extraordinarily well. What it's opened my eyes to is this whole sense of purpose. This isn't purpose that you leave at the door. This isn't purpose that you check out with at 5:00, but something you're able to see it day in and day out and you see what it means and you see what happens when it really gets done well. So we're extraordinarily, extraordinarily blessed and the kids have been very fortunate to live in great communities where nobody's looked at their limitations.

You know? They're just – they are our kids and people just run with it.

I do want to call out one other group here and I'm not sure if Gail Loveland from the National Ability Center. Anybody there? There you are. This is the executive director of the ability center. And maybe another thing to think about for your brands is think about who you're partnering with. And there are

very, very powerful partnerships that have been developed and that grow over time. And that are hugely, hugely beneficial.

We got associated with the Ability Center, which is in Park City. And this is a group that can actually, that uses nature to go and to elevate people's horizons as high as they could possibly be. Adaptive ski and water programs and equestrian programs. They've gone over the years. We do quite a bit now with wounded warriors and we're really becoming a national brand in that regard. But I want to tell the story now about the EY and National Ability partnership because I do think there are other opportunities here for people to look at. And what we did is we started to partner with Gail and talked to her about our families with disabilities and we wanted to get our families together in an environment where they could talk, where the kids could be challenged, where the parents could talk more. And so we have done now our fourth, like, family retreat out there of EY families from around the Americas. And let me tell you, if you want to see something that will just reduce you to tears and pride and humility and the whole range of things, you see these kids that were -- they were born with -- you know, what anybody else would perceive as limitations, tag as limitations, and what ends up happening is they do the most extraordinary things and the parents come away like wow.

You know? We knew this was a special kid but look at what they're doing right now. So it's a powerful thing. So what's happened is our relationship with the NAC has grown. We do a lot with the wounded warriors. It's an important, important part of who we are and our story. And bringing the wounded warriors. And so we started with this idea of a fitness challenge. You know, trying to get our people healthier. I certainly needed it. So we had literally 10,000+ people sign up. Couple thousand teams. And what we did is we actually partnered with the ability center and said that ultimately, what we wanted to do was in partnership with the ability center, we wanted to then post up the money and say okay F we achieve a certain level that that money will then go into wounded warrior adaptive programs that would be administered by the National Ability Center. Lo and behold this was like shooting fish in a barrel. So many people signed up. Over a period of six weeks and so many people engaged, what ended up happening was a massive win-win win that furthered the culture and authenticity and took us further in terms of teams getting together. People getting the message about good health. People understanding that this was for a purpose. People seeing the connection to building a better working world and ultimately this thing benefiting the nationality ability center and wounded warriors. So as we get creative and think about our brands, maybe a few closing points

here. The power of purpose. Push it, push it, push it in your organizations. There's chief diversity inclusiveness officers, you get that better than anybody. And that my partnership with our inclusiveness team, our broad inclusiveness team, it was life changing to me. It was enhancing on so many levels but it also put the edge on what I needed to do relative to trying to market and trying to project the firm. And so the power of purpose, please be visible. Just don't stop by. Make a pest of yourself. Okay? And get that message through. You know, create your own edginess to make your purpose stand up and make it authentic. I kidded Jenny about her sticker, but you know what? That's edgy and that's right and what's what people want to do. Jenny, I won't repeat it. But people got it the first time.

You know, think about the power of the inclusiveness councils as well. I don't know how many people have used those across their practices, across their firms. These make a giant difference. Often times I've seen the evolution where it's gone from people that are just, you know, pounding on the doors individually but when you can actually tie the business together, you can make it accountable. You can get it to permeate all parts of the business and see all the connections from attracting talent to -- you know, to our suppliers, to customers, et cetera, to the programs, to you know, it just makes the wheels spin faster.

And so the inclusiveness councils are really key.Think about the next Arthur Youngs. Think about the people

that are the next level of entrepreneur, of creator, somebody that's got to be visible, somebody that can really extend your business. How can they further your product line. How can their leadership now drive, you know, just greater awareness. Ultimately how can it make a difference in the marketplace. Not just a picture but ultimately, individuals that you need to put on your leadership teams that you need to encourage their executive teams to put on their leadership teams and to be visible. Because you think about where this is going. And there is enormous, enormous opportunity out here for entrepreneurs, for creators, for leaders and ultimately for brands and I believe that the brand differentiation can be realized here. Engage your people. Leadership matters. You know, the power of authentic communications. For projecting what you're all about.

I love Kathy, that video that you showed. Now identifying people. Brown hair, blue eyes, whatever it may be. And then give them the punchline down below. Their disabilities did not define them. Okay? There's something that they have to live with. There's something that they use to further themselves.

And then finally, make it as personal as you can. I'm speaking to the converted here. Make it as personal as you can.

Tell your personal story. There's so many people that get that point of authenticity. They see that you're living it. You live it. It inspires them to live it and I think the world just becomes a better place. So thank you for the time together.

I'm so invested in the change you're trying to drive. And please, please, please, give us the ideas, you know, push us, push us, push us. We recognize that we have a unique position here. And because of Lori and Caren and Chris and Teresa and so many others, we've got a nice leadership position in the marketplace, that doesn't last. You know, and so what we have to do is continue to push to the extent that we can be helpful to anyone, please let us know. But to the extent you see an idea and you say hey, you know, you have a leadership platform. There's a way question we can partner, please bring it on and we'll work on that together. Thank you for your time together.

(Applause) >> APOORVA GANDHI: David, thank you so much for that. And

you know, it's really remarkable. There's so many great takeaways in that beautiful speech. I've noted a few for myself if that's okay.

one, I love that I have full license now to be a pest at my house. I love it. My wife already says I'm one. But now I have a license to. I continue to make sure in all of our sessions we're going to be edgy. We're going to be really edge see. And I think the two ladies that you're going to meet in a second know what it's like to be edgy. And they clearly know how to do epic poo-poo. That's going to end up on a T-shirt somewhere, I think. This is a family conference so you know -- but as I was listening to you, David, it reminded me of one of my favorite quotes. Hopefully it will resonate with many in this room. And many -- maybe some of you have heard it. But it says never be a second rate version of someone else. Always be a first rate version of yourself.

I want to show a quick video that if Terry Hartman spires is in the audience, thank you so much for bringing this to the forefront. She does really great work are her lights, camera, access conventions, I want to thank her for bringing that expertise to some of the sessions we're going to have a great session later this afternoon. But when we talk about marketing and authentic and inclusive marketing. Duracell is a product that comes to mind in some ways and Terry, thanks for bringing this to the forefront here. I wanted to show their video here for their commercial. And just to remind each other as we start diving into some of these sessions. So, if our friends in the back to queue up their advertisement. Let's have a quick look here.

(Captioned video)

(Applause) >> APOORVA GANDHI: So I know in my house we only buy

Duracell. And I hope some of you only buy Duracell. My friends, we have a really, really great session right now. And I want to introduce, first off, from Microsoft Jenny Lay-Flurrie. And I want to tell you about her. She is the senior director for what we call the trusted experience team at Microsoft where she leads a team focused on the record three important areas. There she is. Accessibility, on line safety and privacy. Those are some hot areas right there. And accessibility and this division is focused on the customer experience for accessibility. She's also the chair of the DisAbilities group. At Microsoft which is an ERG Employee Resource Group focused on enabling people to be successful regardless of ability or disability. She was born in Birmingham England, spent much of her childhood playing music and going on to gain a degree in music, specifically the clarinet. And she serves on USBLN's board of directors. Jenny, thanks so much for coming.

All right? Next up is Colleen Fukui-Sketchley. And she comes to us from Nordstrom's. I heard -- if you clap loud she'll give you a discount.

(Cheers and applause.) Where she focuses on developing and executing diversity

initiatives that support the entire company. Her work enhances the company's efforts to recruit, hire, and retain and improve customer service. Which is something we know Nordstrom is so well known for by weaving diversity into people, product and service initiatives at their stores and at headquarters, she's been at the company since she graduated with degree in speech communications from University of Washington since 1994 so I'm sure you liked the video we just shown and she's past president of University of Washington alumni association and serves on the USBLN board of directors. So thank you, Colleen for coming here today.

(Applause) So I'm going to have a seat here. Because I'm getting

old. And ask a few questions. And I really -- Jenny, I'd love to start with you. You come to us straight from New York City and the big apple and just take a minute and tell us what went on there. It was really exciting.

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Hello. You've got a kind of Seattle groove going on. We're also Seahawks fans as well.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: And our new logo is green and blue.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: I know, sorry, I'm digging this by

the way. So good afternoon. I did, I just flew in from New York last night. So it was a quick flight. But the amazing thing, if folks -- has anyone heard of the ice bucket? Under your tables

-- no.(Laughter)I'm kidding. No in all seriousness, we've had this amazing

focus on ALS in the last few months, it started with a hack-a-thon. If you don't know what that is, it's basically find a problem, find an idea and fix it without sleep and a lot of pizza. We were challenged by a guy called Steve Gleason, another Washingtonian by the way, Washington cougar who developed ALS in 2011 and he gave me a list of stuff to go fix. It was really a list of I want to play with my son who turns 3 in a couple weeks. I want to talk to my wife and I want to be able to move my wheelchair because with ALS, it really takes away your ability and leaves eyes for some bizarre reason for most people. We hacked our little butts off. Am I allowed to say that. We've already said epic shit. I was not going to say that. But I think I'm going to get an order for a bunch of stickers. We hacked our little bit -- off and we were able to find solutions. We were able to get amongst other things his wheelchair moving across the room. Now what the cool things was in New York there is a weeklong event called ad week. Apparently a lot of your people were there because I saw a lot of companies. Steve and I went to keynote that yesterday.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Fantastic.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: And I sat there with him beforehand

in rehearsal saying I love that I'm here but why have you got me here? This is a mass commercial consumer, how -- why is disability on your radar for this. And it really came down to connection. This connects with people. It's not about disability. It's about connecting with your audience and people connected with Steve and connected with what we did. And so yeah, it was just amazing. Amazing.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: That's fantastic. Jenny, let me ask you, Microsoft, one of the biggest brands in the world. Everyone knows Microsoft. The story of Bill Gates is the one that's taught everywhere. You mentioned a connection. Is that why this is important or how do you take some of the stuff you're doing and branch it out to the mass markets?

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Well, I think we're all human, I think, right?

>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: Pretty sure.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Maybe. I nearly -- we kind of --

we're kind of cool as people with disabilities. Right? Really? Is that all I get? I do believe that disability is something that teaches you a lot. But it has been niched. And the reality is that people really see this as something they want to be part of. I had 40 people sign up for this hack -- I had 10 hacks that I ran during the hack-a-thon. There was not a lot of sleep and I

don't like pizza. But I ran 10 hacks, I posted this one and within 48 hours I had 40 people sign up. Amazing people. Who just wanted not because they knew anything about disability, accessibility, ALS, eye gaze, they wanted to be part of something that was meaningful. And I think this is the Epiphany that I'm going through as I see the focus and the lens come to some of these projects and there's a few others that I was tweeting out about last night. People gravitate to things that have meaning, have purpose, because, by the way, like all of us, we know someone with a disability, whether they're your mom, yourself, your friend, my daughter.

You know, someone that has a disability. And so you want to be part of pushing that forward.

And I believe in the power of bionic. I do believe that we have the ability -- I see things in a room that people don't. I was able to do a great job as a kid -- as a teenager in a disco room looking around the room and checking out which guy was saying -- because I could see and lip read, right? I could see who was going to be chatting up my friend because I could lip read what they were saying.

(Laughter)It's bionic. It got me in trouble a few times. It still

does today. But it is bionic. And I think people want to be part of that future.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: That's fantastic and I understand we have a short video one of your commercials, could you tee that up for us and --

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: So during the Super Bowl, apparently that's a really big football thing. I'm from Birmingham by the way, there's no ham in my city. In England. This was a really big deal for us and the big deal for us was that our marketing department wanted to believe in this power that I've been talking about. The power of empowerment. Enabling. Being part of people's future and enabling them to do more. Enabling Steve to speak when his body could not and to move when his body could not. So this video was played during the Super Bowl. And roll it. Doesn't need much more than that.

Video: What is technology? What can it do? When I lost my eyesight, I thought that my painting days were over

>> How far can we go? >> By using your hands, you can actually control your x-ray.>> Technology has the power to unite us.>> Hang on, honey, hang on.>> There he is. Do you see him.>> I can see him.>> It inspires us. Technology has taken us places we've

only dreamed.

>> N.>> It gives hope to the hopeless.>> Can you hear me talking.>> And it has given voice to the voiceless.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Seriously. All right.>> APOORVA GANDHI: That's great. That's epic sh -- >> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: That's epic stuff. I will share

longer versions I've got of that tomorrow. If you want to see more there's a bunch I posted on Twitter last night.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Thank you so much. Colleen, let's talk about Nordstrom's, that's one of my favorite stores.

>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: Thank you, I appreciate that.>> APOORVA GANDHI: You have the customer experience down to

a science and the customer returns down to a science.>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: We try.>> APOORVA GANDHI: You make it great. Tell me a little bit

about -- again, it's one of the biggest brands, they're always the anchor stores in some of the biggest most important malls? It seems like you mint money, why is this important to you?

>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: Okay. So I think the things that you guys have heard this last day or so is about creating this holistic comprehensive approach to diversity and inclusion. And I think that every company in this room is doing it in relatively the same way. Where we are looking at it from an internal perspective we've got a lot of internal initiatives that support our workforce and then we have these external initiatives that can -- that talk about our work -- you know, our environment in the customers that we serve.

And I think we're really lucky to play in this arena on the external side. It's beyond what we do as companies. It is about being passionate about systemic and social change.

And so part of that work Jenny and I -- I kind of follow Jenny around wherever she goes. Seriously, she's such good energy. She has vision that I would definitely like to emulate.

But we both sit on the Governor's task force for disability employment for the State of Washington. And a woman this morning asked about the Governor's initiatives and what they're doing for disability employment. We're two of the employers on a 10-percent task force working on these issues -- 10-person task force. So these are things we get to do out there in the community working to change things forever. It's not about putting Band-Aids on things, its about changing it from a process standpoint and how do we make it better for everybody into the future? But with that comes internal things within Nordstrom that we do to connect with the communities that we serve. And one of those ways is through our advertising

What made this year's anniversary sale -- I have four slides

here of our anniversary sale catalog this year. Anniversary sale for Nordstrom is the third week of July every year. That first week we were looking at so much press about our anniversary sale models with disabilities specifically.

We've been utilizing models with disabilities since 1997. So for us --

(Applause) So I guess the media attention for us was really kind of

shocking. We don't do any of this for media attention, ever. That is not the intent. The intent is to reflect the communities that we serve. And that is all this is, right? This is just -- you know, bringing in to the fold everybody that we believe is our customer. And I think as a consumer, i.e. no I feel this way, I want to see myself represented in your marketing materials. It makes me feel like you're welcoming personally and that is a place I will choose to shop.

So you know, with that in mind, I guess that is where we really do this work. We really serve the entire United States and now Canada. And so that is kind of the impetus behind this.

What is interesting, because the media attention is not something that we ever intended nor were we prepared for to be honest, you could now ever since then in our first week of our anniversary sale, there were 28 unique articles written about our advertising, which then ran 140 times in two countries.

That is not something we were prepared to handle because you can imagine how many phone calls we now get certainly from people who want to do modeling, right? That is a huge factor. We use modeling agencies. We task them with this. This is not an option. You can't work with us unless you believe in this. And there's no exceptions to it. So it's just holding your vendors to a standard that you really want them to be held to and I think that that's a really important factor.

(Applause)?>> APOORVA GANDHI: Fantastic.>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: You can actually -- so this is

one. And we use -- we use these models throughout the catalog, so this is just one example. But his face is on other pages and using accessories and different things as well. There's one. You can flip to the next.

Little girl on the top right corner is a young lady with Down's Syndrome. She's done a few of our ads. It's fun to work with the kids. It's always fun to work with the kids because they know how to turn it on for the camera and it's so easy because they're kids and animated and you don't have to prep them and they know what to do and you don't have to prep them because they're kids. While I was sitting here at lunch today, I have heard that this young woman is actually with us in the audience.

So Shahalee, I'm embarrassed I have not met you in person and to do it in front of 600 people

(Applause) So I'm excited to actually get to meet you in person. I

promise I'll come by the expo later. And many of you will do that.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: I think she'll sign that.>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: I think she will as well.

She's just a beautiful person. My goodness. I'm totally intimidated. But she obviously, this is just a wonderful thing. You know, but we get questions. So we were prepared with some Q&A around these kinds of things. Somebody asked us if we accidentally photo shopped this photo. Like we would ever do something like that. It's just -- really interesting the things this that people come up with. Obviously no, of course not. We were trying to display diversity in its broadest form and this is one of the folks we use. Thank you for being here and appreciate you contributing to us in this way. Really meaningful for us. I think we have another one.

Yes. Moto boots are key this year, people. Get yours. If they're cool, they're cool, they're cool. So I love this ad just because she's just cool in general. She's got purple hair. She's wearing an awesome leather jacket and believe me the boots are selling. So they definitely sent the message in that way

And then lastly we've got Angela who is on I think many of you know who ever watch Push Girls, she's on there. We kind her with a national contract a couple years ago and she's just gorgeous, just a lovely person to be able to work with. So we use a number of models with disabilities.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: That's great. So thanks so much for sharing that. We have two microphones -- let's give her a round of applause.

So we have two microphones set up. And please come on up or we can get the microphone to you. If you have any questions. I know there's going to be a lot of questions because if they're not, I personally am going to be very sad. So -- my heart will hurt. And while we -- did you have a question

>> Quick comment. Special thanks to Nordstrom employees for eight years.

(Applause) >> APOORVA GANDHI: Do we have another question? Thanks so

much for sharing that with us.>> It's always fun when you have employees in the audience>> This is for Nordstrom. My name is David. I have a

company named (saying name) opportunity works with businesses to provide people with disabilities meaningful experiences as customers. And there's a unique opportunity available for

Nordstrom in general with the departments of rehabilitation in every state. They not only help people with disabilities find jobs, but they clothe them for job interviews. So, if you really want to send a message, I will give you information on how to do that?

>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: I would love information on that. We were talking about professional development and adding potentially a component to this conference around this piece to it. And dress and interview skills and those kinds of things are key to what we're trying to do with young folks. So it's great. I would love to learn more about that. Please come see me. I'll be right up here right afterwards.

>> Feeling sexy evokes confidence>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: Yes, it does.>> APOORVA GANDHI: Thank you very much for that. Any more

questions. Right in the front in the middle area there.>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi, I'm Teri, I just want to thank you

(off mic).>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: There's two coming toward you.

They're going to collide.>> I want to thank you, Nordstrom and Microsoft and EY and

Petco and all of you that have really taken the disability marketplace to a whole new level. Last week at ad week, that spot on Duracell won the best ad of the year.

(Applause) Knocked it out of the ballpark, was a touchdown and

everybody in this room in some way has a really important puzzle piece, your ad agencies working with them, the brands, it could be in your annual reports. Times Square, a lot of different ways you can show what you've done. If you're in this room, you've already done the heavy lifting, you're part of the USBLN, you're part of our family. And go forth and be proud and bold and do epic stuff.

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: I love it. I will say one of the things you asked me before was why do we care? And I think some of that is the easy answer is really? Duh. But I do feel that there's a lot of you know, business logic. Behind the simple stuff that we all know about they're our customers and big number, billion rhymes with million. That's all good stuff. But it does transcend into your direct comments ad. I'll tell you that after the hack that we did in the summer, Steve challenged our CEO to throw a bucket of water over his head which was fun by the way because we got to do it. So, if Satya Nadella took the challenge on YouTube video. I checked how many hits it got. And they said it was the biggest thing he's done so far he's our new CEO. It got over a million views. The whole essence of this. I run an annual summit at Microsoft which is super fun, an ability

summit. That summit, you sold out here today, right? You told me that before. Sold out this event.

But we hit over 800 people at our event this year.And these weren't cool people with disabilities. They were

uncool people as well. Right? It was -- it was people who just wanted to get involved. Know what they could do, how they could make an impact, how they make a difference, it was phenomenal. I think it does breed. It breeds a connection.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Let me ask you this question and we're going to have to close in a few minutes. So, if you have a question, please do come up to the microphone. Let me ask, so you guys get it. Everyone in this room gets it and you guys have been very successful. We all know sometimes in the board rooms of America and other places, sometimes people are skeptical. Sometimes people say ah come on. Really? Help me -- tell us a few learnings or war stories that our friends in the audience, if they want to go back to their companies say you ought to think about your marketing and advertising and how you build your products. What are war stories that maybe they could learn from the two of you? Or things that are just hard?

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: It works every time. We don't have any war stories.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Perfect. All done.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: I lie. All right, we've all got

them. I do -- I'm sure you -- we work together as you can tell. >> APOORVA GANDHI: All right, so what have you seen from

your friend's company.>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: Those other people.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: We're an open book. You've got to be

in this space, we're all learning. In the old business space, I say old because most people get that. So the tack I've had and I've had some issues where you're trying to drive funding hundred a project because let's be honest in a business environment, you need funding. And I do a lot of innovation stuff. It's where I get my groove from.

And you're having this question of why would I want to invest in these piece of technology that is 4% of the market or 9% of the market or 2% of the market or less than 1. And I think that the attack to that is not to look at it. We are all in business America essentially to assist with that. Numbers make the world go round. But it is a frontier of innovation. If I think about some of the products and projects that we're involved in, they are not just about the 2%. There are so many different products and features that come off of that. And I think that whether it's People-Centric or Universal Design or any other word that you want to attach to it, it is a massive frontier. And you can go back in history talking books, fluorescent lights. Door

handles, the age old ones we all know. I love the magnetic zip is one I use a lot. Magnetic zip that was created. No one's -- I'm not even getting a smile.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: What is it?>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: It's a zip that was created for

mobility to assist with one-handed use. You have one? No.Well, I think it's cool. I'll share the details. It was a

simple concept. It was created for disability but again, it enables so many others beyond. And telling that story and helping people to grasp and understand, I don't have to do a ton of it any more, I did a lot more four or five years ago. Now people get it and want to move forward.

>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: I think none of us can do any of this alone.

We're not doing this in a vacuum. For those -- I mean, there are dozens of people in this room that I call on on a regular basis, they're used to getting an email from me that says urgent in the subject line and I get interesting responses in the middle of the night. Come to my rescue. We have -- you know, that -- we don't have the luxury of making a mistake. When you have a reputation around customer service, believe me when I say that we look at every avenue, we possibly can. Every down side that could possibly be said about 0 us. When I looked at the four ads before they went into the anniversary sale catalog, I bounced it off a couple people in this room. Is there something I'm missing here, but that's what it takes? It talks a village. One thing I want to say about the two of us being up here, we didn't get chosen to be up here because we were the best at marketing to people with disabilities. There's 600 people in this room which means there's 600 wonderful ways to do this. We are two examples.

And I intend to steal many of why you are ideas while I'm here and I know Jenny is as well.

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Yes. Absolutely.>> COLLEEN FUKUI-SKETCHLEY: We're all about that. Sharing

the information. Obviously we're willing to share our information with you as well. We've been doing it since 1987. It's just part of what we do. We make an intentional effort around it. But because we've been doing it so long it's part of the conversation. I'm not always part of the conversation. This is a marketing thing. Not a diversity thing. It's about the customer and the customer experience and that's what it's about.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Thanks so much, Colleen, something you said I really like. I would encourage everyone who is part of USBLN to -- you have a room of expertise here. So, if you're trying to talk to your marketing friends and you're someone with the responsibility and wants to understand how to be relevant and

authentic and do this in a way that calls up your P&L, call up the USBLN chapter, call the executive board. Call me, I'll help you. We'll figure it out. But that way, it's part of what being a part of what USBLN is all about. You have access to folks who can help guide you along this journey and this is truly a rising tide here.

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Colleen has one thing she taught me a while ago. This is a space we don't compete. That's odd for us, we compete. But this isn't a space where we compete. We're constantly chattering. You'll find that across the companies. If there's ever something you want, you just have to send me an email. I don't speak to people. I work for Microsoft.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: If you were to email your thanks.>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: We do. We stay in constant contact.

How did you do that?Well, what went wrong? It's such a question that we all are

going to have and how we work together is how we're going to make it better.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: That's fantastic. Any questions from the audience?

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: (off mic).>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: Sorry. British humor. Hopefully it

conveyed.>> APOORVA GANDHI: Other questions, please? Go ahead.>> This is Kathleen Martinez with the Department of Labor.

And I just want to say getting back to 503, you guys are probably sick of hearing it but one of the things we've noticed at the department and in some agencies in the government since the executive order was established in 2010 where the president said he'd like to see the federal government hire 100,000 folks with disabilities, we have really -- I would say that disability in the department in the last five years has been elevated to the status of other issues, gender, race, LGBT. And wire woven into the fabric of the department, secretary Solis and Tom Perez have taken disability really seriously and not just as a token issue but really as an issue to be woven in to the culture of the department. I have to say as more people have been hired with both evident and non-evident disabilities. More people are coming out with disabilities that were afraid to come out for whatever reason before. So really -- the whole internal branding and external branding of course really does drive the -- it drives the numbers as well. People do come out of the woodwork and identify. And then as we say, you know, people are able to bring their whole selves to work. Which is a lot better than having to hide something when you're trying to get a job done. So I think this is a fabulous track and it will drive your numbers, trust me.

(Applause) >> APOORVA GANDHI: I think we had a question at this table

here. Thank you, Kathy for that.>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: Hi. I just have something to say real

quickly. My name is Susan word. I am with beacon college in Leesburg, Florida, we're one of two colleges that offer bachelor degrees exclusively for students with learning disabilities. And that includes autism, ADHD, dyslexia. Those silent disabilities that you may not see disclosed in your businesses and corporations. But it's so nice to be part of something where we can jump out and say we're here, we have students that are getting degrees in business. And we have students that are getting degrees in human services that have these learning disabilities and it's great to have partnerships where they -- we have businesses saying we would love students to come work with us. And internal and job shadow. So I just want to say thank you for coming together and that means a lot to people like us at beacon college.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: Thank you so much. Okay. We'll give one last question because she's been very polite here.

>> AUDIENCE MEMBER: My question is for Jenny, I'm Heather Thomas from RIT we're on the logistics committee for women in computing, you spoke specifically about hack-a-thons, we're in our second year of hack-a-thons specifically designed for women and while we are a have some partnerships started with Microsoft, I would love if by the end of the week you and I could talk more on both objectives that you have. Okay. I got the yes, I'm stopping.

>> APOORVA GANDHI: You got it. Let's give a big round of applause to Colleen and Jenny.

(Applause) I want to give a special round of applause for you.

Because being her interpreter, I think is a lot of work. You must have to come up with interesting --

>> JENNY LAY-FLURRIE: It's very true.>> APOORVA GANDHI: All right, ladies, thank you so much.

Now I'd like to call Jill to come up to the podium.>> JILL HOUGHTON: Wow, thank you Apoorva. Thank you,

Jenny. Thank you, Colleen. Thank you, David. Incredible. Let's give them a round of applause.

(Applause) So Jenny, you've got you've started something here. And

here's the deal. If you want to do something epic, then what you want to do is you want get on the index, right? You want to learn about the Disability Equality Index. And I'm here to tell you in 10 minutes, in room crystal A/B, it is a historic launch. Come, learn, and then come to the booth and get registered. And

then you can really do something epic.We're going to delay prizes. We're going to do those at the

reception because we want to get rolling. There's a lot of great breakouts. But again, the historic launch of the Disability Equality Index is in 10 minutes in Crystal A/B. Thank you very much.

*** This text is being provided in a rough draft Format. Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) or captioning are provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.***