The ICW 2023 is over and wow, wow, wow, what a week of learning, connections, exposure, discovery, opportunities, and growth… The theme was Explore Your Potential, and we sure did!
873 registrants to our 43 online events, going from AI to supervision; Lego playing to grief; job search to branding… 8 of those events in Spanish; 37 speakers, from 8 different countries; 2 in-person events; 6 nonprofit organizations receiving pro bono coaching, and 18 coaches volunteering their precious hours of work!!!
Our ICW 2023 small team - Claudia Flores and Nada Haddad, real Musketeers, and I - started the planning with a vision: Explore our potential as professionals, as individuals, and as coaches in business. To navigate from the vision to the accomplishment was a journey worth sharing. While Claudia Flores, Nada Haddad and I worked on putting together the Calendar of Webinars having the three pillars of Explore Your Potential (individual, professional dev., and business dev.) as a north star, other ideas were gaining space. Vimari Roman embraced the making of 2 In-person Celebration & Networking events, happening on the same day and time, in different locations (I hope you attended one of them). Mayra Arrigazzi (the newest in the Outreach Committee) beautifully developed a partnership with ICF-DC & Metro Area (Washington DC) and ICF-LA (California) and together we implemented the Coaching Coast to Coast Program which aims developing the culture of pro bono coaching among chapters throughout the country – coast to coast! ICFSF’s approach to pro bono is to bring coaching to the nonprofit world. We want to make a difference to organizations that make a difference in society. When the sea got rough, as it does in every journey, Shakti Radhakishun jumped in and then we engaged Yara Faour forming our Problem-solving Team. A team fully committed to a vision!
As we invited speakers, we were honored to have the quick and firm “yes” from renown coaches from the international coaching community: Prof. David Clutterbuck (UK) and Eva Hirsch (Brazil and Germany). From our South Florida and Latin America coaching communities, we were honored with the overwhelming desire from coaches to present their work, share reflections, and amaze the audience with their creativity. There was a rich rage of innovative models and methodologies to approach different segments of coaching.
We wouldn’t be able to accomplish so much without the engagement, hard-work and support of the coaches mentioned above and all Outreach Committee members who made a blast in social media promoting the events and jumping in at any time the core team asked for help!
A big *THANK YOU*, as well, to all 37 coaches who took the risk to bring their message to 873 registrants, presenters who collaborated with us throughout the journey sharing thoughts, building strategies, and being patient - true partners! As we wrap up the week the common feeling in our ICW Committee is that we have enlarged the ICFSF community beyond South Florida and way beyond our membership body.
As a Chair of ICW 2023 for ICFSF, I’m getting to the end of May with curiosity and excitement about what ICW 2024 will reserve for us…