Upcoming
Conferences & Workshops
The 5th Africa Family Business Summit
Family Business Succession: Managing Tradition & Innovation Conflicts in Transitions
- June 18-19, 2026
- 9:00 AM Each Day
- The Palms By Eagles Hotel, Airport, Accra
The business environment today is highly unpredictable, pushing companies to keep innovating to stay relevant. In African family businesses, the younger generation often educated abroad or in top local schools returns with fresh ideas, eager to modernize operations and improve efficiency.
The 5th Africa Family Business Summit will explore how both generations can align where tradition fuels innovation and innovation strengthens tradition to ensure continuity and growth.
FEISC Lunch Briefing with Jean Meeks‑Koch
- September 17, 2025
- 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
- Columbia, SC
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FFI Global Conference 2025
Where Legacies Meet Innovations
- October 29–31, 2025
- Boston Marriott Long Wharf, Boston, Massachusetts
Positively People’s Jean Meeks-Koch and Bernadette Watowich-Stead will each deliver featured sessions at this year’s FFI Global Conference, bringing fresh perspectives to the future of family enterprises around the world.
Session: Africa – Where Tribalism, Faith, Caste, and Innovation Conjoin
October 30, 2025 | 1:45 PM – 2:45 PM
African family-owned businesses are becoming powerful drivers of economic growth and global trade, fueled by a rising generation bringing innovation and new perspectives home. Yet, these businesses face complex challenges: volatile markets, foreign competition, and the struggle to transition successfully into third- and fourth-generation ownership.
In this session, Jean will explore how advisors and practitioners can support African family enterprises during this transformation—balancing tradition with modernization and leveraging tools like AI, robotics, and global partnerships to build sustainable, multigenerational success.
What You’ll Gain:
Insight into the growing global influence of African family-owned businesses and the opportunities they present
Strategies to help families navigate third-generation transitions despite economic and cultural challenges
Tools to build trust and foster sustainable wealth management while honoring cultural and tribal dynamics
Speakers: Jean Meeks-Koch, Dennis Oteng
Session: The Hero’s Journey – Transforming Legacy Through Storytelling and Systems Thinking
October 30, 2025 | 10:45 AM – 11:45 AM
Every family business has a story. Those narratives—rooted in myth, legacy, and lived experience—shape how families navigate leadership transitions, growth, and sustainability. Using the lens of the hero’s journey, this session explores how families can identify, understand, and reshape the narratives that guide their businesses.
Through storytelling and systems thinking, Bernadette and fellow panelists will share real-world case studies from the FFI Systems Thinking Virtual Study Group, showing how recognizing and reframing these stories can lead to stronger leadership development, healthier transitions, and more resilient family cultures.
What You’ll Gain:
A framework for using storytelling to preserve and evolve family business legacy
Practical ways to identify and shift inherited patterns using systems thinking
Actionable strategies to help families build resilience and create adaptive, future-focused cultures
Speakers: Bernadette Watowich-Stead, Guillermo Salazar, Chris Yonker
