The executive swing: the 1996 Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf Challenge offers more than fun and sun - it's where deals are done - Networking

Black Enterprise, Feb, 1997 by Robyn Clarke

The 1996 Black Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge offers more than fun and sun--it's where deasl are done

IT'S BEEN THREE YEARS SINCE THE BLACK Enterprise/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge took its first baby steps. Now, the tournament is rushing to healthy maturity as the most influential national social gathering of black business professionals. With on-site coverage by the local television stations, print coverage by Golf Magazine, the New York Times and USA Today, and a total media audience of over 16 million impressions, the B.E./Pepsi Challenge has emerged as more than just a business event. Described by one participant as "a model for all meetings of this sort on a national level," the tournament is quickly and actively transforming the face of the American business social scene, demonstrating that the African American business community is a force to be reckoned with.

The 1996 tournament took off on August 29 and didn't slow its pace until its close on September 2. Members of the corporate world gathered with sports figures, entertainment celebrities and politicians to employ their savvy business networking skills and engage in some healthy recreational competition at The Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami.

Leaning on the tournament's solid business-oriented foundation, the attendees were drawn together by the common cause of forging and strengthening profitable business relationships. For the participants of the B.E. Challenge, the phrase "it's not what you know as much as who you know," proffers a simple yet valuable pearl of wisdom: Networking is paramount to maintaining black enterprise, and expanding it into the business mainstream.

THE PREMIER NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY

With over 1,300 participants at this year's event, the B.E. Challenge is now the premier meeting place for African American entrepreneurs and professionals. The Challenge reaches out to every region in the country, and attracts participants ranging in age from 28-60-plus. These are vital statistics for attendees like Louis Beauchamp, vice president of the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Techtronix Technical Search, who says that African Americans "often don't have the chance to associate on a wide scale. Here [at the Challenge], we have the chance to really interact and exchange information with each other.

For many of the attendees, making contacts in a social environment is rare; these busy professionals simply don't have the opportunity to get together outside of the boardroom." Beauchamp notes that isolation is already common for many black corporate dwellers. "There are a lot of different fields that some of us don't even know African Americans are in," he says.

A three-time attendee, Beauchamp has been able to reap some of the benefits that exposure from the Challenge provides, describing his acquired contacts as "absolutely fantastic."

"The Challenge has shown America that we are capable of generating a large number of bright, well-off independent and professional businesspersons in one place," says Beauchamp.

REACH OUT AND IMPACT SOMEONE

Long before last November's presidential elections, the voice of the African American business world reverberated loudly on the American political scene. After learning of California Governor Pete Wilson's politically motivated desire to do away with race-based affirmative action programs through the California Civil Rights Initiative, the 1996 Challenge coordinators moved the tournament--and the more than $2 million it contributes to the local economy--from its originally planned site at the La Quinta Resort and Club in La Quinta, California, to the Doral Golf Resort & Spa in Miami. Through such actions, African Americans are flexing their economic muscle to effect change, according to Dwayne Ashley, national executive director of the Atlanta-based 100 Black Men of America Inc.

A proponent of economic development and a believer in reaching back into the communities that helped blacks to succeed, Ashley suggests that African Americans "can work together effectively and impact communities across the country, if we recognize the economic impact that we have in our own communities." This philosophy compelled him not only to attend the Challenge, but to actively use the arena to reach out and influence others. Networking at the tournament allowed the 100 Black Men to sign on several new sponsors, as well as to refer some members of the organization to executive search firms for high-level corporate positions.

The Challenge played host to a forum for education and business, mixing ideas for improving seasoned enterprises with methods for developing burgeoning ones. Business development discourse was significant, considering that half of last year's participants owned their own businesses, and another 20% had plans of starting one in the near future. The tournament's active exchange of concepts testifies to the fact that networking entails more than just swapping business cards. "It's all about meeting people and learning about what they're doing with their businesses, says Stacy Mitchell, director of sales and operations for US West Direct in Seattle, Washington. Already in the process of getting some "key initiatives" started, she enjoys being able to make contact with black professionals from around the country. "We need to get a broad perspective on African American business--we're into everything.