We live in a world that expects instant results. Technology, like ChatGPT, flatters us, agrees with us, and delivers exactly what we ask for. But people don’t work that way. Teams don’t work that way.
This year, we’ll examine how this "on-demand" mindset is creeping into our organizations and reshaping how we lead and collaborate. Technology will only get louder, faster, and more deeply embedded in our lives.
But here’s the truth:
People aren’t the problem. People are the purpose.
The beauty of people is that they do get in the way. They disrupt our convenience. They challenge our plans. They bring perspectives that clash with our own, and that clash is where the magic happens.
Leaders who embrace and lead through this dynamic won’t just grow their organizations; they’ll create environments where people, and purpose, thrive.
Event Details
WHERE
Worksphere
WHEN
October 10th, 2025 | 9am-5pm
WHAT
Featured Speakers, Breakout Sessions, Community Q&A Panel, Live Performances, Raffle & Giveaways, and More!
HOSTED BY
Foster’s Creative
Event Timeline
8:00 AM | Doors Open - Registration & Coffee
9:00 AM | Opening Performance & Welcome
9:30 AM | Keynote 1 - The Problem with People
11:00 AM | Breakout Sessions
12:30 PM | Lunch & Connection
1:15 PM | Post-Lunch Recap
1:30 PM | Q&A Panel - The Messy Middle
2:30 PM | Coffee Break
3:00 PM | Keynote 2 - Proximity is a Gift
4:00 PM | Closing Remarks and Final Performance
4:30 PM | Post-Conference Connection
Conference host
BRYSON FOSTER
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“At the end of my life, I want my friends and family to say I was a good leader.”
Bryson Foster is the CEO and co-founder of Foster’s Creative, a full-scale business development firm offering marketing and creative services, purposeful events, authentic storytelling, and consulting and coaching for values-driven organizations.
He and his partner, Kristin Foster, launched the company with a vision to support artists, connect communities, and build something lasting. What began as a creative outlet has grown into a mission-driven agency that helps businesses, nonprofits, and creatives work together to create impact.
Today, Bryson leads Foster’s with a clear purpose: to help businesses and organizations do good, and document that good through photo, video, and design. He works directly with leaders to build sustainable, human-centered companies rooted in identity, purpose, and community. His approach combines real-world business experience with a deep belief that growth and values aren’t mutually exclusive—they’re the same strategy.
Lastly, but maybe most importantly, Bryson is a father and an extreme hip-hop head.
featured performers
SHARP SKILLS
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Sharp Skills is an award-winning hip-hop artist, author, entrepreneur, and speaker whose music fuses raw lyricism, social consciousness, and high-energy performances. With multiple albums and major placements in the MLB Network, NBA, NFL, WWE, UFC, NASCAR, E! News, Castle, Bones, The Mindy Project, America’s Next Top Model, and All-American, Sharp Skills has built a reputation for delivering thought-provoking music and electrifying performances. His unique blend of artistry and storytelling creates an experience that resonates with diverse audiences.
Beyond music, Sharp Skills is the founder of Fades & Finance, LLC, an initiative dedicated to educating barbers and stylists about financial literacy. He is also the creator of the racial equity board game "Reveal the Elephant" and the author of multiple books that inspire and challenge readers to think critically about success, business, and racial equity.
ERINA MCLAREN
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Born and raised in Tacoma, Erina McLaren is a soulful singer, songwriter, composer, and guitarist! She began studying music as a child and took advantage of opportunities to travel the country to share her gift while studying at the University of Vermont!
Nowadays, you can catch her playing solo acoustic shows or with her band at venues across the greater South Sound - performing both original music and contemporary covers of songs we all know and love!
Breakout Sessions
KATIE BRAY
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Katie Bray is the founder of Financial Vision Bookkeeping, where she serves as a Virtual CFO and financial partner to small and mid-sized businesses. With 15+ years in finance and more than 8 as an entrepreneur, Katie helps creative and women-led companies go beyond bookkeeping to understand the story their numbers tell.
Katie also works as a life and business coach, guiding entrepreneurs to align their money, vision, and values so they can build businesses — and lives — that feel fulfilling and sustainable. Based in Tacoma, she is deeply involved in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem, where she supports and uplifts fellow business owners. She believes money is never just about numbers but about the human stories behind them.
When she’s not helping clients grow with clarity and confidence, you can find Katie exploring the Pacific Northwest, tending her garden, or reflecting on new ideas sparked at events like TEDWomen and TEDNext.
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Theme: The human side of money
Host: Katie Bray
Explore how our emotional and relational patterns shape the way we engage with money and learn practical ways to navigate it all with clarity, resilience, and confidence.
UMI WAGONER & PERRIS WRIGHT
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Umi Wagoner graduated from Henry Foss High School and was accepted to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in 2006. He went to school and worked full-time at the Beverly Center as assistant manager before being recruited by The Hundreds is Huge Inc. After graduating in 2008 with his Associates in Merchandise Marketing, he moved home to Washington and worked in Ballard at the high-end boutique, Blackbird Ballard, as a lead sales associate. One year later he was offered the Store Manager position at The Hundreds is Huge Inc. flagship location and moved back to Los Angeles. After spending the end of 2013 building a business plan with business partner Perris Wright, he moved back to Tacoma in 2014 to open ETCTACOMA.
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Perris Wright graduated from Henry Foss High School and was accepted to Pacific Lutheran University in 2006 and transferred in 2008 to Eastern Washington. After graduating in 2010 with his Bachelors in Business, he enjoyed work as a banker at Columbia Bank for two years until finding an opportunity at State Farm as an injury claim adjuster. It was during his time at State Farm that Perris began to apply his education in business, where he coordinated and facilitated the business licensing and ways to acquire funding for ETC TACOMA LLC while his business partner in Umi Wagoner was in Los Angeles.
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Theme: World Building: Branding ETC
Hosts: Umi Wagoner & Perris Wright
July 2025 marked 11 years in business. ETCTACOMA is more than just a clothing boutique — it’s a local institution that has helped shape streetwear culture across the PNW and beyond. From collaborations with the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Kraken, and Tacoma Rainiers, to partnerships with local businesses and national brands like The Hundreds, eTc has built a reputation on authenticity, innovation, and community connection.
FOSTERS CREATIVE
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What was once a small, home-grown business now employs a team of some of the brightest innovators in the Pacific Northwest. Everyone on our team strives to elevate local brands, support rising artists, and forge unlikely collaborations across the region.
While we provide a wide range of services, we specialize in helping our clients create story-driven content that fuels result-driven marketing strategies - all while finding meaningful ways to pour back into their communities. Plus we’re able to maintain affordable prices and efficient turnaround times due to keeping all of the labor in-house - unlike many other agencies that lean on outsourcing and contractors to get the job done.
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Theme: Mission is a Magnet: How the Right People Find Each Other
Host: Bryson & Kristin Foster, Founders of Foster’s Creative
The Foster’s Creative Team
Mission is a magnet. The stronger and clearer it is, the more it draws in the right people, those who care, who push themselves to grow, and who elevate everyone around them.
But what does that work? What does this mean for you?
At Foster’s Creative, our mission has pulled together a team capable of running a full-service consulting agency that delivers strategy, culture consulting, marketing, creative, events, media - and more.
The magic isn’t in some polished recruitment hack ; it’s in the resonance of the work itself.
The way we tell our story to others. How our paths could cross.
Sure, the founders could get up here and talk about culture, leadership, and building great teams. But let’s be honest: it’s far more powerful to hear it from the people who felt that pull and chose to join. In this session, our team will share their own experiences, what attracted them, what keeps them engaged, where we’ve stumbled, and how we’re still figuring it out.
This Q&A-style conversation puts the spotlight on the crew that actually keeps the engine running. Expect unpolished honesty, useful insights, and maybe even a few laughs. If you’re looking for more than buzzwords and theory, and you want to see how mission really becomes a magnet for high-quality teammates, this one's for you.
MANDY SCHELL
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Mandy Schell is a Social Strategist, speaker, and founder of the PNW Women’s Network. She is the creator of ProSocial™, a first-of-its-kind model that reframes connection as a leadership strategy. Her work sits at the intersection of relational intelligence, visibility, and community architecture, designing intentional spaces where women thrive, not just show up. Through her platforms, Mandy is redefining what power and proximity look like for women in business.
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Theme: The Woman Who Builds the Room: Leadership Through Ecosystem Design
Host: Mandy Schell
This session offers a strategic, high-touch approach to building your own relational ecosystem. Less about networking, more about designing the spaces, relationships, and structures that support your next level of leadership. It’s part workshop, part conversation, grounded in depth, clarity, and intentional growth.
BRYAN REYNOLDS
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Bryan Reynolds is Co-Founder & CEO of ANTHEM Coffee. He’s a purpose driven team builder and has a great ability for helping businesses develop great brands and culture. He was honored as one of the “40 Under 40” in Business by South Sound Business Magazine in 2018.
Over the past 17 years, Bryan and his family have built ANTHEM Coffee into 7 locations around the South Puget Sound providing “Heroic Hospitality” to each community they serve. Bryan is also a business success coach and consultant helping business leaders and owners overcome their biggest pain points and obstacles in order to scale their businesses. He’s been blissfully married to his middle school sweetheart Alicia for 20 years, and together they have 3 boys.
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Theme: Heroic Hospitality
Host: Bryan Reynolds
Discover what it means to practice Heroic Hospitality: creating experiences that change lives by loving and serving people, crafting exceptional food and beverages, and fostering authentic relationships. This session will explore how true hospitality goes beyond service to build community, inspire connection, and keep people coming back.
Q&A Panel
DIERDRE PATTERSON
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Dierdre Patterson is a Business & Economic Development Analyst for the City of Tacoma, where she manages small business financing programs and develops equitable funding initiatives to support local economic growth. She is also the co-founder of CONCEPT, an experiential creative agency that produces special projects, exhibitions, and strategy for art and design with an emphasis on Black and Brown creators. In addition, she is a professional artist whose work has been featured in national brand partnerships, public art projects, and publications including Essence Magazine and Abstract Mag.
CHYNA WILLMAN
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Chyna Willman is the CEO and Founder of Grit City Wellness, a premier wellness club in Washington State that blends science-backed recovery, fitness, and holistic care to help people optimize their health. What began as her personal response to burnout and chronic illness has grown into a community-centered club and franchise model, uniting modern therapies and proven practices under one roof.
Beyond leading Grit City Wellness, Chyna serves as President of the Waterfront Merchants Alliance, Chair-Elect on the Board of Directors for the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, and as a Board Member of the Health & Fitness Association (HFA). In these roles, she advocates for small businesses, advances the fitness industry nationally, and champions sustainable growth in local communities.
Before stepping into the wellness industry, Chyna spent nearly two decades in the automotive sector with global brands such as Toyota and BMW, gaining expertise in scalable systems, franchise operations, and team development—skills that now guide the growth of Grit City Wellness into a national brand. Passionate about building strong teams and supportive environments, she is dedicated to elevating both individual well-being and community success.
QUINCY HENRY
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Quincy Henry is a Tacoma native, scholar, Grammy-nominated rapper, business owner, husband, and father. He and his wife, Whitni, own Campfire Coffee, a wood-fired coffee roaster and café in Tacoma that blends community, culture, and a love for the outdoors. Quincy has also served his community as a former member of the Tacoma Arts Commission, a YMCA mentor, and currently as a member of the Milgard Executive Council for the University of Washington Tacoma.
Growing up Black in the Pacific Northwest, Quincy often felt disconnected from outdoor recreation despite being surrounded by stunning landscapes. A formative week at Camp Waskowitz in sixth grade helped change that perspective, sparking a belief that nature should be accessible to all. That belief now fuels his work through Campfire Explorers Club, a nonprofit dedicated to breaking down cultural and financial barriers to outdoor access.
Through initiatives like a community gear library, outdoor classes, and opportunities for group campouts and retreats, Quincy and his team are helping underserved communities experience nature without prohibitive costs. Whether through coffee, community, or campfires, his mission is clear: to ignite a love for the outdoors, foster environmental stewardship, and ensure everyone has a place in nature.
ZACH VARNELL
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Zach is an entrepreneurial leader in innovative public education in Tacoma, WA. After studying music and audio engineering in college, Zach wrote a career and technical framework for audio recording technology for Washington State and taught at the Tacoma School of the Arts for ten years. After finishing a Masters in Education Administration from the University of Washington Tacoma, Zach went on to join the founding team of a music technology company and served as the head of curriculum for one of the five channels of the online education platform CreativeLive.
In the fall of 2016 Zach was recruited to open an innovative high school centered around engineering and design called IDEA (Industrial Design, Engineering and Art) where he served as the co-director until 2020. Currently, Zach works with co-directors at all three Partner Schools in Tacoma (SOTA, SAMI, and IDEA) creating innovative opportunities and strengthening organizational objectives and community partnerships.
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