Evento emPower

Ft Wayne EmPower Breakfast

March 25 at 7:00 AM

25 years of bringing people together!

Why We Are Different

Focused on You: From Featured Speakers to table conversations, many people have a chance to speak at an emPower Breakfast. Experts, Sponsors, regular attendees ... and You! We try to give everyone a chance to share their stories...

An Intimate Event: We aren’t looking for hundreds to attend - our events feel like you could meet everyone if you tried.

Non-commercial: The emPower Breakfast does not promote any specific product, the presentations are not sales pitches. Our monthly event is non-membership and public; focused on fun and relationship building.

We finish on time: We pace our event quickly, so there’s never a dull moment!

Register now for the March emPower Breakfast! Featuring Edwin Chow - Founder and Owner of Summit City Climbing Company

Featured Speaker

Edwin Chow

The Art of Saying 'No': How to Create a Filter for Your Life

Edwin Chow is a Fort Wayne–based entrepreneur, veteran, and community leader driven by a mission to connect people through wellness, creativity, and purpose. He’s the founder of Summit City Climbing Co., Fort Wayne’s first rock climbing gym — a space designed not just for fitness, but for belonging. Before stepping into entrepreneurship, Edwin built a successful career in tech, achieving the freedom to live his dream of traveling the country in a van, working remotely from national parks, and chasing sunrises with a cup of coffee and a Starlink connection. But over time, he realized what he truly wanted wasn’t more freedom — it was deeper roots. That realization led him home to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he’s since become a catalyst for community growth, collaboration, and creativity. From hosting fundraisers and youth events to organizing run clubs and leadership panels, Edwin has a gift for activating people and spaces to make a lasting impact. He also serves with the Indiana Army National Guard, 1-293rd Infantry Battalion. Today, Edwin speaks on topics like entrepreneurship, community building, and purpose-driven leadership, helping others bridge their vision with meaningful action.
Edwin Chow
A Virtual or Fractional CIO helps companies bridge the gap between IT and business strategy—without the cost of a full-time executive. At VCIO Global, we provide hands-on leadership to evaluate your technology stack, plan for growth, improve security, and guide digital transformation. Our expertise with Microsoft ERP platforms like Dynamics 365 and NAV means we can optimize your core business systems while helping you adopt modern tools like cloud, AI, and analytics. Whether you’re scaling up, streamlining, or just trying to make IT work better—we focus on driving real business outcomes, such as increasing revenue, reducing operational costs, improving efficiency, and enabling smarter lead generation. Take the two-minute Technology Readiness Assessment on our website.
Managed IT services for small businesses and light manufacturing companies, empowering business leaders to focus on growing their businesses.
For 80+ years, Colonial Life has been a leader in worksite benefits, helping organizations big and small attract and retain skilled workers through competitive financial protection.

Sponsors

Ft Wayne Area Director

Joy

Joy Gray

Area Director of the Ft Wayne EmPower Breakfast

As a passionate leader, Joy’s focus has always been on helping others. As a student of learning, Joy is always challenging the status quo. She brings to the emPower Breakfast networking company a rich background of proven expertise in event management and marketing, while providing an excellent client experience. Joy ensures that emPower Breakfast events find the right partners for mutually beneficial relationships. Through her passionate, client-centric focus, Joy ensures that all clients know that we consider their success to be an integral part of our own, and that going the extra mile on their behalf is the rule, and not the exception. If there is one thing Joy has proven throughout her diverse career, it's that her skills transcend industries. Joy has worked for big companies and has also started her own. She helped successfully navigate the political campaign of the former lieutenant governor of Florida, and helped turn a high-performance boat company into a multi-million-dollar enterprise. From a personal perspective, Joy never stops pursuing her passion for helping the people who need it the most, particularly our veterans and children in need. She has worked tirelessly to raise millions of dollars for charity. As a mother of two and a Nana of 2 young boys, Joy makes it her mission to always stay connected and available for her family.Joy invites you to join her at your closest emPower Breakfast event!

Venue

The Pearl Event Center

228 W Main St, Fort Wayne, IN 46802
Ft Wayne, IN

Breakfast Schedule

07:00 AM to 07:15 AM
Networking
07:15 AM to 07:30 AM
Featured Sponsors
07:30 AM to 07:45 AM
Lightning Talks
07:45 AM to 08:00 AM
Table Introductions
08:00 AM to 08:20 AM
Featured Speaker
08:20 AM to 08:30 AM
Door Prizes
08:30 AM to 09:00 AM
Networking

Come to this event!

REGISTER

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emPower Breakfast

Your Local Small Business Networking Event

The emPower Breakfast is a down-to-earth, convenient way for small business owners and operators to network with each other and connect with larger businesses and agencies in the community.

Interested in being a sponsor?

SPONSOR

Sponsor your local emPower breakfast

Promote Your Business to a Wider Audience

Your business can benefit by becoming a sponsor. In return for your investment, your business will be promoted on this website, in emails, and at the breakfast itself. Plus, training for you and your team!

Benefits to You
  • Showcase presentation for your company at one breakfast per year
  • Multiple Marketing Impressions on our website, newsletter, Breakfast Day slider, Breakfast agenda handout, Shout Outs on Breakfast Day
  • Access to database of attendees
  • You have industry exclusivity for Sponsorships
  • Attendees are encouraged to call you first for services/products
  • Business Builder Online: Over 130 online training lessons in 30+ courses for you and your team
  • Monthly National Sponsor Webinars
  • Quarterly Local Sponsor Soirees

On the month you are assigned to showcase (present) your company:

  • You will meet each attendee as they check in
  • You can bring flyers, business cards, or advertising material
  • A representative from your company will have 5 minutes at the podium
emPower Breakfast

Be a sponsor!

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SPEAKER

Speak at the emPower breakfast

Promote Your Business to a Wider Audience

There are two options for speaking at an emPower Breakfast event:

Featured Speakers

Being a featured speaker provided the business or individual to shine for 15 minutes. You want to follow similar guidelines as a 3-minute speaker. You need to make sure you provide good information that is relevant to most attendees on a topic that you are a thought leader on. Here you can bring a presentation and use the A/V system.

NOTE: Filling out the form places you into the queue to be a speaker. You will be notified of the month and day when you will be assigned. Use the Message field to make any special requests: Month, AV, etc.

Share Your Business With a 3-Minute Presentation At No Cost

Each month, there are opportunities to tell the group a little more about yourself by doing a 3-minute presentation on you and your business.

This is more than just an elevator speech – it’s an opportunity to share more information about who you are, what you do, and how you can help any of the people attending the emPower Breakfast.

Be a speaker!

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