For the third year – and now on both coasts – the ManKind Project USA was proud to sponsor the ‘Better Man Conference,’ a one day event to bring teams from corporations small and large, including a number of Fortune 1000 companies, together to talk about engaging men as healthy leaders and allies in the workplace.
This year, MKP USA was represented in San Francisco by Martin Marks, and in New York by Boysen Hodgson and Jon Levitt. The Inclusionary Leadership Group, which hosts the conference is a partnership that includes Ray Arata and Ed Gurowitz, both New Warriors, and Dale Thomas Vaughn, a millennial Leadership Speaker, coach, and writer. The ManKind Project was brought into the conversation from the main stage a number of times, calling out the importance of ‘inner work’ and vulnerability in building the kind of leaders who are needed to evolve today’s corporate culture.
In New York, MKP USA’s Jon Levitt, with Ariana Blossom, a Keynote speaker and Leadership Coach, presented a breakout session on being a “Male Ally in the Age of #Metoo.” Many in the room for both presentations of this breakout were deeply impacted by the vulnerable presentation and content. These included a number of principles for ‘holding space’ for difficult conversations and doing personal self-awareness work to build relational skills.
The conference in New York was preceded by a Monday night screening of “The Mask You Live In,” hosted at the A+E Network and sponsored by UN Women and the #HeforShe campaign. New Warrior Ray Arata was part of the discussion panel after the film, along with a number of well-regarded activists in the anti-violence, healthy masculinity, and gender equality work.
