2024 SCALE for Innovation Summit

The Market Can Be Tough

In today’s labor market, what you know is often less important than who you know. Recent studies have shown that only 5% of job candidates have referrals, but candidates with referrals make up 30% of new hires.

This is more than a market gap – it’s a systemic barrier reinforcing a rigid socio-economic hierarchy. To break the cycle and ensure shared economic prosperity, we must begin investing social capital in the leaders of tomorrow.

Mentorship is a Social Capital Investment

The act of mentorship is actually the practical exchange of social capital. Through mentorship, mentees can take advantage of their mentors’ professional networks, as well as learn soft skills like professional behaviors and ways of speaking – skills that often aren’t taught in the classroom.

Additionally, mentorship has the following benefits:

• Mentored employees earn more on average
• Mentored employees are promoted at 5x the rate
• 89% of mentees say they’ll go on to mentor others, creating a cycle of intergenerational social capital investment

Despite these benefits, nearly 2/3rds of professionals today have never had a mentor.

Social Capital and Leadership Exchange (SCALE) for Innovation

SCALE aims to be one of the largest and most diverse mentorship events in the US, breaking down barriers to mentorship for young professionals throughout the Southeast. Attendees will learn more about the importance of social capital during a lively fireside chat, then participate in multiple breakout sessions designed to catalyze mentorship moments.

Breakout sessions will showcase alternative forms of mentorship, including:

• Group mentoring
• Reverse mentorship
• Flash mentorship
• Micro-mentoring
• And more!

With many notable executives and leaders committed to attending, you never know who you may wind up in a room with! And with our opt-in attendee directory, we’re making it as easy as possible to keep the conversations going after the event.

Together, we are dismantling the systemic barriers to upward mobility and starting a cycle of social capital investment.

Network with VIP Guests

At SCALE, you’ll have the opportunity to meet and network with leaders and executives from a variety of sectors throughout the Southeast.

Check back soon for an updated list of local leaders who have committed to participating!

Featured Discussion

What do a former IBM executive and a Cultural Curator with Atlanta Influences Everything have in common? They both believe social capital has been instrumental to their success.

In this lively fireside chat, Ann and Bem will share the ways in which social capital has impacted their personal career journeys. Attendees will learn more about just what exactly social capital is, how it has been inequitably distributed in our society and the insidious ways this inequity impacts socio-economic mobility. Afterwards, Ann and Bem will share practical strategies we can all take in our circles to address this inequity, break the cycle and better promote shared economic prosperity.

Thank You Scale Sponsors!

Interested in supporting the SCALE for Innovation Summit? We would love to explore how a SCALE sponsorship could help meet your company or organization’s community impact objectives.

Please reach out to chad.nash@innovate.gatech.edu, to discuss tailoring a sponsorship package to meet your specific needs.