April 22, 2026 | 21c Museum Hotel, St. Louis, MO
GeekPack has always been an online community. Over the past several years, we've hosted 13 virtual events and supported over 70,000 women through summits and digital experiences.
Virtual works. It scales. It connects women across continents.
But every major leap in my business happened in a room.
So in 2026, we decided to take GeekPack IRL - in real life.
And we chose St. Louis first.
We chose St. Louis because of the people. Because of the energy. Because our very own Head of Partnerships, Halley Moore, called it her city, her community - and knew it was the right place to start.
On April 22, 2026, 200 women business owners walked into 21c Museum Hotel in downtown St. Louis for the first GeekPack IRL CEO Day.
Not a conference. Not a sit-and-listen event. But a full day to step out of the weeds and actually work on their businesses - alongside a room full of women who understood exactly what that meant.
Now, let me take you on a tour through the day (and the day before).
The evening of April 21 kicked off with our VIP Happy Hour hosted by JPMorgan Chase - an intimate gathering of our most invested attendees before the big day.
Elizabeth Wade (Vice President, Senior Business Consultant at Chase) and Angela Watson (Business Relationship Manager at Chase) were on the ground, moving through the room and making sure every conversation felt intentional.
We were incredibly happy to work with our local partners here, Parker's Table, St. Louis' beloved independent wine and specialty food shop, made sure the table was set beautifully for the night.
And The Blue Duck brought the most delicious macarons in the region for our VIPs.
To keep the conversation going, we brought into the room our popular bingo cards - "Money, Growth, and Real Talk Bingo".
This sparked exactly the kind of discussions women entrepreneurs rarely have out loud: raising prices, paying themselves, building wealth.
We closed the night with giveaways tied to every bingo hit, which meant the more honest the conversations got, the more the room came alive.
And every bingo line they checked off? A chance to win.
The night was a huge success and our VIP guests were more than ready to walk into the main room the next day.
We didn't stumble into 21c Museum Hotel. We spent months looking for a space that matched what we were building, and found it there.
21c is a contemporary art hotel in the heart of downtown St. Louis - where you walk through gallery spaces just to get from one room to the next.
We were there at the same time as the Future Is Female exhibit was on the walls. Two hundred women entrepreneurs filling a building lined with bold art celebrating women. It doesn't get more on-brand than that.
The centerpiece of the room itself was styled by Styled + Staged STL, a St. Louis-based event design and rental company born from over 15 years of award-winning event experience.
Tables were named after words like Fearless, Audacious, Magnetic, and Ambitious - we carefully thought about every detail.
Every printed piece in the room, from signage to the photo booth props, was handled by SpeedPro St. Louis South, a women-owned large-format printing studio that's been serving the St. Louis community since 2014.
And the AV production throughout the entire day was powered by Heard Global, making sure every moment was seen, heard, and felt the way it was meant to be.
A GeekPack CEO Day isn’t simply pieced together. It is designed - from the first session to the last giveaway - with one question in mind: what does a woman entrepreneur actually need to walk out of this room feeling different?
The answer to that is what shaped every single detail, and what made this day 100% worth showing up for. And it came down to three pillars.
Real Talks. Not keynotes that sound inspiring in the moment and fade by the drive home. We brought in voices who have actually been in the room - who've built, pivoted, failed, and scaled. People who could speak to the reality of running a business, not just the highlight reel. Every fireside chat and panel was chosen because the person on stage had earned the right to be there and had something genuinely useful to say.
Hands-On Workshops. We don't do passive learning. Every workshop was designed to get attendees out of their heads and into action - working on their actual business, not a hypothetical one. Whether someone walked in with a six-figure brand or was still finding their footing, the sessions met them where they were and moved them forward. Table discussions. Real exercises. Tangible next steps to take home.
Interactive Activities. Because strategy without energy is just homework. The interactive moments throughout the GeekPack CEO Day - the ribbon cutting, the speed networking, the photo booth, the spotlight pitches - were designed to create the kind of memories and connections that make people talk about an event long after it ends. Fun isn't fluff. It leaves a mark, and it makes everything else stick.
These three pillars held the whole day together. Here's how they came to life.
The Bear Necessities of Business - Navigating Change in a Pivot-Happy World
We opened CEO Day with a fireside chat with Maxine Clark, Founder of Build-A-Bear Workshop and CEO of the Clark-Fox Family Foundation - someone who has navigated pivots, built something beloved from scratch, and kept going through every kind of uncertainty.
Maxine told us about her first-grade teacher - a teacher who gave a red pencil every week to the student who made the most mistakes. Not as punishment. As a reward. Maxine carried that red pencil energy all the way to building one of the most recognized retail brands in America.
At the end of the conversation, we presented Maxine with a red pencil necklace. She put it on immediately.
How to Not Get Sued - Protecting Your Business in the Digital World
Possibly the most eye-opening conversation of the day.
We sat down with Donata Stroink-Skillrudd, Co-Founder of Termageddon, for a frank conversation about the legal stuff nobody talks about - privacy policies, website compliance, terms of service, and what actually puts small businesses at risk.
Donata co-built Termageddon after recognizing that small businesses were being left behind when it came to privacy law, and she broke it all down in a way that was practical, clear, and deeply useful.
Expert Panel: Human-First Entrepreneurship in the Age of AI
To close out the afternoon, three St. Louis women joined us for a conversation that covered the full spectrum of what building in the age of AI actually looks like.
Keisha Mabry Haymore - certified AI educator, TEDx speaker, Fulbright Specialist, and Verizon Small Business Digital Ready Advocate - brought the technical fluency and the human heart to match it. With 500+ keynotes under her belt for companies like Google, Spotify, and Mastercard, and a book dedicated to the power of human connection, Keisha was the perfect voice to anchor a conversation about why the "human first" part of that equation still matters most.
Kristy Jackson, Founder of the SheCan Connect Global Network and Founding Executive Director of the Center of Innovation & Entrepreneurship at Harris-Stowe State University, brought the systems-level view - how we can actually integrate AI, leadership, and innovation in ways that create lasting impact. A Titan 100 St. Louis honoree and bestselling author, Kristy thinks in frameworks and builds in ecosystems.
Morgan Casey, Founder of Date Ideas & Things To Do In STL (340,000+ local followers, 3 million monthly viewers) and the creative force behind culture-defining experiences like The Kickback Club and R&B Rave, brought the real-world marketing lens - what it looks like to build an audience, grow a brand digitally, and use AI tools without losing the soul of what you're building.
Practical. Honest. Rooted in real experience.
Less Effort, More Revenue: Simple Systems for Female Founders
This is where inspiration became action.
The Verizon Revenue Rhythm Workshop was a roll-up-your-sleeves, look-at-your-actual-business working session. Women left with an actual plan, not just a feeling. A 90-day revenue strategy they could walk out the door and implement.
Does Your Brand Match the Business You're Building?
Not fonts and colors. Not a rebrand checklist.
This session, in partnership with 99designs by Vista, gave attendees a real, honest look at whether the brand they're showing the world actually reflects the business they've built - and what to do when it doesn't.
The question worth sitting with: does your brand represent where you're going, or where you used to be?
Digital Business Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Mid-morning, the founder of Destination Legal picked up a pair of oversized scissors, stood in front of a big red ribbon, and made it official.
The Digital Business Ribbon Cutting was one of those moments that sounds small on paper and feels enormous in the room. So many of the women in that space had built real, thriving businesses - without ever stopping to celebrate them. This was that moment.
Speed Networking
Four minutes per conversation. Move on, meet someone new.
Except nobody wanted to move on.
Every four minutes, the room had to be called to rotate - and every four minutes, women were mid-sentence, mid-breakthrough, mid-connection. Nobody wanted to stop. We genuinely felt guilty calling time.
Your 30-Second Spotlight
To close out the afternoon, every attendee got their moment: a 30-second spotlight to share who they are and what they're building.
Our media partner STL Bucket List kicked things off - and the energy in the room was incredible. We got to hear some really amazing stories.
Sponsored by women-owned Crews Dental, might have been one of the highlights of the day.
Signs that read Founder. Entrepreneur. CEO. Self Made. One woman. Two women. Six. Eight. Piling in celebrating their title.
This dedicated spot provided participants with a moment of pure joy, celebration, and women claiming their titles out loud.
Some of the best photos we've ever taken.
We gave away throughout the day - and every giveaway was tied to something real.
GeekPack T-shirts
Courtesy of 1-800-Tshirts, a family-owned custom apparel company that believes every business deserves quality branded products without the minimums
RevenueOS Seats
GeekPack's signature program, an 8-week done-with-you installation & execution sprint where we install your Revenue Operating System and transition you from reactive work into consistent, revenue-aligned execution.
For the women who walked out of the Verizon Revenue Rhythm Workshop ready to keep going, this was the next step waiting for them.
$250 Design Vouchers
We spent a whole session asking the room: does your brand actually match the business you're building? These vouchers meant three women didn't have to leave that question unanswered.
With $250 powered by 99designs by Vista toward professional design, they could walk out of CEO Day and start closing the gap - a logo, a brand refresh, a visual identity that finally reflects where they're headed, not where they started.
Raising Cane's Gift Basket
Raising Cane's is a brand built on doing one thing, doing it exceptionally well, and never compromising on quality.
That's not far off from what we were asking every woman in that room to do.
Every seat also had a swag bag filled with goodies from our sponsors: luggage tags from State Farm, eye masks from Thrivent Financial, and products from TELETIES, a women-founded hair accessories brand and Hero Cosmetics.
None of this happens without the people who believed in what we were building before they ever saw it come to life.
Verizon | 99designs by Vista | JPMorganChase | 1-800-Tshirts | Crews Dental | Destination Legal | Termageddon | SpeedPro - St. Louis | Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers | 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis | Heard Global | Lacey Mitchell State Farm | Thrivent Financial | Styled and Staged STL | STL Bucket List | Parker’s Table | The Blue Duck
Every single one of you was woven intentionally into the day. Not a logo on a banner. A real part of the experience.
And a special thank you to our community partners, MidCounty Chamber of Commerce and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Metro St. Louis for helping us get the word out and bring the right women into the room.
Building something meaningful in a city means showing up for the organizations already doing that work - and we're grateful for this partnership.
A day like this doesn't run itself.
Behind every smooth transition, every attendee guided to their seat, every moment that felt effortless - there was a team of people making it happen.
The GeekPack team was on deck, but our volunteers also showed up to make sure the day ran smoothly.
We had a special group in the room: students from Rosati-Kain, a local all-girls high school, who came in as part of the team led by their Principal.
There's something full-circle about that - a room built to celebrate and equip women entrepreneurs, supported by the next generation of women who are just beginning to figure out what they want to build.
That sure was felt in the room and will stay with them.
To every volunteer who gave their time and energy to make CEO Day what it was: thank you. You were a real part of this.
When you put the right women in the right room, with the right structure and the right intention, something real happens.
And it did.
200 women walked into 21c Museum Hotel and spent a full day working on their businesses, making real connections, and having the conversations that actually move the needle.
GeekPack has always been about connection. The community, the content, and the commitment to helping women build businesses that actually work are at the core of everything we do.
This event exceeded every expectation we had for it. And we're taking everything we learned - every moment that landed, every connection that sparked, every session that pushed someone forward - and pouring it back into what we do best:
Showing up for women entrepreneurs, wherever they are.
The community is growing and we have a lot in the works. If you want to be the first to know what's coming next, come find us.
→ Join the GeekPack community and stay in the loop on everything we're building.
We work with brands and organizations who are serious about supporting women entrepreneurs. We don’t just stick your logo on something - we actively work to make your brand part of the experience. If that sounds like you, we'd love to talk about what we're building and how you might be part of it.
Interested in partnering with us? Email us at [email protected].
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