Ripples to Waves: 10 Sessions to Add to Your Champions Retreat Schedule

Champions Retreat 2026 arrives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on April 21–23, and the B Corp community could not be more excited!

Hosted by B Lab U.S. & Canada, this year’s gathering carries a theme that’s both timely and stirring: “Ripples to Waves.” It rings true with how societal change actually builds, not in single, dramatic gestures, but in the accumulated energy of values-aligned people—people who choose to show up together over and over.

As the marquee event for the B Corp movement in the U.S. and Canada, Champions Retreat always has plenty to offer, with sights and activities for everyone. Beyond the breakout sessions and interactive workshops on the main stages, we’re also offering morning yoga and wellness programming, complimentary childcare, and a B Corp Marketplace that’s always buzzing with mission-driven businesses. Don’t forget to join your fellow attendees for the Opening Reception and the B Together party to relax and chat with others in a more informal setting!

To build the Retreat content, our contributing presenters and panel members have pulled out all the stops. This year’s schedule (available in its entirety here) is brimming with sessions that will inspire, challenge, and equip your organization on its B Corp journey.

We’re looking forward to what all the sessions have to offer, but there are a few in particular we’d like to highlight. Accordingly, we’ve curated a list of 10 standout sessions that beautifully express the spirit of “Ripples to Waves”.

Ripples to Waves: The B Corp Film Festival

Presenters: Greg Hemmings and Lauren Everett

Few tools carry the emotional power of storytelling. This offering, curated by Greg Hemmings and Lauren Everett, leans into that truth wholeheartedly. Greg Hemmings is the Founder & CEO of Hemmings House Pictures, a Certified B Corp film studio based in Atlantic Canada that produces high-impact documentaries, branded content, and TV series for clients around the globe. Lauren Everett is the Manager of Content & Digital Storytelling here at B Lab U.S. & Canada, producer of Listen & Level Up, host of B Lab U.S. & Canada’s podcast, Get Down to Business, and more.

Attendees will be moved by the short films exploring how visual storytelling advances mission-driven narratives. This medium has the potential to reach, inspire, and move audiences in ways that written content alone may never reach.

​Intergenerational Changemaking: Translating Purpose Into Practice

Featured Speaker: Insiya Rasiwala

The B Corp movement draws its strength from many generations of thinkers, builders, and dreamers, and this session celebrates exactly that.

Attendees of this panel will learn more about how cross-generational collaboration strengthens the long-term resilience of mission-driven organizations from Insiya Rasiwala of Natural Pod. Rasiwala is joined by a panel of B Corp community members, including Dr. Ileana Albareda, Executive Director, Green Schools National Network; Liz Aybar Conti, Chief Executive Officer, Margulf Foundation; and Camilah DeLeon, a high school student, Green Team Leader, and outspoken environmental advocate who attends the Golda Meir High School for gifted and talented students in Milwaukee.

Whether you are early in your career or a seasoned leader, this session offers a compelling invitation to find common cause across generational lines.

​”I am thrilled to be speaking on the panel ‘Intergenerational Changemaking: Translating Purpose into Practice, Together’ at the B Champions Retreat this year,” says Rasiwala. “I believe that words shape our worlds. And right now, the most important words in sustainability are the ones being spoken by students, if we’re willing to listen. At Natural Pod, everything we do is in service of the next generation. That’s why partnering with young people—especially those whose futures are most at stake—isn’t just meaningful to us; it’s essential. Ultimately, that is when purpose becomes practice, and practice becomes power.”

​In the Same Boat: Building Team Readiness for the B Lab Standards

​Featured Speakers: Jaime Coyle and Max Hayes

Collective accountability sits at the heart of this workshop session. A panel of managing staff from B Lab U.S. & Canada hosts this breakout, which includes Community Manager Jaime Coyle and Growth Manager Max Hayes. They are joined by B Lab U.S. & Canada’s B Network Program Manager Carson Bolding and Recertification Manager Zachary Fayer. Together, they’ll explore what it truly means to move forward as a movement and to show up for one another along the way.

The panel will help Certified B Corps (and those aspiring to certify) create a customized action plan and resource toolkit to embed all of the standards within operations through a gradual change management process. Themes of solidarity, mutual support, and shared purpose run throughout, making this a session that will resonate long after the retreat ends.

“Change is daunting,” says Jaime Coyle, “and the B Lab Standards can seem like a big shift. But they also present a massive opportunity to recommit to your values and reignite your team’s passion for impact. That’s why I’m so excited for this workshop; we’re actually digging into how these standards can become a unifying mission for any organization—whether it’s just you or an entire team.”

​Water as a Force for Good: Lessons from the Great Lakes

Featured Speaker: Cindy Bohlen

Perhaps no session captures the retreat’s theme more literally—or more resonantly—than this one.

Join Cindy Bohlen of Riverwater Partners, Wisconsin State Senator Jodi Habush Sinykin, and Amy Taylor of ZEVIA PBC to explore how water is not simply a resource to protect, but an active force for community resilience and positive change. At a moment when environmental stewardship feels both urgent and hopeful, this session reminds us that every ripple matters and that the waves we create together can reshape the world.

​Building a Culture of Ownership: Panel Discussion with Employee-Owned B Corps Leaders

Featured Speaker: Miren Oca

When workers hold genuine stakes in their organizations, something remarkable happens: individual empowerment becomes collective transformation.

Miren Oca of Ocaquatics Swim School will be joined by Donna Sky of Project Equity and PixelSpoke CEO Katie Stone to explore this story thread in greater detail. Their panel will introduce different types of employee ownership models and their profound role in building economic equity. Collectively, the speakers will discuss how ownership culture represents one of the most powerful levers available to mission-driven businesses.

This session connects beautifully to the retreat’s “Ripples to Waves” theme, showing how a single internal business decision can send waves far beyond a company’s walls.

Redefining Workforce Development: Inclusive, Youth-Centered Programs for Sustainable Livelihoods

Featured Speaker: Christa Barfield

“Ripples to waves” doesn’t just mean starting small; it also means starting early. By building pipelines for youth development, the next generation can access careers and movements centered on sustainability and ethical practices.

This panel, hosted by Christa Barfield of FarmerJawn Agriculture, discusses the importance of outreach to excluded communities. It’s all about building programs that can benefit communities in immediate ways.

Barfield is joined by Ben Conniff of Luke’s Lobster and Kris Skavish of Two Octobers. Collectively, their message is about fostering inclusion, so new entrants to the field can understand where they fit while feeling a tangible sense of belonging. In many ways, that’s what the B Corp movement is all about!

Grains for Good: How Regional Partnerships and Research Are Transforming Regenerative Agriculture

Featured Speaker: Suzanne McDowell

Agriculture has been around for millennia, but we are still discovering ways to improve not just yield but also how to work within natural cycles. This presentation embodies how that approach can look, here and now, in the 21st century.

Suzanne McDowell, VP of Impact at King Arthur Baking Company, is joined by the company’s COO Janis Abbingsole to discuss its “Grains for Good” program. This initiative combines cutting-edge learnings with centuries-old teachings to build better support for farmers and the environment. It’s not just about leveraging “known” shared knowledge but building new shared knowledge through research and data gathering, feedback loops, continuous learning, and a dedicated approach to prioritizing the needs of the environment—not just the economy.

Attendees will learn from a company that’s redefining what it means to be an industry sustainability leader, showing that those with bigger market share can still prioritize environmental stewardship, community knowledge building, and advancement of regenerative practices through applied research and development.

Where Your Cash Lives: Aligning Company Deposits with Purpose & Planet

Featured Speaker: Terra Neilson

Where you bank is an afterthought for most. But the deposits we leave are also on-hand for the banking systems we use. Depending on how that bank is structured, that cash could be used to significantly aid—or abet—climate action and other values-driven goals.

This panel, hosted by Terra Nielsen, Chief Impact Officer at Beneficial State Bank, provides actionable methods to audit the banking institutions you use and how they put your money into policy action.

Terra is joined by Christopher Lyon of Androscoggin Bank, Catherine Higgins Whiteside of Sunrise Banks, and B Lab U.S. & Canada’s Senior Program Manager for Climate Justice Kylie Nealis. The session will inspire values-driven organizations to diligently research and vet where they place their deposits—so their cash can be put to the best possible use for people and the planet.

Academic + B Corp Collaboration for Collective Action (w/ B Academics)

Featured Speakers: Jessica Yinka Thomas, Nathan Stuck

​This session, nested under the Government Affairs and Collective Action topic, will showcase successful strategies that academia can use to collaborate effectively with the B Corp movement, ultimately driving measurable systemic change.

The session features Nathan Stuck, B Local Georgia Chair and University of Georgia Lecturer at the Terry College of Business, along with Jessica Yinka Thomas, leader of the Business Sustainability Collaborative at NC State University’s Poole College of Management. Both also help operate B Academics, a nonprofit committed to research and experiential B Corp learning opportunities: Thomas was a co-founder and serves as Executive Director, while Stuck is a board member.

Attendees will learn from models of collaboration between academia and social action, particularly as it relates to advocacy and development in line with the Government Affairs and Collective Action (GACA) Impact Topic. It’ll be an eye-opening session designed to inspire others to seek out—or intentionally create—opportunities to engage academic institutions, working closely with businesses and communities through research, partnerships, joint initiatives, thought leadership, mentorship, and outreach.

Impact Topic Workshops: JEDI and Fair Work

Featured Speakers (Fair Work): Kate Dixon, Alexis Braly James

Featured Speakers (JEDI): Jocelyn Corbett and Mahlet Getachew (PolicyLink), Ben Anderson (Groundwater Institute)

B Lab Global released its updated, more comprehensive 2.0 standards just a year ago. These standards provide more detailed guidance—but they may also leave organizations wondering about the best path to put it all into action.

The two workshops on offer during Champions Retreat 2026 will help attendees build actionable plans that empower incremental progress towards full adoption: enabling every organization to create its own ripples that become waves.

Attendees of the Fair Work workshop will leave with a clear understanding of where they stand with all four Fair Work requirements. They’ll also be equipped to create a personalized 30-60 day action plan, practical implementation tools and templates, and a network of accountability partners to create waves alongside you.

The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) workshop features Jocelyn Corbett and Mahlet Getachew of PolicyLink and Ben Anderson of the Groundwater Institute. They are joined by Level Alumna and CEO of The Opt-In Aurora Archer for a candid conversation about what it means to advance bold, justice-centered action in a time of social division and moral urgency.

Participants get to roll up their sleeves as they rotate through learning stations focused on making public commitments, advancing leadership diversity, embedding JEDI principles, and evaluating their impact. They’ll leave with practical tools, tested strategies, and a clear next step to strengthen your organization’s JEDI commitments.

Catch These Panels and Presentations When You Join Us in Milwaukee!

Champions Retreat 2026 represents far more than a live event. It’s gathering for a movement seeking to build even more momentum: a wave that will change the way the world does business. 

We invite you to register to attend, build your personal itinerary, and bring your whole self to Milwaukee this April.

Know that the B Corp community grows stronger every time one more person chooses to show up, connect, and act. Your wave starts here!