Fresh From Milwaukee: Highlights From Champions Retreat 2026

Since 2011, B Corps and community members in Canada and the United States have gathered together at Champions Retreats. During these special events, we share knowledge, ideas, energy, and kinship while reinforcing what it means to work as a force for the benefit of people and the planet. This year’s Champions Retreat, held beside the beautiful Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, continued in that tradition.

Somehow, the gathering managed to make things even more special than ever before. In the words of Event Director Karen Lickteig, “there was something powerful in the air, a strong undercurrent flowing throughout our short time together. It felt human, authentic, hopeful, transparent, and deeply caring—at a time when that’s what we need most.”

So much happened at Champions Retreat 2026 that it would be impossible to encapsulate in a single article. Over the next few weeks, you can expect plenty of materials, resources, case studies, and transformative thought leadership stemming from the conversations had and learnings cultivated there.

But for now, we’re here to focus on the general experience: what most of us took home that continues to reverberate in our memory, like a ripple building into a powerful wave of momentum we bring to our lives from this moment forward.

Opening Reception and Keynote from Wawa Gatheru at the Mitchell Park Domes

Opening Reception attendees bask in the glow of one of Mitchell Park’s ecological and engineering marvels: the Flower Show Dome. Photo: Denise Pane

Our first official evening at the Retreat rightfully earned the word “magical.” It was held at the stunning Mitchell Park Domes, a living museum containing over 1,800 plant species across three separate climate biomes. Visitors enjoyed access to the Floral Show Dome, a BIPOC pre-show in the Tropical Dome, the Desert Dome, and the private event space: Greenhouse No. 7.

At the greenhouse, climate activist and founder of the Black Girl Environmentalist movement Wawa Gatheru addressed an eager crowd. “Ripples don’t grow into waves on their own,” she explained, “but only in concert and intersection with other waves.” Only through collaboration and passionate dedication can these movements truly achieve sustained global impact. Gatheru reflected that “the future is not something that arrives fully formed, but something that is actively constructed.”

Opening Plenary & Keynote Address from Michael McAfee, CEO of PolicyLink

Michael McAfee enthralls the Baird Center Ballroom audience with his opening keynote address.

The bulk of the retreat took place at the Baird Center, just west of City Hall and the Milwaukee River. Champions Retreat 2026 emcee Dr. Kimberly McGlonn welcomed attendees, who were also treated to a hearty welcome from Milwaukee’s own: Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

Dr. Michael McAfee, CEO of PolicyLink, then took the stage to deliver a stirring speech on embodying the true mindset of a founder. He spoke on how the great American experiment has yet to truly deliver on its promises, referring to the current state of inequity, oligarchy, and corruption as part of the “unfinished business of democracy.” Equality must truly be felt by ALL, and not just a privileged few, he declared unequivocally.

McAfee emphasized that, in our hands, we hold the key to realizing a truer vision of what our country is capable of being. “We are the founders of the nation yet to be realized,” he assured the audience, so long as we possessed the “audacity to set a vision that is bold as the future you seek.”

Day 1 Closing Plenary: Honoring B Lab’s Late Co-Founder Andrew Kassoy

After a rapid succession of high-impact discussions, workshops, and breakout sessions, day one ended on an emotional note as B Lab U.S. & Canada Community Builder Andy Fyfe delivered a tribute reflecting on and honoring the life and impact of B Lab Co-Founder Andrew Kassoy. Kassoy tragically passed in the summer of 2025, leaving behind a loving family and a legacy as co-founder of the B Corp movement.

Honoring Kassoy’s memory, Fyfe played a video recorded in the spring of 2025—just months before Kassoy’s passing. In the video, Kassoy is joined by his former business partners, college classmates, and B Lab co-founders: Jay Coen Gilbert and Bart Houlahan. He explains his philosophy of care to them, which forms the foundation of the B Corp movement’s goal of achieving better outcomes for both people and the planet.

“I think one of the things that makes capitalism not work as a system is, it was built on the idea of carelessness,” Kassoy states in the recording. “Like, literally, the entire purpose of it was that people should build wealth for themselves and that other people didn’t matter—you couldn’t care about them.”

But the incepting motivation behind benefit corporations was that “you’re here to care, to care for your workers, your community, the planet, the other people that you do business with in your supply chain.”

When Values Become Data: How Ethical AI Supports People, the Planet, and Business

As companies rapidly embrace AI, many B Corps instinctively recognize that the B Lab Standards guiding their other decisions should apply. This panel, hosted by B Lab’s Lauren Everett and Consciously’s Rai-mon Nemar Barnes, walked the audience through considerations built from B Lab’s Impact Topics, that can guide them both before and after adoption.

Featuring J.J. Westfall (Intentional Futures), Alex Varricchio (UpHouse), Tiffany Lentz (Pariveda Solutions), Jonathan Will (Gadellnet), and Beth Richardson (Management of the Good), each panel member contributed knowledge and guidance from their own areas of expertise.

Rai-mon Nemar Barnes greets attendees and introduces the session’s panelists.

Will stressed the need for a governance plan, which could be developed by a dedicated AI steering committee. He noted that companies must remain both curious and vigilant because, often, the default deployment environment can overlook critical areas, such as data privacy and enterprise security.

“You’ll probably see a common theme amongst us all is that the human element is very important,” he said. “Because if you are giving access to AI without having humans in the loop or human oversight, bad things can happen.”

Wholeheartedly agreeing with that sentiment, Lentz stated that humans must always be involved in governance, management, and monitoring how technologies are used. “The minute we let human eyes and human hands be pulled away from that, it will take on a life of its own, and it’ll either end up, unmanaged and have unintended consequences—or your policies and governance will end up dead on a PowerPoint slide somewhere,” she cautioned.

Attendees enjoy a well-earned break outdoors in Milwaukee’s beautiful Père Marquette Park. Photo: Carson Bolding

Richardson spoke to the scary and undesirable aspects of AI, but also noted the technology’s capacity to effect positive changes. She listed AI analysis capable of optimizing wind farm battery system loads, building energy use, and crop pesticide application as examples.

To achieve a net-positive effect, she recommended that companies encourage the judicious use of AI—meaning it doesn’t need to be called on for every minor task—and the use of “cleaner” prompts that don’t require unnecessary compute or multiple follow-ups to get the desired information. She described these day-to-day habits as exemplifying good “hygiene” that could prevent a company from gradually slipping into a broader trend of excess resource consumption driven by AI’s massive compute demand.

Day 2 Opening Plenary: Visioning Our Movement’s Collective Future

The second morning of the conference began with an invigorating opening plenary, featuring music from Our Voice Milwaukee and a special address from the legendary U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin.

Our Voice Milwaukee, a chorus for gay men, allies, and all LGBTQIA+ individuals, regales the audience with a cappella selections on the second morning of the retreat.

B Lab Board Member Roma McCaig then walked everyone through a brief retrospective on B Lab’s first 20 years before launching into a preview of what could be in store for the B Corp movement. Entitled “Visioning Our Movement’s Collective Future,” the presentation promised to accelerate the global B Lab organization’s efforts. Priorities include developing a more accountable governance structure along with three strategic priorities:

• Growing a global community and movement, powered by the B Lab Standards
• Enhancing engagement amongst B Corps while cultivating opportunities for collective action, coordinated advocacy, and mobilization to embed good governance models into law
• Creating new narratives of success in business, showing everyone that B Corps are the “proof of concept” that the world needs right now

A Day 2 morning plenary panel featuring (from left to right) Aurora Archer, Carolina Miranda, Clay Brown, and Moderator Sarah Holdeman.

A panel featuring moderator Sarah Holdeman (The Impact Collective), Carolina Miranda (Cultivating Capital), Aurora Archer (The Opt-In), and Clay Brown (B Lab Global) followed. Entitled “The Future of the B Corp Movement & the New B Lab Standards as our North Star,” members spoke to the importance of using the B Lab Standards V2 as not just guidelines but also a springboard for building a collective movement. The ultimate goal is to spread benefits beyond the reach of a single company, benefiting everyone by transforming the way people do business.

Miranda put it succinctly, stating: “What we’re trying to do is make an economic system that works for all.” Brown emphasized that this work is only possible when businesses commit to rethinking their strategies and doing things differently for the sake of something beyond a simple bottom line.

Courageous Communication: How to Share your Impact and Values in Today’s Environment

Hosted by Kimberly Kane of Kane Communications Group and featuring B Lab Global Director of Marketing & Communications Charlotte Levitt, this panel provided businesses with tools to effectively communicate their impact and embrace social and environmental responsibilities in ways that ring true.

The Courageous Communication panel shares its wisdom alongside an accompanying graphic.

Joined by Jonathan Hart (Bigmouth Creative), Jennifer Kongs (Bark Media), and Steven Dyme (Flowers for Dreams), panelists shared “The Seven Dials of Greenshouting,” a heuristic model designed to help organizations fine tune their message, as well as the volume at which they broadcast it to the world.

Kongs communicated the need to connect emotionally, speak specifically, and work intentionally to build trust. “If you’re speaking to everyone, then you’re really speaking to no one,” she reminded the audience. “Like, if you’re reaching out to someone you’ve identified as a stakeholder, then there’s a specific example or story from the work you’re doing backed in your standards that speaks to that person. And that’s an emotional tie, an emotional pull for them to help remember your brand. People are bombarded with facts, news, information, but something that makes them remember you is probably a story.”

Closing Plenary: Fireside Chat With Green Girl Leah

The final day of Champions Retreat closed with a joyous celebration that included a reflection from emcee Dr. McGlonn, storytelling by Christa Barfield of FarmerJawn Agriculture, and a rousing, interactive percussion performance by the Afro-Cuban group De La Buena.

Leigh Barnes and “Green Girl” Leah Thomas discuss imactful ways to engage communities through service and product offerings during the closing plenary.

The moment was punctuated with an intimate fireside chat between Leigh Barnes of Intrepid Travel and Leah Thomas, AKA “Green Girl Leah”. Dubbed “Active-ism: Turning Purpose into Powerful Product Design,” the duo spoke to the power of engaging people in meaningful dialogue and experiences through the very products you offer. They used their “Active-ism” ecotours as an example. These special tours, hosted by eco-influencers, raise money and awareness for U.S. parks facing funding shortages while bringing nature lovers to the heart of the places they want to see preserved.

Evoking a “use it or lose it” mentality, Barnes stated that your business can actively help keep people connected to causes they care passionately about, especially when these audiences aren’t sure how to get started.

“So strategically,” he recounted, “we know we want to use our business [as a] force for good. We need to have a social license to operate. We need to make sure we got a healthy planet.”

Unpacking Several Days of Momentous Learnings and Meaningful Memories

B Lab team enjoying a nightcap at Milwaukee’s Café Hollander. Photo: Kimberly Tran

Part of what defines Champions Retreat is that it’s not just a conference, event, symposium, or lecture series. It’s all of that, yes, but it embodies the word “retreat” above all else. That means those who attend can shed the weight of office culture, leaving behind frivolous formality in favor of genuine rejuvenation and reconnection.

Reflecting on the event, Champions Retreat Director Karen Lickteig stated that she was “so delighted by the warmth and optimism that our attendees carried throughout the week at this year’s Champions Retreat. Our planning process over the past two years has been incredibly intentional—building especially on extensive attendee feedback from previous events, a complex RFP process for content & speakers, and deep partnership building in Milwaukee and throughout the Great Lakes region.

“One theme of the event that really stood out for me was that we are all leaders of this movement, and there is not just one singular person, company, organization or leader with all the answers (even B Lab!). We should look within all of us as having the capacity to lead change — a sentiment we all need to remember and be empowered by in these particularly uncertain and turbulent times.”

Cheery, colorful, and iconic graffiti art on South 3rd Street from local Milwaukee artist Fred Kaems. Photo: Thomas Bour

Everyone who attended has surely gotten some much-needed rest over the past week, but we all know what’s ahead: putting what we learned into action! If you want to get inspired and gain knowledge from the event, you can always rewatch sessions via our main LinkedIn page.

Keep an eye out for more pieces that break down panels and lessons learned in greater detail.

Thank you, again, to everyone who attended and made the event special. Also, congrats to our Presenting Sponsor, Tru Earth, for breaking the world record for the largest river clean-up!

Banner photo: Hyeran Lee