ENERGIZE Retreat

An exclusive workshop for participants in the 2025-2026 RADIATE Program to set the tone for a transformative experience. Continue your leadership journey with advanced coaching and peer collaboration.

A hosted dinner featuring Charleston cuisine-designed to prioritize human connection, presence, and shared laughter. The evening includes welcome remarks from Vanessa Edmonds, Chris Hilborn, Jody Allison, and ENERGIZE headline sponsor Bashir Bseirani, CEO of avertra, followed by a stand-up comedy set by Dwight Scruggs, VP of Enterprise Business Development at UtilityAPI.

Start the day with movement and mindfulness through a guided walk (~2.5 miles) or run (~4 miles) through historic Charleston. Movement grounds attention, regulates stress, and sharpens awareness-essential skills for leaders operating under constant pressure.

Participate in an informal breakfast designed for conversation, reconnection, and ease-creating space for human connection before the day’s deeper work begins.

This opening session establishes psychological safety, shared intention, and customer-centered grounding. Leaders cannot lead humanely without safety, empathy, and a clear sense of who they serve.

The human cost of invisible pressure: Hear a candid discussion on assumptions, bias, and emotional labor-and how these unseen forces shape leadership behavior, decision-making, and resilience at the highest levels.

Through guided reflection and peer exchange, participants explore how presence, empathy, accountability, and intention shape trust and outcomes for customers, teams, and communities.

Emotional resilience in a highly visible world: This session explores how leaders maintain clarity, composure, and compassion amid scrutiny, criticism, and constant demand.

Participate in a shared meal, paired with hands-on service, reinforcing the value that leadership doesn’t start with strategy; it starts with empathy and a responsibility to the community.

This session advances the U2030 + avertra AI Leadership Experiment with JanisseBot - trained on direct inputs and interviews capturing Janisse Quiñones’ leadership approach, decision patterns, and values. Tested in real time by two leaders who have known her for over two decades, the bot will be challenged for accuracy, authenticity, and judgment.

Through guided reflection and peer exchange, this interactive LXD session reconnects leaders to the judgment, empathy, and accountability that define their role. Participants leave grounded in their responsibility to lead with confidence.

Rapid-fire crisis scenarios requiring real-time leadership decisions, with and without AI-supported inputs. This experience highlights how intuition, emotional regulation, and accountability shape outcomes when time, data, and certainty are limited.

Customers from five generations share how trust, communication, and expectations differ - and what remains fundamentally human across generations.

Small-group, candid conversations hosted by utility leaders. No scripts. No slides. Just real questions and lived experiences.

A series of 5 minute talks from participants in the RADIATE Program - leaders sharing a personal insight or lesson about being “Powerfully Human” in ways that shape meaningful leadership.

Reflection, commitment postcards, and participation in the Powerfully Human Commitment Wall, turning insight into intention and action.

Celebrate what you’ve learned during a closing dinner at the South Carolina Aquarium, featuring open-mic gratitude, recognition, and community-honoring the relationships and courage built throughout the retreat