---ESSENCE - Women Who Are Shaping the World Leadership Summit---On October 15, 2004 ESSENCE magazine will host its first annual Women Who Are Shaping the World Leadership Summit in New York City at the luxurious Pierre Hotel. Created exclusively by the editors of ESSENCE, Women Who Are Shaping the World provides a unique opportunity for attendees to interact and network with key African-American business leaders, entrepreneurs, educators and trailblazers. These accomplished women understand the challenges that African-American women face in an ever-changing work environment, and will initiate open and honest dialogue on subjects such as: Getting to the Heart of What Derails You; What is Your Emotional Intelligence; Transformation Strategies; Following Your Heart and Passion to Get to the Next Level; and Honest Conversations, Bridging the Divide, White Men Tell Us the Truth. The inspiring Summit Leaders include: Roz Abrams, CBS 2 News Anchor; Valerie Lancaster Beal, Senior Vice President, M.R. Beal; Dr. Ella L.J. Edmondson Bell, Assistant Professor of Business, Tuck School, Dartmouth College; Ann Fudge, Chairman and CEO, Young & Rubicam Brands; Carla A. Harris, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley; Judge Glenda Hatchett, Presiding Judge on the nationally syndicated courtroom series; Arianna Huffington, Author/Syndicated Columnist; Michele S. Jones, Command Sergeant Major, the highest-ranking enlisted female in the Army; Lisa Price, President, Carol's Daughter, Inc.; Deborah Roberts, ABC News Correspondent; Iyanla Vanzant, Author and Spiritual Life Coach; and Terrie Williams, President/Founder, The Terrie Williams Agency and The Stay Strong Foundation. You just won't get this anywhere else. Visit essencesummit.com or call 800.305.4143 to register today!

---FORTUNE and UnityFirst.com/African American Newswire partner to share 2004 Special Diversity Section, "Diversity Matters" (October 18, 2004)---FORTUNE magazine has partnered with UnityFirst.com/African American Newswire to distribute FORTUNE's special diversity section, "Diversity Matters," which will be in the magazine's October 18, 2004 issue. UnityFirst.com/African American Newswire will share the special section with its readers, including diverse businesses, corporations, journalists and communities, as well as thought-leaders, diversity practitioners, and others who have an interest in diversity best practices and multicultural issues. Today, many companies are still struggling to create a culture of inclusivity some fifty years after Brown vs. Board of Education -- the landmark decision that had profound impact on public education and racism in our country. African Americans are leaving corporations to start their own businesses, women still face resistance in achieving senior management status, fewer young people are joining the workforce and more older workers are remaining. Forward-thinking managers, aware of these trends, recognize that to survive and prosper, their organizations must adopt innovative diversity strategies. Indeed, many are finding that although their workplaces have become more multicultural, there are some key ways to ensure tolerance, respect and dignity for all. In The 2004 FORTUNE special text and advertising section (October 18, 2004), "Diversity Matters," companies will share the stories, strategies and more. The section will explore best diversity practices. Through interviews with well-known diversity experts and company profiles, it will feature the strategies many companies are using to run successful diversity programs. It will note the challenges they face and methods many executives have implemented to ensure a seamless diversity process - i.e. management training, mentoring programs, tying compensation to diversity achievement, integrating diversity into corporate mission statements and CEO involvement. If interested in participating in the section contact: Janine Fondon, email: jfondon@unityfirst.com, phone (413) 734-6444 OR Gloria Lerner at FORTUNE, email: gilerner@verizon.net, phone (212) 831-7068.

---Business Exchange: Tour for Success-Atlanta, August 24----
The Global Diversity Group's National Business Conference, "Tour For Success" will be held in Atlanta, GA on August 24, 2004 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis. The conference offers a range of activities from free workshops to business networking events, as well as the Legacy Awards Luncheon (12:30 pm, send email to info@unityfirst.com for discount tickets) with keynote Willie Gary, that will honor Herman J. Russell and The H.J. Russell & Company, one of the largest minority-owned enterprises in the U.S. The conference will also host a "Success Stories" Session ( 6 pm) and Economic Empowerment Networking Reception (6:30, send email to info@unityfirst.com for discount tickets) with Dominique Wilkins and many of the event's speakers. FYI - Businesses in the Atlanta area and beyond are encouraged to attend. To register for the free workshops, receive discount tickets to the luncheon or networking reception, send your contact information to: info@unityfirst.com or call 800-286-3659. If you attend the conference, stop by the UnityFirst.com booth or join us after lunch (2-2:30 pm) to meet the authors and get the newly released book: "The Practice of Power: Finding Success in a Diverse World," a most powerful and reality based book that moves you from inspiration to action by sharing the unwritten, but much-talked about, rules for your success here in the U.S. and beyond by authors Janine and Tom Fondon, with contributors such as MBC Network's Willie Gary, Global Diversity Group CEO Melodie Cunningham, motivator Jewel Diamond Taylor, author and activist Dick Gregory and others. The conference will also feature a business and sponsor vendor showcase featuring many of the event sponsors such as Volvo Cars of North America, Delta Airlines, Citibank, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Office Depot. Some of the strategic partners include: Georgia Black Chamber of Commerce, UnityFirst.com, Atlanta Business League, State of Georgia Governor's Small Business Center, Clark Atlanta University, Black Enterprise, WSB-TV 2 Atlanta, Professional Business and Financial Network, Overtime Magazine, U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Center, Cox Radio Group Atlanta-97.1 JAMZ and The Atlanta Black Agenda Resource Center. The Tour for Success event is FREE to attend and begins at 8 a.m. with registration. Also, as part of the event, there will be free interactive workshops for mature as well as start-up small businesses, including: "Winning at the Contract Game," "Marketing Your Way To Success", "How To Develop A Competitive Edge."

---'State of the African American Male'/Congressional Black Caucus Foundation---In full partnership with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. Congressman Danny K. Davis from the 7th District of Illinois has announced a series of regional conferences, titled the 'State of the African American Male.' "These conferences discuss and analyze the issues facing African American males and recommend solutions designed to affect positive change. "The most recent conference, which was held in Chicago, drew more than fifteen hundred people including community members, scholars, activists, executives and religious leaders. The following conferences are scheduled to be held in Atlanta, Georgia (September 25); Memphis, Tennessee on (October 16) and Detroit, Michigan (October 23). Participation in these upcoming conferences is welcome. These conferences should reinforce for all of us the significance of the upcoming election, and the importance of supporting candidates committed to issues of vital importance to our community and exercising our right to vote November 2nd. According to Davis, "African American males are experiencing tremendous challenges as evidenced by the more than 50% of African American males ages 16 to 22 who are out of work and out of school in our large urban communities. Eighty-seven percent of juvenile parolees and 60% of adult parolees are African American males. The number of African American males dropping out of school increased over 27% in just one year. African American life expectancy at birth is more than eight years less for Black males than for White males and heart disease mortality rates are 83% higher for African American males than for White males. Thirteen percent of African American males have been disenfranchised, and they have been denied the right to vote in their home states."

---HIV/AIDS the Most Urgent Health Problem for African Americans---
A majority of African Americans (56%) say the U.S. is losing ground when it comes to the problem of HIV/AIDS -- an 18 percentage point increase since October 2003 -- according to a new national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. By comparison, three in ten Latinos and 33% of whites say the U.S. is losing ground. Young African Americans (age 18-29) are even more pessimistic with two-thirds (67%) saying the U.S. is losing ground. Overall, the public ranks HIV/AIDS second, behind cancer, as the most urgent health problem facing the nation, but HIV/AIDS ranks first among African Americans and, after several years of decline, this sense of urgency has increased somewhat since 2002. More than four in ten African Americans (43%), 31% of Latinos, and 17% of whites say that HIV/AIDS is the most urgent health problem facing the nation. Eight in ten African Americans (80%) and nearly two-thirds (64%) of people under the age of thirty say that the federal government spends too little money fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the U.S., compared with just under half of whites (49%) and Latinos (45%).