AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN ON TOUR
http://www.aawot.com

M aria Denise Dowd is founder and president of PROMOTrends Inc., an eight year old marketing and meeting management firm based in San Diego, CA. Realizing in 1989 that African American women would seek new directions of personal and professional growth and development, Maria, 39, created African American Women on Tour, a weekend-long women's empowerment conference series that is considered the nation's foremost conference of its kind.

One of her company's first and most notable projects was coordination of Essence Magazine's 1990 Cover Model Search. It was while working on this project that the vision for AAWOT was conceived. With the conception and success of PROMOTrends, Inc.'s first Black women's conference in 1991, the vision came to fruition.

Eight years later, AAWOT has expanded to a six-city annual conference series, reaching over 6,000 women each year, PROMOTrends, Inc., a wholly Black female-owned and operated company, has also expanded its operation to include an office staff of four and traveling "crew" of 15 sister-friends and two brotherfriends, who work together for the success of AAWOT.