MINORITY BUSINESS CENTER TO HOST MEDWEEK TO CELEBRATE MINORITY BUSINESSES, FEATURE MAYOR DAVID BRILEY & NATIONAL EXPERTS
The Nashville Minority Business Center is set to host their 36th annual Minority Enterprise Development Week (MEDWeek) from Sunday, November 25 – Sunday, December 2 at the Nashville City Club. This year’s conference theme is, “Contracting for Equity: Leveling the Playing Field for Minority Businesses.” Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley, Metro Nashville Chief Diversity Officer Ashford Hughes, Jewel Burks Solomon, Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, and Darrell Freeman are set to share insights.
NASHVILLE (November 26, 2018) – Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley will join leading global policy consultant Maya Rockeymoore, PhD, and others to share insights during the 36th Annual Nashville Minority Enterprise Development Week. The nationally recognized week, hosted by the Nashville Minority Business Center, will be observed in Nashville through Sunday, December 2. The conference theme is “Contracting for Equity: Leveling the Playing Field for Minority Businesses.”
The Minority Enterprise Development Week Conference, which will host all of this week’s events at the Nashville City Club, aims to recognize the contributions made by minority businesses to the Nation’s economy and share best practices with local business owners on growing and scaling their businesses.
The conference will focus its content around diversity, technology, economic disparities and their remedies, as well as the power of connections – all in effort to level the playing field for minority businesses. It will feature insights from Nashville native Jewel Burks Solomon, who founded Partpic and later sold it to Amazon; global policy consultant Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, who will talk about the wealth gap; and Nashville businessman Darrell Freeman.
In addition, on Wednesday, November 28, Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley, along with Metro Nashville Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Ashford Hughes will share insights on Metro Nashville’s next steps to support more women and minority business owners.
Events for the week are as follows:
How She Did It: A Conversation with Jewel Burks Solomon
Tuesday, November 27
11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Jewel Burks Solomon, co-founder of Partpic – an app designed to streamline the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision technology, will sit down with Black in Tech Nashville founder Dr. Fallon S. Wilson to discuss how she achieved success. Partpic raised more than $2 million in seed funding to integrate its proprietary technology into mobile apps and websites of parts distributors and retailers. In 2016 Partpic was acquired by Amazon. Solomon’s views on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace will also be discussed.
Contracting for Equity: Leveling the Playing Field for Minority Businesses
Wednesday, November 28
11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Participants will hear from acclaimed global policy consultant, Dr. Maya Rockeymoore. Dr. Rockeymoore is a leading expert on the racial wealth gap and the ‘color’ of entrepreneurship. She will share her insights on the racial wealth gap, its effect on marginalized households, its impact on the U.S. economy, and solutions for addressing these systemic challenges. In addition, Metro Nashville Mayor David Briley and Metro Nashville Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Ashford Hughes will share insights on the city’s most recent disparity study recommendations and the steps the city is taking to ensure equitable contracting outcomes for women and minority business owners.
How to Make Your Company More Valuable
Thursday, November 29
11:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Darrell Freeman is a serial entrepreneur who grew an information technology firm from an office the ‘size of a closet’ into the company he sold for $20 million in 2017. The co-founder of a Tennessee-based bank and a construction company, Darrell is a master at building relationships and maximizing his connections to secure lucrative public and private contracts.
Minority Business Achievement Awards
Friday, November 30
7 – 11 p.m.
The annual minority business achievement awards recognize the accomplishments made by minority owned enterprises in the Nashville-Metropolitan area. Awards will be given in the following categories: Minority Business Advocate, Minority Business Award and Corporate Partner Award.
The media are invited to attend each conference workshop. The public may register for the events online at nashvillemedweek.org.
For more information, contact Ashley Northington by e-mail at ashley@denorbrands.com.
[…] For the fourth year in a row, we partnered with the Nashville Minority Business Center to host the 36th Annual Minority Enterprise Development Week. This year’s theme was Contracting for Equity: Leveling the Playing Field for Minority Businesses, which could not have been more relevant and timely. The week closed out with the Minority Business Achievement Awards which celebrates minority business owners who have made significant economic and community contributions and also recognizes corporate and community members who support minority businesses. Learn more about the week and awards here. […]