CHICAGO — Minority business owners will have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with major corporations for the first time at the Chicago Minority Supplier Development Council’s 49th Annual Chicago Business Opportunity Fair April 21-22.
The event will be held at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. Organizers are expecting more than 2,000 attendees, including corporate buying organizations, minority business owners, resource organizations and government agencies.
“This is a great place for [minority business owners] to get to mix and mingle with people who can help their businesses grow,” said Shelia Morgan, president and CEO of ChicagoMSD.
The new addition to this year’s two-day event will offer minority owners one-on-one meetings with corporate officials. The 12-minute meetings will give pre-qualified, certified minority business enterprises a chance to present a proposition that could potentially lead to new contracts. They will learn about the corporation's standards and its procurement processes.
There will also be seminars on connecting buyers to sellers and social media.
This annual event is still very much needed, Morgan said. Also, the organization itself is still relevant today, she said.
“We’re still not as diversified as I would like or as I think we should be,” Morgan said about the lack of minority representation in the business world.
Morgan is the former manager of diversity business development for Kraft.
She also previously served as the Chicago Minority Business Opportunity Committee’s executive director. The organization is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency. Morgan said that in her role the Chicago organization was able to deliver more than $200 million in contracting opportunities to minority entrepreneurs.
“When you look at an organization that’s the size as this one and you blow out the economic impact that it has had on the country it is significant and I’m very proud of that,” she said.
Register for the fair by visiting www.chicagomsdc.org or contact Cynthia Jordan, director of events, at 312-755-2555 or cjordan@chicagomsdc.org.
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