Conference replay - Brief Article

If you didn't make it to Nashville, Tennessee, the new venue for the Black Enterprise/Bank of America Entrepreneurs Conference, you missed out on a great networking opportunity. But you can still benefit from the sessions. With more than 15 sessions featuring a lineup of small business experts and corporate executives, you, too, can be a part of the Conference action.

Our town hall meeting brought together a panel of high-profile entrepreneurs, politicians, and scholars to discuss the issue of business and race. They included: Robert L. Johnson, founder, chairman, and CEO of BET Holdings II Inc.; Clarence Avant, chairman of Interior Music/Avant Garde Music Publishing; Suzanne dePasse, CEO of dePasse Entertainment; Willie E. Gary, senior partner of Gary, Williams, Parenti, Finney, Lewis, McManus, Watson & Sperando; Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), and Earl G. Graves Sr., publisher and CEO of BLACK ENTERPRISE. Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a Jesse Climenko professor of law at Harvard Law School, was the moderator.
* "Profiting in the New Economy" featuring David Steward, chairman and CEO of World Wide Technology Inc. Steward, who was featured in the June 2001 issue of BE, has grown his technology company to an $800 million enterprise.

* "Employed by Design" is a session that explores opportunities in the fashion industry. Designers Dion Lattimore, owner of Dion Scott, and Maurice Malone, CEO of Maurice Malone Designs, provide insight on how to establish a clothing label. Both suggest that before jumping into the entrepreneurial pool, aspiring designers should get experience working for an established label.

* "Against All Odds" explores the determination and perseverance that leads to entrepreneurial success. This session features three successful entrepreneurs who tell how they overcame obstacles to share their secrets for achieving success. The three entrepreneurs are Effie Booker, CEO of Cabana Car Wash, and Albert and Odetta Murray, owners of the New Hillside Inn. All are featured in the BE book, Against All Odds: Ten Entrepreneurs Who Followed Their Hearts and Found Success by Wendy Harris (John Wiley & Sons Inc., $24.95) Harris served as moderator for the session.