–––– Entrepreneurship & Business Development • Pillar Three
Building Businesses.
Creating Jobs.
Strengthening communities across the Charlotte metro.
Small businesses are the foundation of thriving communities. Entrepreneurship creates opportunity, innovation, and real economic mobility — and Charlotte added more than 2,100 Black-owned employer firms between 2017 and 2022.
Why Entrepreneurship Matters
Entrepreneurs don’t just own businesses.
They create jobs
Every new hire is a household with more stability than it had last year.
They circulate dollars
Money spent with local owners stays and recirculates in the neighborhood.
They invest in place
Storefronts anchor corridors, sponsor teams, and hold blocks together.
They inspire the next
A child who sees ownership up close learns it is available to them.
Corporations
Meet qualified, ready-to-contract suppliers in one place.
Discover new suppliersStrengthen supplier diversity goalsSupport regional economic development
Sponsors
Put your brand where the region’s next generation of businesses is being built.
Visibly support entrepreneurshipIncrease brand visibility all weekendDevelop tomorrow’s customers
Join the Business Community
Exhibitor space is limited. Claim yours before your competitor does.
