Genesis Block Event Draws Hundreds To Wilson Center and Thousands of Dollars in New Contracts

Wilmington City Councilman Clifford Barnett encourages diverse business owners and entrepreneurs at Genesis Block Presents Converting Conversations to Contracts.

Using data published from the United States Census Bureau, Supplier.io reports, spending with minority owned businesses will have to increase by 400 to 500% in order to be at revenue parity with white owned businesses https://minoritysupplier.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/State-of-MBE-Executive-Summary.pdf.

In other words, it will take 333 years for minority owned businesses to achieve revenue parity with white owned firms at the existing growth rate.

Genesis Block Presents Converting Conversations to Contracts held at the Wilson Center, was designed to address one of the biggest challenges facing diverse owned businesses and companies looking to diversify their supply chain. How do large companies and organizations connect with qualified diverse businesses in order to increase their spend with minority owned enterprises?

Tunya Smith, Director of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Office of Civil Rights, discussed how their agency is engaging minority owned businesses to take advantage of contract opportunities in clean energy with EV charging stations.

“ We realize one of the biggest hurdles facing minority communities is the revenue gap between diverse owned businesses and white owned firms. There are many ideas and programs with good intentions but we must address the stark realization that minorities represent 40% of the population, yet minority owned firms represent only 9.6% of all the revenue generated by private firms in the United States. This is a Red Alert issue and this event helps create opportunities for minority owned businesses to increase revenue and for large companies and organizations to increase their spend with diverse owned businesses,” says Genesis Block President Tracey Newkirk.

Organizations in attendance ranged from large government agencies such as the North Carolina Department of Transportation, industry leaders GE Hitachi and community banking experts North State Bank. There was over $40 billion dollars in revenue and operating budgets participating in the event centered on contract conversions.

Event attendees entering the Wilson Center to hear about the launch of Genesis Bridge and gain insights from supplier diversity professionals.

“At Genesis Block our goal with Conversations to Contracts is to organize large companies and organizations so that we can gather millions of dollars in spending opportunities into one room. We then pair organizations with qualified diverse owned businesses and local small business owners. Over 70% of contract conversion happens in trade show and networking style environments so we want to foster collaboration with our events, really honing in on the art of conversion and increasing transaction opportunities for minority owned businesses,” says Genesis Block CEO Girard Newkirk.

Students from New Hanover County were in attendance and had tons of questions for Creators Print House owner Robert Flood.

Genesis Block partnered with Cape Fear Community College and the Wilson Center to host Converting Conversations to Contracts for the 8th Annual Cape Fear Minority Enterprise Development Week. Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week recognizes and celebrates the achievements and impacts of minority entrepreneurs across southeastern North Carolina, and provides opportunities for networking, expanding, and strengthening businesses.

“It was great to see our early stage businesses get the opportunity to see how they need to carry themselves and grow in order to get contracts from bigger companies and organizations,” says Genesis Block Education Coordinator Aariene Hansley.

Dozens of diverse owned businesses were given the opportunity to showcase their products in front of a packed Wilson Center for Converting Conversations to Contracts.

We are excited to announce our next Converting Conversations to Contracts event will be at The McKeithan Center on the North Campus of Cape Fear Community College on December 1 from 8:00am to 10:00am. Reserve your spot below.

Register here for Conversations to Contracts: https://genesisblock.zohobackstage.com/ConvertingConversationsToContracts

For the latest developments at Genesis Block, follow us on these platforms.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/genesisblockilm

Twitter: https://twitter.com/block_ilm

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/genesis-block-ilm

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genesisblockilm

Medium: https://genesisblkilm.medium.com/

Greater Wilmington Business Journal: https://www.wilmingtonbiz.com/insights/girardnewkirk/237