OXFORD, Miss. – The 2020 Mississippi Entrepreneurship Forum is slated for April 2-3, 2020 at the Vicksburg Convention Center. The event will bring together leading entrepreneurs, economic developers, innovators and future business owners to learn more about the entrepreneurial climate and the future of entrepreneurship in Mississippi.
For the first time, the MEF will host a Student Business Pitch Competition, set for April 2.
Sponsored by the University of Mississippi‘s McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement, the event is part of the Catalyzing Entrepreneurship and Economic Development initiative, funded from a generous financial gift from the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation. In its sixth year, the Mississippi Entrepreneurship Forum will provide working opportunities for aspiring business owners and thriving entrepreneurs to share practical and useful information about building a business.
Additionally, attendees will hear best practices of successful case studies and learn more about resources and strategies available to entrepreneurs from institutions of higher education and other key organizations.
“The forum provides an excellent venue to strengthen communication among Mississippi universities and highlight the many ways in which entrepreneurship sparks economic development in our state,” UM Chancellor Glenn Boyce said. “We must keep pushing innovative approaches in how we address some of Mississippi’s most difficult challenges.
“I appreciate the McLean Institute and the Hearin Foundation for providing scholarships to Ole Miss students to make Mississippi a better place.”
Panels on technology and innovation, student entrepreneurship and the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem also will be conducted on April 3.
Previous forums have been held in Clarksdale, Tupelo, Greenwood, Oxford and Jackson.
MEF planning committee members include Allyson Best and J.R. Love of UM, Tasha Bibb of Innovate Mississippi, John Brandon of Mississippi College, Marty Brock of Mississippi University for Women, Ty Durham of Millsaps College, Saundra McFarland of Jackson State University, Janice Karcher of ERDCWERX, Nash Nunnery of the Mississippi Development Authority, Sheriece Robinson of the Mississippi Community College Board, Jeffrey Rupp of Mississippi State University, Will Tabor of Belhaven University, James Wilcox of the University of Southern Mississippi and Glendscene Williams of Delta State University.
For more information about the 2020 Mississippi Entrepreneurship Forum, go to meforum.olemiss.edu, or contact J.R. Love at jrlove@olemiss.edu or Tasha Bibb at tbibb@innovate.ms.