This afternoon for the first time a vendors’ fair for minority businesses will meet and work to promote diversity in the workplace.
The event will take place in the multipurpose room at the Jackson Avenue Center. The event, titled “Minority Business Expo: Making the University Connection,” starts at 1 p.m., but a complementary lunch will be served before at 12:30 p.m. The expo is being co-hosted by The University of Missisippi and Mississippi State University, and is sponsored by the offices of the Vice Chancellor for Procurement Services and Administration and Finance.
James R. Windham, director of procurement services, said that they are hoping to have 60 to 65 minority businesses present.
“This is a diversity fair,” Windham said. “It is the first one that the university has ever held and we’re looking for good things to come of it.”
After the lunch is served guest speaker Kathy Times is going to demonstrate a new website, Wheretogo411.com, which has been endorsed by the college board in Jackson.
Kathy Times has received much recognition for her work as a journalist, receiving Emmys and an Edward R. Murrow Award. She also works as an entrepreneur and currently serves as the president of Yellow Brick Media concepts, LLC as well as the Immediate Past President of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Windham said that Times is actually the person who asked the universities to host this expo and was instrumental to setting it up.
After Times’ demonstration, there will be networking one-on-one.
“We’re going to have well over 15 university departments, seated behind tables, and several people from Mississippi State, and the vendors that we’re hoping will show up will be able to network one-on-one, and maybe we can match some business to university departments and they can generate a relationship and hopefully it will be beneficial to both sides,” Windham said.
Donald Cole, assistant provost and assistant to the chancellor for multicultural affairs and associate professor of mathematics, said this fair will hopefully be the beginning of a series of events promoting diversity in the university vendors’ bank.
“In the process we recognize that you can’t just take the ‘we’ll build and they’ll come’ attitude,” Cole said. “We have to be a little more proactive as an institution. Not only do we have to build it, but we have to do some recruiting. We have to say, ‘Okay, it’s built, and it’s been built for you.’ This can’t be a one-time thing.”
In addition to making connections, Cole hopes these businesses will leave with a better understanding of the process of procurement services.
“It’s not always an easy process to navigate, the rules and regulations along the way, so we’d like to share all of this with them,” Cole said. “We’d like to get them in a pipeline. There might be some where it will be easy for them to take advantage of our services and others might have to be rendered to another level for them to take advantage of it, but we’re hoping that the financial incentives are there and that will bring them (the vendors) out.”
