Wondering what economic development in your community looks like? Here's a recap of our recent National Small Business Week events at Varsity Spirit's HQ!

With a focus on growing small business procurement opportunities, our week of events featured everything from a workshop on preparing bids led by Veronica Clark with TN APEX Accelerator, to a panel of small business owners who shared their entrepreneurial expertise and personal narratives as small business owners. A huge thanks to Bridgette Green, Johnny Fayne, Cindy Brewer & Gwendolyn Tucker for their time and words of wisdom.  

We rounded out the week with a Buy Local Luncheon and Awards Ceremony honoring the Medical District Anchor Institutions who participate in MMDC's Buy Local Initiative. Since its inception in 2016, MMDC's Buy Local Program has produced a $65M increase in local spend, with an $18M increase in minority and women-owned business spend. This has led to 123% growth in local diverse spend and 55 new minority and women-owned suppliers.  And that's not all! In just the past year alone, Buy Local has contributed to a $13M increase in local spend, and a $5M increase in spend with minority and women-owned businesses (2022-2023).

Shoutout to this year's award recipients who make this impact possible: Methodist Le Bonheur, Southern College of Optometry, UTHSC, Regional One, St. Jude Children's Hospital and ALSAC!  And special thanks to our sponsors Varsity Spirit, Tennessee APEX Accelerator & First Horizon Foundation for their support of small business and a successful National Small Business Week.