The 2020 Mississippi Entrepreneurship Forum will be held Thursday and Friday, 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 current entrepreneurial climate and the future of entrepreneurship in Mississippi.

For the first time, the MEF will host a Student Business Pitch Competition that will take place on April 2, 2020.

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 (CEED) initiative which is funded from a generous financial gift from the Robert M. Hearin Support Foundation. Now in its sixth year, the Mississippi Entrepreneurship Forum will provide working opportunities for aspiring business owners and thriving entrepreneurs to share practical and immediately 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 in Mississippi and other key organizations.

Panels on technology and innovation, student entrepreneurship, and the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem also will be conducted on April 3, 2020.

Previous Forums have been held in Clarksdale, Tupelo, Greenwood, Oxford, and Jackson.

MEF planning committee members include Allyson Best (University of Mississippi); Tasha Bibb (Innovate Mississippi); John Brandon (Mississippi College); Dr. Marty Brock (Mississippi University for Women); Ty Durham (Millsaps College); Saundra McFarland (Jackson State University); Janice Karcher (ERDCWERX); Dr. JR Love (University of Mississippi); Nash Nunnery (Mississippi Development Authority); Dr. Sheriece Robinson (Mississippi Community College Board); Jeffrey Rupp (Mississippi State University); Will Tabor (Mississippi Community College Board); James Wilcox (University of Southern Mississippi), and Dr. Glendscene Williams (Delta State University).

For more information about the 2020 Mississippi Entrepreneurship Forum, please go to meforum.olemiss.edu, or contact JR Love at jrlove@olemiss.edu or Tasha Bibb at tbibb@innovate.ms.