By Tom Ballard, Chief Alliance Officer, PYA About three dozen individuals – two-thirds of them attending in-person and the balance virtually – participated in a more than five-hour discussion on Wednesday that focused on the role, responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities facing Chief Executive Officers (CEO). Organized and hosted by the…

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo announced yesterday that the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) will implement a series of programs, collectively called “Investing in America’s Communities,” to equitably invest the $3 billion it received from President Biden’s “American Rescue Plan Act” to help communities across the…

The Sky City Entrepreneur Center is hosting its latest “Journey Night” from 6 to 7 p.m. next Tuesday, July 27. The event will feature Marcus Hall of Marc Nelson Denim in Knoxville who will share insights from his brand journey to become a sought-after purveyor of fine, handcrafted denim. The…

The ninth annual “DIG SOUTH Tech Summit,” branded as the “only event purpose-built to grow the South’s digital economy,” kicks-off next week at the College of Charleston with a speaker lineup featuring 24 leading executives and entrepreneurs. Over the three-day run – the evening of July 28 through the morning…

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is now accepting proposals from organizations within the 13-state region to work in partnership with ARC on the programming, curriculum development, and execution for its “Appalachian Entrepreneurship Academy” (AEA). The program helps high school students in the Appalachian Region strengthen their business and entrepreneurial thinking…

There’s another new Techstars accelerator that has been announced, this time in the far Northwest. The “Filecoin Techstars Accelerator” is partnering with Protocol Labs to “construct the following technology of the web.” Filecoin provides a decentralized knowledge storage market, protocol, and cryptocurrency, whereas Protocol Labs is an open supply analysis and growth lab.…

Funds that apply ESG (environmental, social and governance) principles captured $51.1 billion of net new money from investors in 2020, according to Morningstar, more than doubling the prior year’s take. This growth is driven by consistent findings that ESG investing does not compromise financial returns, and quite often outperforms. According to this recent article…

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the final article in a two-part series spotlighting one of the Knoxville-Oak Ridge region’s serial entrepreneurs. Part 1 provided an update on the progress that Vig Sherrill and the team at General Graphene are making. The second part focuses on his journey through seven start-ups and…

The seven participants in this year’s “AgLaunch Virtual Bootcamp” will showcase their companies in a virtual pitch event from 7 to 9 p.m. EDT next Tuesday, July 27. The event is hosted by Memphis-based AgLaunch and three East Tennessee entrepreneurial support organizations – Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC), Sync Space (Kingsport) and The Biz Foundry (Cookeville). To register,…

Applications close July 30 for the next cohort of Creative Destruction Lab‘s (CDL) nine-month, objectives-based accelerator program. It is described as focused on “massively scalable, seed stage, science- and tech-based companies in 15 streams at nine sites across the globe.” The closest location is Atlanta which is home to CDL’s…