The first Georgia Minority Business Conference held near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport at the Georgia International Convention Center on Feb. 17 attracted some 100 attendees and spurred enough interest in international business that it will be held again next year, Creed Pannell Jr., the organizer of the event told GlobalAtlanta. “We’ve had a lot of good feedback,” Mr. Pannell said in a telephone interview last week. “We will do it again next year and at the same facility because of its access to the airport and the proximity of the hotels. There also is plenty of room in which we can expand.” Mr. Pannell, a local publisher, has launched a wide variety of successful conventions in Atlanta. He started in 1991 with Weddings for US, an annual event featuring wedding gowns and accessories for African American and Hispanic women.
He launched the Gospel Choice Awards ceremony, the largest annual gospel event to take place in Atlanta, in 1995 and the Georgia Minority Business Awards Luncheon, which honors leading minority-owned businesses and business executives, in 1997.
Ben DeCosta, aviation general manager of Hartsfield-Jackson, was the conference’s keynote speaker. Other attendees included Wangui W. Mwai, a representative of Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the daughter of Kenya’s president, Mwai Kibaki; Archbishop Joseph Ganda of Freetown, Sierra Leone and Ewart Brown, Bermuda’s minister of tourism and transport.
Panel discussions were held on doing business in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America.
To learn more about the conference, call Mr. Pannell at (770) 969-7711.