Buffalo’s Second Annual Black Business Month Conference Moves to The Statler

Bold Moves Only II: Built 2 Scale opens National Black Business Month August 1 with a full day of business programming, onsite legal services, and a youth entrepreneurship track for BIPOC founders

The Exchange at Beverly Gray will host its second annual Black Business Month conference, Bold Moves Only II: Built 2 Scale, on Saturday, August 1, at The Statler Buffalo, 107 Delaware Avenue. The conference opens National Black Business Month with a full day of programming for BIPOC entrepreneurs, followed by an evening fireside chat with John Hope Bryant, founder and CEO of Operation HOPE.

The Exchange at Beverly Gray has served more than 800 founders over the past six years and maintains a working community of 1,300 entrepreneurs across the region. Its programming, including one-on-one clinics, workshops, mentorship, and capital deployment, is built to help Black and Brown owned businesses start, thrive, and scale.

“Buffalo’s founders don’t need permission to think big; they need a room that thinks as big as they do,” said Derrick A. Parson, Executive Director of The Exchange at Beverly Gray. “That’s why Bold Moves Only II is important to the Western New York Community. Bringing John Hope Bryant here is our way of saying the future of Black business is expanding in this city, right now. Every great business district started with people who refused to believe the ceiling was real. That’s what we’re building, and that’s what August 1 is about.”

Black-owned employer businesses generated $249 billion in revenue and supported more than 1.8 million jobs nationally in 2023, according to Brookings Institution research, a 62% increase in the number of Black owned employer firms since 2017. Yet Black Americans still own just 3.4% of the nation’s employer businesses while making up 14.4% of the population, and the median white household held $285,000 in wealth in 2022 compared to $44,900 for the median Black household, according to the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances. The Exchange at Beverly Gray exists to close that gap locally, giving Western New York’s BIPOC founders direct access to capital, legal support, and mentorship in one room.

Last year the inaugural Bold Moves Only conference drew more than 200 attendees and 10 speakers, with headliner Fawn Weaver, CEO and founder of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. This year, Bold Moves Only II expands that footprint with a larger speaker roster and a move to The Statler. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., guests will attend breakout sessions covering accounting and finance, branding and marketing, public relations, funding and capital, grants, trademark and legal protection, podcasting and media, artificial intelligence, fashion entrepreneurship, cannabis business, and construction and contracting. The day also includes onsite LLC registration and legal assistance, a vendor village, and Bold Moves Jr., a youth entrepreneurship track where kids pitch their own business ideas in a faux pitch competition. The evening session, from 5 to 10 p.m., includes a panel discussion with entrepreneurs, a fireside chat with Bryant, and a reception.

Bryant founded Operation HOPE in 1992. The organization has since delivered financial literacy and coaching services to millions and become a central voice in the national conversation on closing the racial wealth gap. His fireside chat closes the conference. The conference also includes special guests Denise Woodard, founder and CEO of Partake Foods; Sevetri Wilson, investor and founder and CEO of ProsperAll and Resilia; and Harold Hughes, founder and CEO of NFNTE Capital. The featured speaker roster includes additional local and national voices in fashion, legal services, construction, and financial literacy, with more names to be announced weekly leading up to the event.

Tickets start at $49 and are available at www.zeffy.com/en-US/ ticketing/bold-moves only-ii. Full speaker lineup, schedule, and conference details are available at TheExchangeBuffalo.org and boldmovesonly2. lovable.app.

Black Business Month programming at The Exchange is supported by the John R. Oishei Foundation, the Buffalo Bills Foundation, KeyBank, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, Bank on Buffalo, and The Statler Buffalo.