BALTIMORE, MD (Tuesday, February 25th) – Today, the Mayor's Office of Small and Minority Business Advocacy & Development (SMBA&D) launched its 2025 Speaker Series, titled "Candid Conversations with Entrepreneurs." The first session started at 10a at the Small Business Resource Center, located at 3000 Druid Park Drive in Baltimore, Maryland. The featured speaker was Daraius Irani (VP of Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research at Towson University) who presented to attendees on Understanding the Business Landscape.
"I thought today went well," said Irani. "This is obviously laying the groundwork for good data and an understanding of the broader economy, and I believe the future programs will be more specific and focused around specific needs of the small business [community]."
While startup business owners have attended previous series, this go-round is catered to entrepreneurs that are a little further along in their business journey.
"Today's session of the Speaker Series was a great success. We had a lot of businesses come out and learn all about what is happening in the local economy and how it's impacting businesses," said Christopher R. Lundy, Esq., Director of SMBA&D. "We’re uniquely situated for a lot of businesses to be successful. Even though there are challenges in these times, we're optimistic there's going to be opportunities for growth and success for the business community."
The series will run for ten weeks with presenters speaking on topics like Unlocking Government and Procurement Opportunities, Preparing for Mergers and Acquisitions, and Mastering Financial Management and Accounting. Attendees are encouraged to show up for all ten sessions, with the last session on April 29th.
"Today's session was jam-packed with data - good information for how to strategize your business. Coming from different angles, different industries - he spoke to everybody," said Kelechi Ekpagwu, a Speaker Series attendee and owner of her own consulting business. "It was excellent. As a person who's all about data, [Dr. Irani] definitely spoke to me."
"Today was a lot of good information," said Sharon Bocalig, a realtor and certified health education specialist. "I kind of didn’t know what I would learn, but I learned a lot of different things - not only from the presenter, but from people [who asked] different questions and I look forward to all the next sessions."
All upcoming sessions will be on Tuesdays from 10a-12p. Registration will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
"We had [a] good conversation - business owners were able to talk about the things that concerned them," said Stephen Campbell, Deputy Director of SMBA&D. "It's not just the economics of what's going on outside in the world that we can discuss, but also how those economic challenges impact them directly."
SMBA&D exists to support the various needs of the small and minority business community in Baltimore City. Through events like the Speaker Series, established entrepreneurs should get more access to information that will take their business to the next level.
"I think that's more of what we need to bring to the table - how does this directly impact our small business owners," said Campbell. "Tariffs are huge, job openings are huge, canceled contracts by the federal government are huge, but how can we here at SMBA&D be of more support?"
For more information on the Speaker Series along with how you can register, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-speaker-series-candid-conversations-for-entrepreneurs-tickets-1219920407779?utm_experiment=test_share_listing&aff=ebdsshios.