Dr. James L. Bumpus, director, Macon-Bibb County’s Small Business Affairs office announced last night the organization of a Middle Georgia “State of Small Business” Summit, to be held on May 5, 2016, during the US Small Business Administration’s National Small Business Week. The SCORE Association, a national resource partner of the SBA, the Greater Macon Chamber of Commerce and NewTown Macon are major sponsors. Dr. Bumpus will co-chair this event along with Dr. Ulrica Jones, chair of the Middle Georgia Chapter of SCORE.

According to Dr. Bumpus, this event is unique in several ways, and is based on a similar series of meetings successfully held elsewhere in Georgia. First, he said, “this is a concise presentation of the issues, with each speaker's time quite limited. As a result, we will provide a maximum amount of information in a short amount of time.” The audience, approximately 100-200 existing small business owners will attend at no cost, including lunch. Dr. Jones explained, “We will have about ten speakers, presenting topics of interest to small business owners, and their presentations will be limited to three minutes, each.” Presenters will also provide a single page summary of the information they wish to share, which will be published and distributed to attendees. There will be time for networking before and after the presentations; and time for questions. All speakers will address various topics concerning the state of small business in Middle Georgia. Invited speakers from government, non-government organizations and businesses will address the following list of topics:

-  “Small Business Growth in Middle Georgia”

-  “Economic Indicators for Middle Georgia”

-  “Middle Georgia is Open for Business”

-  “Small Business Access to Capital”

-  “State of Commercial Real Estate in Middle Georgia”

-  “Minority Small Business Inclusion”

-  “Doing business with government in Middle Georgia”

-  “Large Employers and Small business in Middle Georgia”

-  “Middle Georgia Small Business Snapshot”

-  “Middle Georgia: Connecting Small Business with Technology”

-  “Navigating the HR Minefield for Small Business”