Please join The Society of Entrepreneurs and Epicenter at The Next Big Thing, a $10,000 Pitch Competition featuring emerging start-ups and scale-ups. At the event pre-selected entrepreneurs will “pitch” their business and investment opportunity in brief, dynamic, three- to five-minute segments, and then answer questions from the attendees. SOE members will score the pitches on aspects such as: business model, market validation, product or service and team. Then, while attendees break to enjoy a reception outside of the theatre, representatives from The Marston Group will tally the scores. The $10,000 cash prize will be awarded to the winner at the end of the event.
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Art Gilliam, a young, progressive-minded, Yale-educated black businessman bought WLOK in 1977, making it the first black-owned (and the first locally owned) radio station in the city of Memphis.
Under Art Gilliam’s leadership, the WLOK Stone Soul Picnic was organized and professionally managed, drawing tens of thousands of people to the Martin Luther King Park each year. By the mid-eighties, the station had changed its R&B format to a full-gospel format, and by the late nineties, WLOK had won honors and acclaim from every major gospel association in the country, earning for several consecutive years the title of #1 Gospel Station in the nation by Religion & Media Quarterly.
In February 1997, twenty years after WLOK became the first African-American owned electronic media outlet in Memphis, the station was recognized by the Tennessee Historical Commission as a Tennessee Historical Landmark.
Most recently, WLOK has worked with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to reduce drug use among young people. The station presents numerous on-air programs that help youngsters.
For reservations, click HERE.
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