Fair Practices in Contracting Task Force

- Thursday, August 25 - The City of Chicago Department of Procurement Services (DPS) in collaboration with the Government Procurement Compliance (GPC) Forum will host the 9th Annual Procurement Vendor Fair which provides education, resources, and networking opportunities for local business owners who are interested in doing business with government entities. This event will provide businesses the opportunity to learn about contracting opportunities with the City of Chicago, its Sister Agencies, Cook County Agencies, and State of Illinois and Federal agencies. We will also provide educational business workshops for participants, including business fundamentals, programs and incentives, certification requirements, and financial assistance. Come out and network with other business owners and learn how to do business with government agencies.

City of Chicago 2022 Procurement Vendor Fair Department of Procurement Services in collaboration with the Government Procurement Compliance Forum will host the 9th Annual Vendor Fair!

Springfield, IL - The Illinois Department of Innovation & Technology (DoIT) will debut the Tech Prairie STEAM Expo at this year's Illinois State Fair. The event will provide fairgoers with opportunities to experience the many ways Illinois is advancing the areas of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). Along with DoIT, the STEAM Expo is being presented by the University of Illinois Extension 4-H, Illinois Innovation Network, Learning Technology Center of Illinois and Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (IDEA). The Expo will be held from August 18-22, 2021 in the Orr Building and will highlight Drone and Esports competitions, as well as many innovations and emerging career and educational opportunities in STEAM fields being advanced throughout the state.

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Higher Education Supplier Diversity Report Workshop 2021

President Biden to Sign Executive Order Strengthening Buy American Provisions, Ensuring Future of America is Made in America by All of America’s Workers

President Biden to Sign Executive Order Strengthening Buy American Provisions, Ensuring Future of America is Made in America by All of America’s Workers | The White House Biden-Harris Administration Commits to Investing in American Workers and Companies Today, while many American businesses are on the brink of having to close their doors because of the crises that our country faces, President Biden will sign an Executive Order to support manufacturers, businesses, an...

A campaign contributor to Mayor Lori Lightfoot landed a $1.6 million no-bid deal with Chicago Public Schools after the mayor personally vouched for him, then delivered computers that in some cases didn’t meet district purchasing standards or work for virtual learning. District officials said they bought the used computers in April to meet an “urgent need” as schools scrambled to get devices to students and the district’s traditional vendors faced backlogs. Yet more than a third are still sitting in a district warehouse as backups, a Chalkbeat/Better Government Association investigation has found. Mark Aistrope, the CEO of Chicago-based Meeting Tomorrow, who contributed nearly $30,000 to Lightfoot’s mayoral bid, emailed the mayor in late March, saying his company could quickly provide tens of thousands of computers to the school district when it needed them most. Early the next morning, Lightfoot wrote CPS CEO Janice Jackson to put in a good word.

Chicago schools needed computers. Then the mayor emailed about a ‘really good guy.’ What followed was a $1.6 million deal for a Lightfoot donor who supplied used laptops and iPads, some of which didn’t work for remote learning.

FREE Registration Link: https://ilbcc.org/2020-state-convention/

BLC is Chicago’s premier Black business organization of more than 120 of Chicago's Black business leaders and entrepreneurs representing over 25 industries. We are harnessing the power of today’s Black business leaders to build the next generation of leaders. We are Black business leaders and entrepreneurs in positions of influence across the spectrum of business and civic leadership.

Business Leadership Council The Business Leadership Council is committed to achieving African American participation in the local and regional economy in proportion to our talent and population through advocacy, business development and mentorship.

State of Illinois lawmakers probe barriers to Black business development. Access to capital, state contracting cited as significant hurdles.

Lawmakers probe barriers to Black business development Black-owned businesses in Illinois face significant barriers to growth and opportunities that would enable them to compete with their white-owned counterparts, a problem that many Black leaders say is directly

October 7-8: Digital Empowers, a program led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Tata Consultancy Services will empower collective action and social innovation.

Registration Link:
https://events.uschamberfoundation.org/digitalempowers?utm_source=social&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=digitalempowers

Groups call for big changes in an office stuck in the carbon paper era Three groups recommend changes they'd like to see from the new clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County after Dorothy Brown leaves in December.

The wealth data “highlights the inequalities in the recovery in the sense that high-income workers not only have jobs that for the most part have come back; they also have savings that have continued to grow,” said John Friedman, an economist at Brown University who is co-director of Opportunity Insights. The richest one-tenth of Americans owned more than two-thirds of the nation’s wealth, according to Fed data through the end of March, the latest period for which figures are available. The top 1% owned 31%.

Soaring wealth during pandemic highlights rising inequality WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' household wealth rebounded last quarter to a record high as the stock market quickly recovered from a pandemic-induced plunge in March. Yet the gains flowed mainly to...