The World Games 2021 launches new supplier diversity program
More than 300 business owners attend the launch of World of Opportunity, a new supplier program for The World Games 2021 Birmingham. (Dennis Washington/Alabama NewsCenter)
The World Games 2021 Birmingham today launched “World of Opportunity,” a new supplier diversity program that offers small, minority- and women-owned businesses the chance to be involved in current and future citywide business opportunities.
The kickoff was held at Birmingham’s CrossPlex, one of several venues The World Games 2021 will use. More than 300 business owners and entrepreneurs attended and enrolled in the program.
“We’ve been working hard to develop a supplier initiative program that really benefits the local business community,” said DJ Mackovets, CEO of The World Games 2021. “These vendors are vitally important.”
World of Opportunity allows businesses and organizations of all sizes to register, providing The World Games 2021 and participating municipalities a database of who is qualified to provide event production, security, food service, technology, printing, waste removal, construction services and more.
“This is huge for anybody local in our area, across the state, across the Southeast or the whole United States,” said Glenda Thomas, manager of Supplier Diversity-Electric at Alabama Power and a co-chair of The World Games 2021 Supplier Diversity Steering Committee. “They will have a chance to make a worldwide impact for people to see what’s going on in Birmingham, who’s connected from a supplier base, and have that for other people to look to them for other opportunities.”
Alabama Power is a corporate sponsor of the 2021 World Games, along with Regions, Protective Life and Shipt.
The World Games 2021 launches diverse supplier initiative from Alabama NewsCenter on Vimeo.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin told the business owners the World of Opportunity was based on the NFL’s Super Bowl model for diversity and inclusion.
“While we work simultaneously to build a local, women, minority, disadvantaged business enterprise program for our city, the World of Opportunity program will support our efforts with building a database of qualified businesses,” Woodfin said. “It will also provide technical assistance and experience to our disadvantaged business enterprise, allowing our local businesses to build greater capacity and share in Birmingham’s growing economy.”
At the conclusion of The World Games 2021, the World of Opportunity database will be provided to the city of Birmingham as a legacy gift to support future events and programs.
“Not only will the opportunities from this program be transformational for local businesses, but it will also prove valuable for the city moving forward,” Thomas said.
For more information on the program, including instructions on how to sign up, visit theworldgames2021.com/woo.
