Chamber to Host Zoom Meeting with Dr. Anton Reece

The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce is hosting a Zoom meeting Friday morning with PACC Chair-elect and President/CEO of West Kentucky Community and Technical College Dr. Anton Reece.

The Chamber says the goal of the call will be to listen, gather information about unique challenges facing African American and minority business owners and determine steps that can be taken to enhance and expand successful businesses in our region.

Reece says the current economic situation brought on by the pandemic presents some serious issues to business owners across the area, with minority-owned businesses facing their own unique set of challenges.

"The goal ultimately is win-win," Reece said. "The concern is we don't want to inevitably come out of COVID and the economic recovery to discover that minority and black American businesses are left even further behind."

Reece said the meeting will focus on education, a listening session, and increasing minority involvement in local business organizations.

"A lot of small business owners are very creative people, but business savvy is a skill, and there's knowledge associated with it. So I believe that one part of it is bridging the gap, educational process, and providing a way for them to become more informed and learned." Reece said.

"It's important that the leadership really hear first hand the broader context in terms of opportunity to be successful in business. We want businesses to be successful by starting, expanding, those sort of things." He added.

Reece said it's also important to make an effort to reach out to area minority-owned businesses to increase participation in local business organizations. 

"It's also about more involvement with African American and minority businesses in the Chamber, and for that matter the Rotary, just more representation. Because as you look at these settings, it's very clear that there's a lot of work to do in terms of diversifying." He said.

The meeting will take place from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. Participants can use meeting ID: 982-7189-5810 to join.

To submit a question for Dr. Reece, email swilson@paducahchamber.org.