The city of Newark has emerged as a popular choice for mainstream groups seeking an ideal setting to stage major national events across multiple industries, including technology, investment and entertainment. These events began yesterday with an exclusive, investment conference that brought dozens of visionary investors and leaders across the government, finance, real estate, economic development, and philanthropy sectors into the City for the first-ever Forbes Opportunity Zones Summit.
Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka welcomed attendees and a host of world-class speakers for the event at the iconic Newark Museum in the heart of the city’s core opportunity zone (OZ) community. Forbes gathered together more than 250 top leaders for a deep discussion on impact investing.
“Newark is the place where visionary groups come to meet, to plan, and forge partnerships. This summer, we have three major national gatherings: the first-of-its-kind Forbes Opportunity Zones Summit, the MTV Video Music Awards and the Voice Summit, the major national event where cutting-edge voice recognition technologies are showcased and advanced,” said Mayor Baraka. “This is a record setting year for Newark as we continue to welcome new opportunities.”
The OZ summit delivered insider tips and clarity on the new OZ regulations, drive winning strategies, set the national OZ agenda, forge compelling partnerships and fuel transformative impact on America’s long-underserved communities, including the City of Newark.
“The goal of our Opportunity Zones Summit was to ignite economic mobility in the country’s most overlooked communities and spur creative projects and partnerships that fuel business opportunities that would otherwise never exist,” said Steven Bertoni, Summit Founder and Vice President and Senior Editor of Forbes. “Witnessing the tremendous growth, collaborative efforts, and potential in Newark made the city a natural fit for this premiere event.”
The investment summit is just one of three leading, national events scheduled in the City in the coming months.
Last year, Newark hosted the Amazon Alexa-sponsored 2018 VOICE Summit, an inaugural event that drew thousands of tech enthusiasts and entrepreneurs from across the country to hear from industry leaders about technological innovation designs that are enhancing human connections. The event will return to the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark from July 22 to July 26.
Aisha Glover, CEO of Newark Alliance and a member of the team responsible for securing the VOICE Summit, said the City has a unique pulse and collaborative vibe that individuals and the business community must experience in order to understand.
“For over a year, we have been advocating that Newark is ready for prime time corporate attraction. Our focus is to market the City by leveraging the rich assets already here, many of which are clearly being recognized on a broader, more national stage,” said Ms. Glover.
MTV also made Newark history recently, announcing that its highly-anticipated annual Video Music Awards will be held on August 26 at the Prudential Center. The City was selected because of its legacy of producing mega-star acts such as Queen Latifah, Whitney Houston, the Fugees and many others. Newark is one of only a handful of locations outside of New York City and Los Angeles, where the awards program has been based.
“This is sure to be a record-setting year for our City, as we continue to welcome new opportunities to improve our communities and enrich the lives of our residents,” said Mayor Baraka.
