The Pipeline | Essence

An Economic Inclusion Initiative was developed by Essence Communications, Inc., in collaboration with the Urban League of Louisiana as a culturally driven procurement program for the brand’s premiere experience, the Essence Festival of Culture. The Essence Festival of Culture is one of the world’s largest curated content celebrations of culture and community attracting over half a million attendees in New Orleans, LA annually. As Essence looks ahead to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of ESSENCE in 2021, the brand will expand the Essence Festival of Culture presented by Coca-Cola® experience for attendees with more entertainment, empowerment and culture, in addition to deepening its community impact and legacy in the Louisiana region.

Amaris Catering

"Being selected as the backstage caterer was life changing. I had always envision my company catering to large events and the pipeline actually made it possible. The program was a genius way to give local entrepreneurs and small companies in the city an opportunity to of play in the big leagues and capitalize on some of the revenue the festival brings in. Since the festival our clientele continues to expand and many opportunities to cater other live events has been presented."

THE PIPELINE

The pipeline is an Economic Inclusion Initiative that will offer more opportunities to support the procurement of contracts for 2020 Essence Festival services. The initiative’s approach will focus on the following key components for black-owned businesses.

• Capacity building – strengthening the abilities and skills of businesses to continue to improve and develop overtime
• Increasing project opportunities
• Training and development services – provide innovative and high-quality training in to enhance the performance of black-owned businesses through the Essence Live Event & Production Academy

Essence and the Urban League of Louisiana has identified the delivery and execution processes required for results and program achievement for The Pipeline initiative.

• Develop a database of small businesses interested in Festival opportunities

• Engage more black-owned businesses and strengthen the small business ecosystem in Louisiana

• Investment in small business incubators as partners to support capacity building

• Diversify the pipeline of contractors to increase the number of contracts that are led by black-owned businesses in Louisiana

• Build upon the Essence Festival’s economic impact

• Investment in the long-term growth of small business ecosystem through partnerships with small business incubators on training and development

Urban League of Louisiana
Through The Pipeline, the Urban League of Louisiana deepens its commitment to connect small businesses across Louisiana to procurement and training opportunities with the ESSENCE Festival of Culture. As a statewide entrepreneurial development organization, we deploy deliberate, innovative, place-based programming and services to entrepreneurs in communities throughout Louisiana. Our mission is to provide impactful support to women and entrepreneurs of color that want to create and grow scalable, profitable and sustainable business ventures.