Last Thursday, Feb. 24, the National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) Greater Austin Chapter, members of the Taylor Chamber of Commerce along with a dozen local area service providers came together at Fannie Robinson Park in Taylor for the 2022 Taylor Business Fair.
Taylor Chamber member Sam Blango was at the forefront of the event to look at Taylor as a place to help businesses network and make new connections.
“Construction and supply businesses owned by women or racial and ethnic minorities sometimes don’t have the access that they need to get and stay informed about opportunities for their businesses,” said Tia Rae Stone, chamber president. “This event is a first step in giving our local HUBs (historically underutilized businesses) an opportunity to network and learn how they can participate with bigger construction companies.”
Opportunities for minority contractors are an important theme to the Taylor Chamber of Commerce as the city progresses into the future.
“We think any opportunity to work on diversity, to have this event supporting NAMC is awesome. It’s very important to us,” said Rachel Westerman, chamber office manager. “We have a lot of construction workers that fit this genre, and it’s important that we bring opportunities and a presence of making things easy to find.”
The event drew much attention as Taylor is a continuously growing community.
“We’re a growing community on every level,” said Westerman. “I think opportunities like this are super awesome Sam Blango with NAMC is such a go getter and he has a lot of energy he works for a really good company together we believe to bring something like this together is super awesome.”
The business fair was also being hosted as a tribute to Black History Month.
The National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC) was founded in 1969 and has chapters across the country actively supporting minority contractors and business operations. The NAMC Greater Austin Chapter was recently established and seeks new members and corporate sponsors.
The local chapter is looking for larger developers to meet their diversity requirements and connect with qualified local businesses. Goals are to promote and facilitate networking, educational and job opportunities, as well as assist in the development of construction contractors. To achieve its goals, the chapter plans to collaborate with major corporate partners, strategic alliances and public agencies.
