Invest Fest returns to Atlanta after making splash last year with drone display
Credit: Olivia Bowdoin
Financial education conference Invest Fest is bringing its panels and marketplace back to Atlanta next month, after capturing the city’s attention last year with a dazzling drone display of Steve Harvey’s face.
It has become one of the city’s marquee events, with about 40,000 people expected to attend Aug. 22-24 at the Georgia World Congress Center. Invest Fest is put on by the people behind Earn Your Leisure, a popular financial education platform with podcasts, online courses, events and a curriculum for schools. The EYL Instagram account has about 1.5 million followers, and its YouTube account has more than 1.6 million subscribers.
Harvey will again be making an appearance, sitting down in conversation with actress and entrepreneur Issa Rae and radio host Charlamagne tha God.
Last year, Harvey featured prominently inside and outside of Invest Fest. He was one of the main speakers at the conference, and then, as part of the VIP festivities, his visage was recreated using drones that lit up the Atlanta night sky. EYL co-founders Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings would neither confirm nor deny whether we’d see a similar light show this year.
“I think the surprise of it is what makes it special,” Millings teased.
But they did say comedian Karlous Miller and singer Keyshia Cole will be part of the VIP entertainment.
Though this is the fifth year in a row the conference is coming to Atlanta, economic and business realities are much different from previous years, with a new administration as well as the rise of crypto and artificial intelligence affecting businesses and investors.
The primary theme this year is AI, and Invest Fest will focus on “current and future realities,” Millings told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“There’s a reason why AI is the theme, because that’s going to disrupt and add jobs … but take away jobs as well for a lot of people,” Millings said. “We want to make sure that there’s an emphasis on that, to see where we’re at with technology in terms of AI and where we’re going and how we can use it to our benefit and work with it.”
This year’s Invest Fest has the most programming ever, Bilal said, with multiple panels dedicated to crypto and AI as well as investing, content creation, estate planning, sourcing goods in China and more. Alongside those panels, Pastor Jamal Bryant, leader of the boycott against Target for pulling back from diversity initiatives, will speak on economic activism.
There will also be keynote speeches from Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and basketball star Magic Johnson.
For general attendees, there will be a $125,000 tech pitch competition, a vendor marketplace and networking opportunities with other like-minded entrepreneurs. General admission tickets are $250, and VIP tickets start at $1,500.
About the Author
Mirtha Donastorg is a reporter on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s business team focusing on Black wealth, entrepreneurship, and minority-owned businesses as well as innovation at Atlanta’s HBCUs.
