TAMMY STOKEN, Manager of Career, Business and Nonprofit at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; Andrew Medlar, President and Director at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; and LaShawnda A. Thomas, Vice Chair of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees, at the library’s first-ever Black Business Mini Conference, Aug. 26, 2026. (Photo by Rob Taylor Jr.)
According to many of the over 80 Black attendees who took time out of their Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2026, afternoon to attend the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s first-ever Black Business Mini Conference, it was worth it.
Attendee Denise Slappy, a theater artist, just moved to Pittsburgh from Michigan, and connected with Black entrepreneurs and an author at the four-hour event.
Yvonne Yates, senior business administrator for the Center for Shared Prosperity organization (headquartered at Carnegie Mellon University), also connected with other Black business leaders and community organizations.
TYLER COULVERSON was one of the presenters at the Black Business Mini Conference. Yvonne Yates was one of the attendees.
For Tyler Coulverson, a member of the New Pittsburgh Courier’s “Fab 40” Class of 2024, he was one of three public speakers during the mini conference. He quit his day job in the banking industry a few years ago to dive head first into his business venture, TC Notary. It’s now a five-figure revenue business, he told the Courier exclusively.
And for another speaker, Marcus Gaines-Cherry, the three-time University of Pittsburgh graduate and attorney discussed to attendees the proper way to respond to RFPs, or Requests For Proposals. For many small businesses and organizations, acquiring contracts from RFPs is their primary source of revenue.
“I’m very proud of them because this was all them,” said Tammy Stoken, Manager of Career, Business and Nonprofit at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh about her staff. She said they had the idea to host a Black Business Mini Conference at the Oakland Main Library in August during National Black Business Month.
“There were lots of moving parts between presenters, agreements, getting keynote speakers…then you have the facility part of it, making sure that we have the rooms and then the staffing of it, so I’m very happy,” Stoken said.
ARRIBA WALKER of Trinity Professional Counseling and Developing Services, based in Wilkinsburg, speaks with Sonita Lewis, representing the MCL Family Law Firm.
When it comes to Black-owned businesses in the Pittsburgh region, no one’s confusing it with Atlanta. Georgia’s capital and its surrounding areas are home to the highest percentage of Black-owned businesses among sizable U.S. markets at 11.3 percent. There are roughly 13,700 Black-owned businesses in that region. The Memphis region has 9.3 percent of its businesses identified as Black-owned, while the Washington, D.C. area has 9.2 percent of its businesses identified as Black-owned.
On the flip side, the Pittsburgh region’s percentage of Black-owned businesses hovers around 1 to 2.5 percent, with between 1,000 and 1,300 businesses identifying as Black-owned.
Pittsburgh does not have the large Black population like Atlanta, D.C., or Memphis. But the 1 to 2.5 percent figure, to some, may seem smaller than it should be for a market with nearly 200,000 African Americans.
For the majority of the Black Business Mini Conference attendees, they were either already established small businesses or looking to get into that space. LaShawnda A. Thomas, the keynote speaker of the event and vice chair of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh Board of Trustees, said they were in the right place.
DENISE SLAPPY, seated in front, a theater artist who just moved to Pittsburgh from Michigan, connected with a number of Black entrepreneurs during the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s Black Business Mini Conference.
“You don’t have to have every answer before you seek information, support and connection; that’s what we’re here for,” Thomas, who also works with Mendes Consulting, LLC, said.
She added: “Here’s what I ask of everyone today; don’t leave this conference with just notes. Leave with names and a plan to follow up. Identify at least one resource to explore, one relationship to build, one appointment to schedule, one opportunity to share this with someone else who maybe didn’t have an opportunity to attend. Let this event become part of a stronger network of Black business and non-profit leadership in Pittsburgh.”
For Coulverson, he discussed how to build credit as an entrepreneur. In the personal world, a person’s credit score can get them a better rate on a mortgage or a car loan. In the business world, the higher the credit-worthiness of the business, the better its chances of securing funding and negotiating better terms with vendors. Businesses use an Employer Identification Number or Tax ID number. In the personal world, Social Security Numbers are used.
As for Gaines-Cherry, his primary message about RFPs was that “the language you submit for a RFP changes based off of your position as a small business, a non-profit or even as an individual contractor.”
Gaines-Cherry implored the attendees to check out the Allegheny County website where it lists its RFPs, or solicitations. The City of Pittsburgh also has a weblink dedicated to its open RFPs, listed under the terms “procurement” and “bid opportunities.”
As an example, as of Sept. 10, 2026, the City of Pittsburgh’s Office of Management and Budget, on behalf of the Department of Parks and Recreation, is soliciting bids from qualified firms for cleaning services at Citiparks centers. The contract is for two years, from Nov. 1, 2026, through Oct. 30, 2028, with two, one-year options to renew.
It’s not out the realm of possibility that one of the Black-owned business leaders who were at the Black Business Mini Conference could submit the right proposal and be chosen for that contract.
In the words of Gaines-Cherry at the mini conference to the attendees: “What makes a successful bid? No guarantees, but there are small shifts we can make that will allow (you) to submit a more eye-opening product.”
MARCUS GAINES-CHERRY of Bishop-Gaines Grantwriting and Consulting, LLC, made a presentation on “Requests for Proposals: Essential Knowledge for Successful Bids.” (Photos by Rob Taylor Jr.)