The Newest Combined Black Owned Business Convention hit Ottawa in grand style.
By Joy Osiagwu
Rideau Sports Centre
Saturday 13 August 2022
Young Black entrepreneurs in Ottawa are breaking their silence to showcase the best of Black businesses in the capital region.
The V2V JAM TOURNAMENT is the first annual business vendor Market and Basketball Tournament event in Ottawa. It brings together over 25 young entrepreneurs doing great businesses in the Black community at the Rideau Sports Centre with over 60 attendees.
Kaine Osiagwu, the Chief Executive Officer of Virtue Technologies and Development, is the event’s lead creator. He is looking forward to developing a big Black business community where Black entrepreneurs can get to patronize each other to create a robust wealthy Black community in Ottawa.
Vivian Achor, the Chief Executive Officer of VTD Apparel, also a lead creator, believes that a bit of advocacy around what young Black entrepreneurs are doing in the community will showcase businesses to more Black and Indigenous people for greater patronage.
The vendors, from caterers to hair stylists and clothing brands to make-up artists and healthcare providers, displayed their products at the event to market the best of the Black community.
Some parents who volunteered for the event were overwhelmed with gladness as they described the engagement as a true dream for the Black Community.
In addition, some African, Caribbean, and Black community members took advantage of the networking opportunity to buy more products produced specifically for the Black community.
One of the guests in an interview session said:
“I am thrilled with what the young generation is doing here. If they keep up the spirit, our community will become more resourceful and financial empowered.”
The basketball tournament was a major attraction for the youths as various teams competed for the grand prize of $2,000. The game occurred alongside the vendors strutting their stuff in the exact location.
Kaine Osiagwu says the vendor market and basketball tournament will be an annual event and hopes to get the City of Ottawa and more Black businesses in the capital region onboard the next event.
Joy Osiagwu is a broadcast journalist with over two decades of experience in the broadcast industry in Nigeria and North America. Osiagwu covered activities of the Nigeria High Commission in Ottawa and the Nigeria Mission to the United Nations in New York for a decade for the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
She obtained a master’s in business administration (MBA) and Media Leadership from the University of Cumbria in the United Kingdom. Osiagwu also has a post-graduate diploma in Broadcast Performing Arts from the Columbia Academy, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In addition, she is a Media Consultant.