AGENDA
Designed for alignment.
The three days are designed to build on one another—moving from clarity to coordination to activation. By the end of the experience, the goal is not just to understand the landscape, but to be positioned within it.
SEPT 2 THE WHAT
Where investments are flowing across the region—and what it means.
SEPT 3 THE HOW
How systems actually move—capital, policy, procurement, and access.
SEPT 4 ACTIVATE
What comes next—alignment turning into pilots and partnerships.
The arc is set; sessions and speakers are being confirmed in waves. Agenda below may iterate.
WED · SEPT 2THE WHAT
The State of Things.
The Deep South Is Not Only Investable—It’s Already Being Invested In
Mapping $200B+ in active investments across the region—and the prosperity we can activate for durable and dispersed wealth generation.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS · 11:30 AM
Workforce Stabilization: Housing, Transportation & Retention
Where workforce systems are breaking—and what it takes to stabilize talent at scale.
Certification Readiness: The Capital and Scale Constraints Holding Firms Back
Why businesses can’t access opportunity—even when it’s right in front of them, and what can be different.
Healthcare Systems as Economic Anchors
How hospitals and health systems shape workforce retention, procurement pipelines, and regional stability—and where firms can engage.
HBCUs as Anchors: Talent, Place & Economic Gravity
HBCUs as talent pipelines, real estate anchors, and cultural and economic stabilizers—addressing the retention problem to keep more graduates in the region.
Ports, Aerospace & Shipbuilding: Mapping Supplier Gaps in Real Time
How major ecosystems source goods and services across ports, aerospace, and shipbuilding—where local firms can capture demand still being met from outside the region.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS · 12:30 PM
Mitigating Land & Real Estate Ownership Leakage
How heirs’ property challenges, tax pressures, and distressed sales drive ownership loss—and the tools available to retain family-held land across generations.
Ownership & Investment in Rural and Small-City Opportunity Zone Corridors
How Opportunity Zone (OZ) investment is evolving beyond major metros—into rural and small-city corridors where land, infrastructure, and long-term growth potential are converging.
Expanding Transportation & Logistics Businesses Across Growth Corridors
Where ports, rail, highways, and industrial sites are driving sustained demand—and how logistics firms can position for both immediate contracts and long-term growth.
HBCUs & the Future Workforce: AI, Defense, Health, Logistics, Tech & Manufacturing
How HBCUs can be directly aligned with multi-year industry demand—moving from general talent development to targeted pipelines tied to real projects across the region.
From Campus to Corridor: Building Retention Pipelines Around HBCUs
How to intentionally design retention, development, and attraction pipelines that connect campus to career—aligning HBCUs, industry, housing, and investment to retain, grow, and attract talent across the region.
Building the Ownership Ladder: Homeownership, Land Retention & New Opportunity Zone Pathways
Ownership as the foundation of long-term regional prosperity—connecting homeownership, land retention, and Opportunity Zone pathways into a cohesive strategy for wealth generation.
Megasite-Adjacent Growth: Housing, Capital & Corridor-Building
Major megasite developments across MS, LA, AR, and beyond are already reshaping housing demand, capital flows, and corridor-level growth—what’s happening around major sites, and where opportunity remains underbuilt or undercapitalized.
Live Performance
THU · SEPT 3THE HOW
Systemic Ways to Transform the System.
Public–Private Power in Motion: Policy, Procurement & Access
Leaders shaping policy, capital, and infrastructure speak on how decisions—and dollars—actually move.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS · 11:30 AM
Procurement & Contracts: Where the Work Is—and What It Takes to Get On the List
Demystifying access to major contracts—how procurement actually works across government, infrastructure, healthcare, and major industries.
HBCU Investment & Retention Strategies
How place-based investment around HBCUs can transform talent retention.
Growing Business Along Commercial Corridors
How commercial corridors function as growth ecosystems—where businesses scale faster by clustering around shared demand, infrastructure, and movement.
Supplying the Ecosystem: Inland Ports & Logistics Expansion
Who will serve these systems—and how do we prepare firms to enter over time?
New Benefits of REITs: Tax Rules Shaping Real Estate Investment
How evolving tax policy and REIT structures are influencing real estate investment—reshaping how deals are structured, how returns are distributed, and who can participate.
Closing the Gap: Activating Under-the-Radar Firms for Major Project Procurement
A working session aligning unfilled procurement positions with high-potential firms—and the targeted pilot approach to accelerate their entry into active deal flow.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS · 12:30 PM
Where Joint Ventures, Mergers & Acquisitions Become Opportunities for Small and Growth-Stage Businesses to Scale
How smaller firms use joint ventures, mergers, and acquisitions to access scale, markets, and capabilities they can’t build alone.
The Creative Economy as Corridor Infrastructure: Powering Growth Through Story, Design & Visibility
How creative services—story, design, and visibility—shape procurement readiness, market access, and business growth across the region.
Opening the Path: How Philanthropy De-Risks, Proves, and Scales Prosperity
How philanthropic capital de-risks new models and aligns with institutional capital and operators to scale prosperity across the Deep South.
Scaling the Ladder: Tier 3 → Tier 2 → Tier 1
What breaks at each level—and how to move through it.
Inside Federal Flows: How IDIQ Contracts Actually Work
How companies become recurring players within federal IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity) contract structures.
Healthcare Supply Chains: Entering Before the Door Opens
How firms position themselves before opportunities become public.
REIT + OZ + CDFI: Hybrid Capital Stacks in Practice
How REITs, Opportunity Zones, and CDFIs can be intentionally structured together to unlock liquidity, expand ownership, and align with real projects across the Deep South.
Becoming a Recurring Supplier: From Entry to Embedded
What separates one-time vendors from recurring partners, and how to build the capabilities, relationships, and track record required for sustained participation.
Anchors as Engines: Health Systems & HBCUs as Economic Infrastructure
Aligning these anchors to stabilize regions, coordinate investment, and create durable systems of growth.
Live Performance
FRI · SEPT 4ACTIVATE
Coordination, Continuation & Durability.
Capital Stacks & Ownership Models for Regional Development
REITs, OZs, CDFIs, developers, public agencies—how deals actually get structured, and who gets included.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS · 11:30 AM
Transportation & Logistics: The Next Wave of Infrastructure Opportunity
Where ports, rail, highways, inland terminals, and distribution networks are attracting the next wave of infrastructure capital—and how to position for participation.
Cooperative Investment Vehicles: New Portals of Prosperity
How cooperative and shared investment structures can expand ownership—enabling individuals, communities, and aligned partners to participate in large-scale regional projects.
Community Development as Economic Infrastructure
How housing, small business corridors, and local ownership systems can be designed to support workforce stability, expand participation, and retain wealth locally.
From Founder to Successor: M&A, Transitions & Keeping Businesses Local
How succession, acquisition, and transition pathways can preserve business continuity—and keep ownership local as founders exit and new operators step in.
Strengthening CDFIs for Regional Prosperity
Pathways to expand CDFI liquidity, unlock new capital partnerships, and reduce over-reliance on government funding.
BREAKOUT SESSIONS · 12:30 PM
New Careers & Businesses in AI, Healthcare & Education
Where demand is growing across AI, healthcare, and education—and how to position as a professional, operator, or builder in the next wave of opportunity.
Digital Delta: Building Supply Chain Intelligence Systems
How Memphis can lead in turning logistics movement, data, and infrastructure into supply chain intelligence systems—unlocking new business models, efficiency, and economic advantage.
Rural Economies as Infrastructure: Monetizing Land, Energy, Food & Logistics
How rural land and resource systems underpin large-scale development across the region—and where investment is repositioning these assets for 21st-century industry.
Expanding Supplier Pipeline & Access Tiers in Advanced Manufacturing
How advanced manufacturing supply chains are structured, where access tiers exist, and which opportunities can be activated right now.
Cohort Experimentation: Designing What We Test Next
A working session designing the next set of real-world experiments emerging from DELTA FEST—with defined pilot concepts, aligned collaborators, and a clear path to execution.
AI, Infrastructure & Competitive Advantage
AI and emerging technologies are reshaping infrastructure, operations, and financial capacity—creating new pathways for businesses and institutions to scale.
Where Do We Go From Here
Naming potential pilots, partners, and what happens next.
Live Performance
THE WEEKEND CONTINUES
HOPE Labor Day Classic
Edward Waters vs. Jackson State
SAT · SEPT 5 · 2026 · 6 PM
Separate ticket — not included with Delta Fest Get your game ticket
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