The Creative Coast is proud to announce details of its 2024 GRIT Conference, set to take place from February 29th to March 1st at the Savannah Civic Center in Savannah, Georgia. GRIT is The Creative Coast’s annual two-day innovation event featuring keynotes, panels, and workshops on entrepreneurship, technology, and creativity. In alignment with the Leap Into the Future conference theme, sessions will highlight innovators shaping the future of their industries, address solutions to our toughest challenges, and discuss emerging trends to give individuals access to new ideas and people to spark their momentum.
This year’s GRIT offers over twenty carefully crafted sessions with more than sixty world-class presenters and panelists. In addition, GRIT will offer ample opportunity for networking and making deals with an exclusive VIP Reception on the 28th, networking segments to open each day of the conference, and a Happy Hour on February 29th. Each year, GRIT also incorporates the Startup Stage business pitch competition. Startups will compete for $10,000 in cash and prizes on February 29th.
New this year, GRIT will offer individual speaker sessions focusing on topics highly relevant to today’s entrepreneurs and workforce. Local leaders at the forefront of their industries will speak at these sessions. Speakers include:
Erik Reagan, Entrepreneur, Speaker, and Coach, on Creating a Healthy Workplace on Purpose
Victoria Baylor, Leadership Mindset Coach, OD Consultant, and TEDx Speaker, on
Intergenerational Cheat Codes: 5 Strategies to Strengthen Your Age-Diverse Workforce
Phillip Scroggin, Entrepreneur, Growth Marketer, and Podcast Host, on The Profit Minority Report: Forecasting Your Best Future Customers.
Panels and workshops will discuss a wide array of topics, including Building an Online Community, How to create an MVP, Pricing for Startups, Building the Future Workforce, The Growth of the Film and Entertainment Industries, Making Better Decisions About Sales and Marketing Spending, Podcasting, and more! The audience will be able to engage with panelists and workshop hosts during a Q&A session at the close of each.
GRIT will feature four can’t-miss keynote sessions:
Author and Entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz will present How To Make Any Business Highly Profitable, By The Very Next Deposit. Michalowicz is the entrepreneur behind three multimillion-dollar companies and is the author of books such as Profit First, Clockwork, The Pumpkin Plan, and his newest book, All In. He is a former small business columnist for The Wall Street Journal and regularly travels the globe as an entrepreneurial advocate.
Dr. Jamal Lawrence will speak on The Future of Healthcare. Dr. Lawrence is a double board-certified Family Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine Physician Leader and has been recognized nationally as a 40 under 40 Leader in Minority Health and a Health Equity Achieved through Lifestyle Medicine Scholar. As the founder of Harvest Health MD, Savannah’s first black-owned and only male-owned and operated direct primary care practice, he seeks to provide high-quality, personalized, transparent, and cost-effective care to small businesses that traditionally do not have the resources to provide employees with the healthcare experience that every person deserves.
SuAnne Fu, a Technology and Innovation Strategist, will share The Future of Gaming and Real-time Technologies. Fu has over 20 years of industry experience in immersive computing and creative technology. During her time as faculty at SCAD, she has earned the Professor Emerita honor for her years of contribution to higher education and is currently serving as the Dean of School of Creative Technology.
Kevin Dewalt, Founder of Prolego, will cover The AI Revolution: How Your Business, Life, and Society will be Radically Different in 10 years. In 2017, Dewalt co-founded Prolego to help Fortune 500 companies take advantage of the biggest technology shift since the internet. He has helped drive AI adoption at diverse companies such as Bosch, Raytheon, Cox Enterprises, Lockheed Martin, Cloudera, Transamerica, Morgan Stanley, Citi, Protective Life, and FINRA.
The full GRIT schedule can be found at https://thegritconference.com/schedule/. General admission tickets for the conference are available now for $249 per ticket. VIP tickets, which include access to the VIP Lounge, a special sidecar lunch, and an invite to the VIP reception on the evening of February 28th, are available for $349 per ticket. Tickets can be purchased at https://thegritconference.com/.
