Detroit Is Where You Belong.

An Open Letter to Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings

Dear Rashad and Troy,

Over the past few weeks, InvestFest has become one of the hottest topics in business media following your appearance on The Breakfast Club. During that conversation, you openly discussed the challenges you’ve faced in receiving the level of support you expected from the City of Atlanta and some of its corporate community. Your honesty sparked an important conversation.

As expected, people had opinions.

Some defended Atlanta. Others questioned whether the city truly appreciates what InvestFest has become. Some voices even suggested that Atlanta doesn’t need the event, arguing they can find successful entrepreneurs and celebrities throughout the city without attending InvestFest. Others criticized certain speakers or questioned some of the financial advice presented over the years. The discussion became bigger than a single interview. It became a conversation about where InvestFest is truly valued.

Before I say anything else, let me be clear.

Atlanta is an incredible city.

Few places have done more to cultivate Black entrepreneurship, entertainment, culture, and opportunity over the past three decades. It deserves every bit of praise it receives. Thousands of entrepreneurs have found success there, and InvestFest has undoubtedly become part of Atlanta’s business identity. None of this is intended to diminish what Atlanta has built.

This is simply an invitation. An invitation to consider another city. A city that understands resilience. A city built by innovators. A city that knows how to welcome visionaries. That city is Detroit. You both already know this. You’ve been here.

You’ve experienced the hospitality, the energy, and the people. Last year at Hoops & Culture, Detroit embraced Earn Your Leisure with open arms. This October, you’ll be back in our city through your partnership with the Horatio Williams Foundation and Beautiful Machine Magazine. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome you back.

What better opportunity to imagine something even bigger?

Detroit has spent the last twenty years rewriting its story. The outdated narratives no longer define us. Today’s Detroit is booming with entrepreneurs, technology companies, developers, creators, investors, restaurants, hotels, entertainment districts, and an emerging innovation economy. New businesses continue to open. Young professionals continue to move downtown. National companies continue investing here. The momentum is undeniable.

Detroit isn’t asking for sympathy. Detroit is ready for opportunity.

We’re the birthplace of the automotive industry. We’re the home of Motown. We’re the birthplace of techno music. We’re a sports town. A manufacturing powerhouse. An engineering capital. A city of designers, builders, inventors, artists, and entrepreneurs. Perhaps more importantly, we’re a city that understands ownership.

InvestFest would not simply be another convention on our calendar. It would become part of Detroit’s identity.

Imagine thousands of entrepreneurs filling our hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, and entertainment venues while learning how to build wealth and create generational change. Imagine young people from across Michigan walking into InvestFest believing that ownership isn’t something they have to leave home to find. That vision fits Detroit perfectly.

At Beautiful Machine Magazine and the Horatio Williams Foundation, we stand ready to help however we can. Whether it’s introductions, community partnerships, media support, volunteer coordination, local business connections, or helping you navigate the city, consider us partners from day one.

And I believe I can speak for countless Detroiters when I say this: we would appreciate you, we would celebrate you, and we would support you.

Every great event deserves a city that embraces it as its own. Detroit has done that for countless sporting events, music festivals, technology conferences, and national conventions. We know how to host. More importantly, we know how to make people feel at home.

If you’re ever serious about exploring what the future could look like outside Atlanta, know this: Detroit won’t simply offer you a venue. Detroit will offer you a partnership.

Sometimes the right opportunity isn’t about leaving somewhere behind. It’s about discovering where your next chapter belongs. From where we’re sitting, that chapter looks a lot like Detroit.

Rashad and Troy, the invitation is open.

It’s time for InvestFest to come home.

Detroit is where you belong.

Demetrius Carrington
Publisher
Beautiful Machine Magazine