Like most mainstream reality-competition shows, Shark Tank on ABC seems to suffer from a lack of diversity, but the show's producers, Mark Burnett and his company One Three Media, are determined to change that next season. On Aug. 23, casting directors will be on hand at the Kingonomics Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Investment Conference in Washington, D.C., for an open casting call, according to an official statement released by Shadow and Act.
According to an official statement by conference organizers "The Kingonomics conference … will bring together experts in innovation, entrepreneurialism, crowd funding and in investment from all over the world to train minority business owners, start-ups, investors, youth entrepreneurs and veterans on how to access capital, invest and obtain personal and business wealth."
Adding: "Now thousands of minority and women entrepreneurs will have the chance to fulfill their own dreams with a chance to audition for ABC’s Shark Tank, providing an opportunity for them to gain the much needed capital for growing their businesses."
Shark Tank is a reality-competition show on which aspiring entrepreneurs present their ideas to a panel of potential investors known as sharks. Contestants have an opportunity to make a deal with one of the investors, who include big names like FUBU CEO Daymond John. The Kingonomics conference is a gathering of entrepreneurs and investors created by Bishop Rodney Sampson, author of Kingonomics: Twelve Innovative Currencies for Transforming Your Business & life, Inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more at Shadow and Act.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.