Invest Fest 2026: Where Money, Culture, Entrepreneurship and Legacy Took Center Stage

Invest Fest 2026 returned to Atlanta from August 7 through August 9 at the Georgia World Congress Center, bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, creators, executives, entertainers and people looking to improve their financial futures. Created by Earn Your Leisure co-founders Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings, the festival has grown from a financial-education conference into a much larger combination of investing, entrepreneurship, networking, entertainment and culture. The official program covered investing, stocks, real estate, cryptocurrency, taxes, insurance, estate planning, artificial intelligence and content creation, giving attendees multiple ways to think about building and protecting wealth. The Vendor Marketplace, startup programming, Main Stage conversations and additional events made Invest Fest feel less like a traditional conference and more like a marketplace for ideas, relationships, businesses and potential investments.

One of the weekend's biggest stories was Serena Williams, who made history as Invest Fest's first woman headliner, bringing her experience as a 23-time Grand Slam champion, entrepreneur and investor to the festival. Through Serena Ventures, Williams has invested in more than 100 companies across areas including technology, healthcare, finance and consumer products, making her appearance especially relevant to Invest Fest's conversations about venture capital, ownership and long-term wealth creation. The festival's star power extended well beyond Williams, with names including Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Jack Dorsey and Steve Harvey featured in the official lineup, alongside entertainers and entrepreneurs such as Nick Cannon, T.I., Jermaine Dupri and Angela Simmons. Rather than treating celebrity as entertainment alone, Invest Fest used these figures to demonstrate how successful careers can evolve into businesses, investments, brands, intellectual property and lasting legacies.

At the center of that experience was Christina “Ms. Basketball” Granville, who served as the host of the Invest Fest Main Stage, helping guide the audience through the weekend's major conversations, appearances and presentations. Her role was particularly important because the Main Stage was where many of the festival's biggest names and conversations came together, giving her the responsibility of keeping the program moving while connecting one moment to the next. Terrence J was also part of the event's hosting and media presence, bringing his experience in entertainment, broadcasting and entrepreneurship into the festival's mix of business and culture. Together, the hosts helped give the weekend the energy of a major live production rather than the feel of a conventional financial seminar. Their presence also reinforced one of Invest Fest's defining characteristics: financial education can be delivered through voices, personalities and cultural figures who understand how business and entertainment increasingly overlap.

The educational programming remained one of Invest Fest's strongest foundations, with sessions designed to address everything from making money to protecting and growing it. Attendees could explore subjects including stocks, real estate, cryptocurrency, taxes, insurance, estate planning, content creation and artificial intelligence, while other sessions focused on credit, accessing capital, homeownership and creating generational wealth. AI received particular attention as speakers examined how the technology is transforming careers, businesses and industries, including finance, healthcare, logistics and education. That emphasis reflected a broader shift in the definition of wealth-building, where owning a business, developing intellectual property, using technology and creating multiple income streams can be just as important as traditional stock or real-estate investing.

Entrepreneurship was also visible throughout the convention center, particularly through the Vendor Marketplace and Open Pitch, which gave founders an opportunity to put their businesses directly in front of potential customers, investors and partners. Open Pitch brought together hundreds of startup applicants, five finalists and one ultimate winner, with a $125,000 investment prize available to the winning company. Angela Simmons added her own entrepreneurial perspective through her work as the founder of Angela's Cakes and Angela's Angels, while Jhalesa Seymour, founder and CEO of Salt.XO, represented another example of turning a consumer-focused idea into a growing business. The weekend therefore gave attendees both sides of entrepreneurship: the education needed to build a company and the marketplace needed to actually promote, sell, network and seek capital for one. In that environment, the message about ownership became tangible because founders were not simply being told to build—they were standing in the building doing it.

Cicley Gay brought another dimension to that ownership conversation when she used the Invest Fest stage to introduce BLM Sports, describing the vision as rooted in care, capital and competition. In her message ahead of the festival, Gay emphasized that the future of sports is about more than championships, pointing instead to ownership, wellness, economic opportunity and legacy as important parts of the equation. Her presentation connected sports to entrepreneurship and economic development, encouraging attendees to look at the business opportunities surrounding athletics rather than viewing sports only through competition and entertainment. That message fit naturally within a festival where athletes, entertainers and entrepreneurs were repeatedly presented as potential owners, investors and builders. Gay's appearance helped broaden the conversation from “Who wins?” to a more important business question: Who owns what comes after the win?

Invest Fest 2026 also had a significant Atlanta and community-development storyline, particularly through Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was recognized during the weekend for her ongoing commitment to supporting small businesses. The recognition highlighted how the festival has evolved since its beginnings in 2021 into a major gathering place where business leaders and entrepreneurs can connect, learn and develop. At the same time, the relationship between Invest Fest and Atlanta became a major conversation after Earn Your Leisure's founders publicly raised concerns about the city's level of support, followed by a public meeting with Mayor Andre Dickens during the festival in which both sides signaled an interest in moving forward and discussing the event's future in Atlanta. That development mattered because Invest Fest has become part of Atlanta's broader entrepreneurial and cultural ecosystem, bringing together businesses, visitors, vendors and influential figures under one roof. By the end of the weekend, the festival had demonstrated that its impact extends beyond financial education into conversations about small businesses, city support, Black economic power and the future of entrepreneurship in Atlanta.

Ultimately, Invest Fest 2026 demonstrated how far the event has moved beyond its original identity as a financial-education conference. Serena Williams brought venture capital and ownership to the forefront, Nick Cannon, Terrence J and Steve Harvey connected entertainment with entrepreneurship, Ms. Basketball kept the Main Stage moving, Angela Simmons and Salt.XO represented brand ownership, and Cicley Gay used the platform to introduce a vision for sports centered on economic opportunity and legacy. The Vendor Marketplace, Open Pitch competition, AI programming, financial workshops, cultural experiences and networking opportunities gave attendees multiple ways to turn information into action. Keisha Lance Bottoms' recognition and the conversation involving Mayor Andre Dickens added another layer by connecting the festival's wealth-building mission to the future of Atlanta's small businesses and entrepreneurial community. Invest Fest 2026 ultimately left the strongest impression with a simple but powerful idea: building wealth is not only about learning how money works—it is about ownership, access, relationships, opportunity and creating a legacy that lasts.