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Corey Bailey

Corey Bailey

Ecosystem leader and former CEO of UpSurge Baltimore focused on equitable startup growth and innovation in Baltimore

Aug 13, 2026

2:56
So how does the, how does the day work, Corey?
2:59
Well, for this event, I have, I'm using it as a learning opportunity for students as well.
3:05
You know, Rebecca, I'm sure you and myself, we've attended professional conferences over our professional career, and just like a conference where you have the opportunity to build your schedule based on the sessions that are taking place, when students come to Discovery Day, they get to do just that.
3:23
We will have probably about anywhere from 10 to 12 concurrent sessions happening in 15-minute increments over four different block times.
3:33
And so when students come, they can read those descriptions and ch- sort of choose their layout for the morning.
3:39
And we've got everything from animal demonstrations, ag and, uh, artificial intelligence, drone-type technology that's used in agriculture.
3:48
We get to look at even, uh, some of the food science side of things.
6:41
Do you find people who come into, uh, Mississippi State maybe as a freshman kind of doing the basic thing and just picked a, picked a career or picked a major, find their way learning about this particular college and moseying on over maybe their sophomore or junior years?
3:34
Corey, so why don't you tell everybody who you are and what you do, and I know you're an entrepreneur and you own cigar shops and other businesses, so tell
3:40
everybody who you are.
3:42
I want to know a little bit about me from Fort Wayne.
3:45
I've been an entrepreneur, been doing business for a long time.
3:51
I own a cigar shop here in Fort Wayne, Copper Cane and Tobacconist.
3:54
We do a lot of retail cigars.
3:57
We also have a distribution of cigars, websites to purchase from.

27 MINS LATER

30:49
That was a big part of, holy shit, right? Yeah.

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