# Event Details - **Event Name**: 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame - **Event Start and End Date**: Mon, 19 Oct, 2026 at 05:30 pm – Mon, 19 Oct, 2026 at 09:00 pm (-05:00) - **Event Description**: Nashville's most prestigious night for the founders transforming industries, creating opportunity, and shaping the future of Music City.About this EventThe 2026 NEXT Awards + Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame, Presented by Amazon, is Middle Tennessee's most prestigious night for the founders transforming industries, creating opportunity, and shaping the future of Nashville.Six hundred business leaders. Red carpet arrivals. The Schermerhorn Symphony Center. A new class of Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame inductees. Eleven trophies handed out on stage. Cocktails in the Courtyard until the music stops.They call it the Oscars of business. The CMAs for founders. We call it the night Nashville's entrepreneurs take the stage they earned.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Three founding teams who, between them, built the bank, the buildings, and the restaurants that turned Nashville into a national city:• Rob McCabe & Terry Turner — Pinnacle Financial Partners• Ben & Max Goldberg — Strategic Hospitality• Don & Tracy Hardin — Don Hardin Group━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━THE EVENING5:30 PM · Doors open. Red carpet arrivals begin.6:30 PM · Dinner is served.7:15 PM · Program begins.8:45 PM · Program concludes.9:00 PM · Cocktails in the Courtyard — the NEXT Awards afterparty.Dress code: Nashville Black-Tie. Tuxes, suits, evening gowns, and cocktail attire — with a little Nashville flair welcome. Statement boots, bling, or a touch of Music City glam.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Learn more, meet the co-chairs, and see the full sponsor roster at ec.co/next-awards-2026Sponsorship inquiries: Lauren McWhirter, VP of Investor Relations · lauren.mcwhirter@ec.co https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/85646fa0-a4af-11f1-8345-8160f1306c66-rimg-w1110-h740-dc080808-gmir.jpg Celebrating Exceptional EntrepreneursThe Nashville Entrepreneur Center’s signature fundraising event celebrates the visionaries and innovators driving our city’s economic growth. From prominent recognition to VIP experiences, we have sponsorship opportunities for companies of all sizes to participate in this uniquely Nashville celebration.Sponsorship Opportunities https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events2/banners/85ad1160-a4af-11f1-8345-8160f1306c66-rimg-w740-h740-dc080808-gmir.jpg THE AWARDSEleven trophies. One night. Eight industries that built this city.INDUSTRY CATEGORIES (one winner per category)• Business & Professional Services• Consumer Goods• Healthcare• Life Sciences & Biotechnology• Music, Sports, Gaming & Entertainment• Real Estate & Construction• Retail & Restaurant• Social EnterprisePLUS• Entrepreneur of 2026• David H. Furse Mentor Award• The Freeman AwardELIGIBILITY• In business 5 years or less (as of 10/19/2026)• Headquartered in Middle Tennessee• Founder must be actively involved• For-profit (unless applying for Social Enterprise) https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events4/banners/85ec1630-a4af-11f1-8345-8160f1306c66-rimg-w1113-h740-dc180808-gmir.jpg ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━Presented by Amazon.With gratitude to our 2026 partners: Shore Capital Partners · LaunchTN · HCA Healthcare / TriStar Health · Chezy · Evolution Events Solutions · Austermiller Roofing · LBMC · Belmont University · Southwest Airlines · The Cauble Group · The Cupcake Collection · Intermedia Intelligent Communications · Pinnacle Financial Partners · EO Nashville · Nashville Post · BPD Healthcare · Nashville Soccer Club · Judith Bright Jewelry · and a growing roster of Mentors and Advisors.See the full sponsor wall at ec.co/next-awards-2026Agenda🕑: 05:30 PM - 06:30 PMDoors Open · Red Carpet Arrivals🕑: 06:30 PM - 07:15 PMDinner🕑: 07:15 PM - 08:45 PMProgram Begins🕑: 09:00 PM - 10:00 PMCocktails in the Courtyard (afterparty) - **Event URL**: https://allevents.in/nashville/2026-next-awards-and-entrepreneurs-hall-of-fame/100001997586989459 - **Event Categories**: business, sports, workshops, health-wellness, charities, science-fair - **Interested Audience**: - total_interested_count: 0 - **Event Highlights**: - Duration: 3 hours 30 minutes - Location: Nashville Symphony | Schermerhorn Symphony Center - Languages: English ## Ticket Details - **Ticket Price Range**: min: 53.49, max: 263.49, currency: USD ## Event venue details - **city**: Nashville - **state**: TN - **country**: United States - **location**: Nashville Symphony | Schermerhorn Symphony Center - **lat**: 36.15993529999999 - **long**: -86.7759626 - **full address**: Nashville Symphony | Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 1 Symphony Place, Nashville, United States ## Event gallery - **Alt text**: 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame - **Image URL**: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/events7/banners/ad0f70aa3e7a78948def0ca7f8651e12af73846e3d421c303a23101020b0567a-rimg-w1200-h675-dc080808-gmir.jpg?v=1787384765 ## FAQs - **Q**: When and where is 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame being held? - **A:** 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame takes place on Mon, 19 Oct, 2026 at 05:30 pm to Mon, 19 Oct, 2026 at 09:00 pm at Nashville Symphony | Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 1 Symphony Place, Nashville, United States. - **Q**: Who is organizing 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame? - **A:** 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame is organized by The Nashville Entrepreneur Center. - **Q**: Who is this event for? Is it right for me? - **A:** 2026 NEXT Awards and Entrepreneurs' Hall of Fame is ideal for professionals, entrepreneurs, startup founders, and networking enthusiasts eager to grow their connections. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a longtime enthusiast in Nashville, this event is thoughtfully curated to deliver a standout experience worth every moment. 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The NEC serves as Nashville’s center for entrepreneurship, supporting visionaries—from every background, in any industry, and at all phases—by connecting them to critical resources and championing their desire to change the world. Learn more about the NEC by following us @entrecenter on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at www.EC.co.EC Event Media Release:By registering and/or attending a Nashville Entrepreneur Center (EC) event, you grant permission to the EC, its programs and partners to use your name and/or likeness for publicity, advertising, and marketing via online, print, audio, video or technology to be developed. Your likeness may appear in the media, publications and online outlets for an indefinite date, unless otherwise specified. Your presence in the EC and at offsite EC-related events constitutes your release, permission and consent to be photographed and/or recorded on any media.Health and Safety:The Nashville Entrepreneur Center prioritizes the health and safety of its guests and will comply with any state or local regulations in effect at the time of any in-person event. However, it is impossible to guarantee that these measures will prevent the spread of COVID-19 or other communicable diseases in all instances. We encourage attendees to take CDC recommendations and their individual circumstances into account when making a decision about attending events or wearing masks. If you have been exposed to, or diagnosed with, any communicable disease in the week preceding the event, or if you are exhibiting flu-like symptoms on the day of the event, we kindly ask that you refrain from attending for the safety of other guests.By choosing to attend an event at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, you acknowledge and agree that you voluntarily assume all risks of exposure to communicable diseases and agree to release, waive, and discharge the facility and all related and affiliated individuals and entities, and all individuals and entities involved in the event at the Nashville Entrepreneur Center which you are attending, from all the claims directly or indirectly arising from your visit." } ] } ] ```