Online seminar for businesses set for Friday

State officials will host an online seminar Friday for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Iolan David Toland, secretary of commerce, is scheduled to speak.

March 30, 2020 - 10:02 AM

Laney Hull, a sixth grader at Humboldt Middle School, picks up her belongings from teacher Darcie Croisant Sunday afternoon. Students across the state will begin doing their school work from home today because of the coronavirus pandemic. Photo by Vickie Moss / Iola Register

MANHATTAN – Officials of two lead Kansas agencies responding to the COVID-19 outbreak will provide information for small businesses online at 9:30 a.m. Friday, as part of K-State Research and Extension’s First Friday monthly webinar series. The call will be recorded and archived.

The session, to be conducted via Zoom, is free and open to anyone interested in resources available to the public, particularly small businesses and employees in Kansas affected by the global pandemic.

Kansas Secretary of Commerce David Toland, an Iola native, is one of three guest speakers scheduled to appear, along with Kansas Secretary of Labor Delia Garcia and Laurel Klein Searles, Kansas director of unemployment services.

“Kansas has responded quickly to the concerns of small businesses and employees who have lost their livelihoods because of COVID-19,” Nancy Knopp Daniels, community vitality specialist with K-State Research and Extension, said in a press release. “This call occurs every month in support of small business, but this month we have a special edition to highlight these response programs.”

A record 3.3 million Americans filed unemployment claims in the past week, which eclipsed the old record of 695,000 new claims in 1982.

More information about First Friday e-Calls is available online at www.ksre.k-state.edu or by contacting Daniels at 785-410-6352 or nkdaniels@ksu.edu.