Summit Partners:
Our live Tweet Wall during the Summit that was so active, the hashtag was trending in Kansas City, where lots of great content was shared and continues to be shared. Visit often!
Don's dream exercise: If you had $1M a year forever to invest in your community's entrepreneurial ecosystem, how would you invest it? Answers HERE!
Bar Camp Sessions
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Assessing your community for readiness.
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Navigating the CDFI online portal
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Linda Weston, Oregon Entrepreneurs Network
Increasing entrepreneurial investment through angels; Northwest Projects. Presentation not available.
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Workforce initiatives to support entrepreneurs
Other Materials
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Hear what Ines Polonius, CEO of Communities Unlimited, has to say about the importance of e-ecosystems in her region in this short video.
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Keynote Presentation - "Nurturing and Growing Entrepreneurial Talent: It Takes a Community Ecosystem
Deb Markley presented this keynote during the Appalachian Conference on Social Enterprise, March 17, 2016 in which she defines what it means to be a social entrepreneur and what the community's role is in fostering them.
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This article first appeared in the May 2015 issue of CDS.
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Northeastern Economic Developers Association (NEDA) webinar April 21, 2015.
The Growing Entrepreneurial Communities Summit brought together a variety of best practice programs from many disciplines and perspectives, urban and rural, in one place to talk about what it takes to build a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem. This webpage to captures some of what we saw and heard during the conference.
Access Presentations and Materials
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Summit Agenda
Summit Agenda
Wednesday, May 4, 20168:00 – 8:30 am Breakfast
8:30 – 8:40 am Welcome
Dell Gines, Federal Reserve Bank
Tammy Edwards, Federal Reserve Bank8:40 – 9:00 am Opening Remarks, introductions at tables
Maria Meyers, SourceLink9:00 – 9:30 am What is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
Don Macke, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
Conceptual overview
Intentionality, creating new models and enhancing old models9:30 – 10:00 am Practitioner experience
What were you trying to accomplish?
What worked?
What challenges did you encounter?
How did you overcome the challenges?
• Jill Nichols, Rice County Kansas (confirmed)
• Tammy Nemecek Sweet, Grow Florida (confirmed)10:00 – 10:45 am Deep dive peer discussion
What have you tried/what are you trying in your community to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem? How is it working? What obstacles are you facing?10:45 – 11:15 am Break
11:15 – 12:15 Lunch
Dell Gines
Summary of morning – use collaboration technology12:15 – 12:30 Break
12:30 – 1pm Is Your Community Ready to Build an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
Erik Pedersen, VP Entrepreneurship NetWork Kansas
Conceptual overview
Scoring a community’s readiness, leadership, assessing the entrepreneurs1 – 1:30 pm Practitioner experience (two of the three listed)
What were you trying to accomplish?
What worked?
What challenges did you encounter?
How did you overcome the challenges?• Bruce Seifer, University of Vermont (confirmed)
• Ines Polonius, Communities Unlimited, Rural Arkansas and Memphis1:30 – 2:15 pm Deep dive peer discussion
What have you tried/what are you trying in your community to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem? How is it working? What obstacles are you facing?2:15 - 2:45 pm Break
2:45 – 3:15 pm How Do You Get Started Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
Penny Lewandowski, Lowe Foundation
Conceptual overview3:15 – 3:45 pm Practitioner experience
What were you trying to accomplish?
What worked?
What challenges did you encounter?
How did you overcome the challenges?• Tom Walker, the Backyard Effect, Columbus (confirmed)
• Emily Breedlove, Creative and Small Town Ventures, Asheville, North Caroline Entrepreneurship Initiative (metro/rural) (confirmed)3:45 – 4:30 pm Deep dive peer discussion
What have you tried/what are you trying in your community to build an entrepreneurial ecosystem? How is it working? What obstacles are you facing?4:30 – 5:00 pm Closing, sum up
Dell Gines
Summary of afternoon – use technology for collaborationReception, dinner 5 – 6:30 p.m. reception at Fed, dinner on your own
Thursday, May 5, 2016
7:30 – 8:00 am Breakfast
8:00 – 8:10 am Welcome
Pat Brown-Dixon, Small Business Administration (confirmed)8:10 – 8:30 am How Do You Measure an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
Maria Meyers, U.S.SourceLink
Conceptual overview8:30 – 9 am Practitioner experience
What were you trying to accomplish?
What worked?
What challenges did you encounter?
How did you overcome the challenges?• Dane Stangler, Kauffman Foundation (confirmed)
• Bill Sproull, Richardson Chamber of Commerce (confirmed)9 – 9:30 am Break
Bar Camp
Four breakout sessions for each time slot
9:30-10:30 am
• Wealth building strategies for economic development (from Cleveland, OH to DeWitt, AR): Deb Markley (confirmed)
• Assessing your community for readiness: Chuck Wolfe (confirmed)
• Navigating the CDFI online portal: Dennis West, Northern Initiatives, Michigan (confirmed)
• Open session (determined by group)
10:30-11:30 am
• Transforming urban communities: Christina Long
• Increasing entrepreneurial investment through angels; Northwest projects: Linda Weston
• Workforce initiatives to support entrepreneurs: Steve Shepelwich
• Open session (determined by group)11:30 – noon Where do we go from here?/Wrap up
Dell Gines/Maria Meyers -
Please visit our YouTube playlist for all of the main session video recordings.
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Pat Brown-Dixon, Region 7 Administrator, Small Business Administration, shares the SBA's perspective on e-ecosystems.
Session 1: What is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
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This presentation provides a conceptual overview of e-ecosystems.
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provides e-ecosystem practitioner experience in Kansas.
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provides-ecosystem practitioner experience in Florida. This is a PREZI file.
Session 2: Is Your Community Ready to Build an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
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provides a conceptual overview on community readiness for e-ecosystems.
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discusses practitioner experience in Vermont.
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discusses community readiness in the deep South.
Session 3: How Do You Get Started Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
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shares a conceptual overview on how to get started building an e-ecosystem.
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Patricia Brasted, Wichita Technology Corporation
Presentation not available.
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shares her experience with the North Carolina Entrepreneurship Initiative
Session 4: How Do You Measure an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
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provides a conceptual overview on measurement.
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shares how the foundation measures ecosystems.
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shares perspective from the IEDC and others.