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Events

2016 Growing Entrepreneurial Communities Summit

Growing Entrepreneurial Communities 2016

Summit Partners:

#GrowingEShip

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

Other Materials

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

  • Summit Agenda

    Summit Agenda
    Wednesday, May 4, 2016

    8:00 – 8:30 am Breakfast

    8:30 – 8:40 am Welcome
    Dell Gines, Federal Reserve Bank
    Tammy Edwards, Federal Reserve Bank

    8:40 – 9:00 am Opening Remarks, introductions at tables
    Maria Meyers, SourceLink

    9:00 – 9:30 am What is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?
    Don Macke, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
    Conceptual overview
    Intentionality, creating new models and enhancing old models

    9:30 – 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 technology

    12:15 – 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 entrepreneurs

    1 – 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 Memphis

    1:30 – 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 overview

    3:15 – 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 collaboration

    Reception, 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 overview

    8:30 – 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.

  • Pat Brown-Dixon, Region 7 Administrator, Small Business Administration, shares the SBA's perspective on e-ecosystems.

Session 1: What is an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?

What is an e-ecosystem panel left to right: Jill Nichols, Rice County Kansas; Tammie Sweet, Grow Florida and Don Macke

Session 2: Is Your Community Ready to Build an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?

Ines Polonius, Communities Unlimited, addresses community readiness in the deep South.

Session 3: How Do You Get Started Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?

At podium: Patricia Brasted, Wichita Technology Corporation; Panel left to right: Emily Breedlove, Small Town Ventures; Penny Lewandowski, Lowe Foundation

Session 4: How Do You Measure an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem?

Maria Meyers, US Sourcelink

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