Stories of Technology, Innovation, & Entrepreneurship in the Southeast

Kansas City-based SourceLink hosted a webinar on Thursday afternoon titled “Trailblazing Together: The Future of Entrepreneurship-Led Economic Development,” and we joined nearly 80 other individuals for the one-hour event.

The consistent message during the conversation was collaboration and team building. Moderated by Rob Williams, Director and National Network Builder for the nonprofit organization, the webinar featured four individuals:

• Maria Meyers, Founder of SourceLink and Vice Chancellor for Commercialization and Entrepreneurship at the University of Missouri-Kansas City;
• Nathan Ohle, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) in Washington, DC;
• Charles Ross, President and CEO of the International Business Innovation Association (InBIA) based in Atlanta, GA; and
• Andy Stoll, Founding Executive Director of the newly formed Ecosystem Building Leadership Network and a former Senior Program Officer for Ecosystem Development at the Kauffman Foundation.

All talked in one way or the other about the changing dynamics of those who are defined as economic development professionals.

Stoll had probably the best line when he told attendees to quickly end a meeting if it starts with a discussion focused on how various organizations build a collaborative environment. “Build trust and collaboration by doing something together,” he said, citing the IEDC-led Economic Recovery Corps that has named three Fellows to work with communities across Tennessee (see teknovation.biz February 2024 article here).

Earlier in the webinar, Stoll added that local people have to be willing to partner, but noted, “It doesn’t exist without collaborative structures. There are still fights about who owns entrepreneurship locally.”

To illustrate how much the field of economic development is changing, Ohle noted that IEDC had launched two years ago a second certification program for those focused on entrepreneurship. Sixty-seven people have already earned their certification in the “Entrepreneurship Development Professional” program.

Ross talked about a project at InBIA that is focused on tracking changes in how local economic development organizations evaluate their successes. Called the IMPACT Index study, its goal is to establish best practices for and proving the efficacy of incubators, accelerators, coworking spaces, and other types of entrepreneurship centers across the United States.

“We are still collecting data and will be doing so until the end of the year,” Ross said.

With that note, he added that one of the trends he has noted is that accelerating local economic development has shifted from 90 percent in the last survey that InBIA conducted to 76 percent today.

Meyers described a strategy of approaching opportunities that could best be described as building a large coalition so it is not one organization that is being turned down, but the entire community.

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