MADISON, Wis., Aug. 20, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Madison, Wisconsin -- a Midwest city of 250,000 -- is nationally recognized as a hot city for startup growth. While known as a tech town, Madison's entrepreneurs come from diverse backgrounds and are building a broad range of companies. This breadth and depth of startup activity is fostered by collaboration-driven "doers" who understand what it takes to cultivate successful entrepreneurs.
Madison, while small geographically, has a lot going on in terms of entrepreneurial ecosystems. They are...
All this and more is what attracted Startup Champions Network to Madison for its annual Fall Summit, a summit designed exclusively for entrepreneurial ecosystem builders.
"Madison is relatively small geographically, but we punch well for our weight class in entrepreneurial output. For a population of our size, we have one of the most active entrepreneurial ecosystems across the nation," says Scott Resnick, SCN Member who will play host alongside Amy Gannon for this particular summit. Scott is the COO of Hardin Design and Development and Entrepreneur in Residence at StartingBlock Madison.
Startup Champions Network (SCN) is a national network of entrepreneurial ecosystem builders. The organization holds a Spring and Fall Summit annually to convene some of the world's top entrepreneurial ecosystem builders and national ecosystem support organizations to network, learn, and share best practices.
Every SCN summit has three ways it supports entrepreneurial ecosystem builders:
Each Summit is unique and its programming and agenda is built depending on the ecosystem, environment, and summit hosts. The SCN Madison Summit will explore how ecosystem builders foster trust, form genuine collaborations, and address obstacles and challenges together. Summit hosts will put Madison on display as an example, while inviting attendees into their work to all learn from each other.
"What's unique about our ecosystem is that there's not one entity that is the 'leading entity' in Madison. We have so many spaces and pockets of entrepreneurial activity that go far beyond tech. There's a rich food culture that has blossomed into food cart businesses, a food financial institute, seed kitchens, communal kitchens, etc. We have organizations cropping up around art and music, a comedy festival for women comedians, etc. These pockets of growth are all happening organically and there are multiple entry points and pathways into our ecosystem. It's a web that catches people and starts to move them through the network," says SCN member and summit co-host Amy Gannon of Doyenne Group.
In Madison, attendees will explore how Madison's "doers" are building the ecosystem by:
All of this will take place at StartingBlock Madison, an entrepreneurial hub dedicated to supporting local start-up businesses. StartingBlock is a huge public/private partnership that takes up three stories of "The Spark", a 50,000 square foot building owned by American Family Insurance. StartingBlock not only houses startups, but also several local startup-supporting organizations.
Summit Host Organizations
StartingBlock Madison and the Doyenne Group are the two Summit host organizations for the Fall Summit. The Doyenne Group is housed within StartingBlock Madison. Doyenne is changing the face of entrepreneurship in the Madison-area and beyond by bringing strong, motivated people together to advance women's entrepreneurship. They do this through programming that expands entrepreneurial skills, building and mobilizing networks, raising and investing dollars, and partnering to change the ecosystem.
"We're thrilled to share the best practices of Madison to the rest of the nation. We hope to pull in new ideas from the rest of the country, and believe that Madison is the best place to convene that group mindset." - Scott Resnick
About SCN
The mission of Startup Champions Network is to provide builders of entrepreneurial ecosystems the connections, resources, and professional development they need to cultivate thriving and inclusive communities. The organization believes that thriving and inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystems should exist in all communities in order to drive economic opportunity and independence for all.
SOURCE Startup Champions Network
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