Cities Championing and Expanding Awareness of Entrepreneurship
These startup communities have created engaging campaigns that celebrate their entrepreneurs and startup community.
Society doesn’t understand the value of entrepreneurship. Research shows that entrepreneurs and young companies are the key drivers of economic growth. But most people are unaware of this and the enormous potential of entrepreneurship in their communities and society in general.
If we want stronger, more resilient, and equitable economies the general public needs to understand the importance of entrepreneurship to healthy economies and communities. They need to understand why entrepreneurship is critical for economically thriving communities.
To increase public understanding of the role of entrepreneurship we need to educate our communities about its power and impact. We need educational and awareness campaigns that communicate the importance of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystem building as a means to building stronger, more resilient, and equitable economies.
Many entrepreneurial communities understand this and have already produced media campaigns to promote awareness of the entrepreneurs in their cities. In doing so they’ve begun a vital part of educating the public about the power and impact of entrepreneurship as a strategy to create stronger and more equitable economies. The campaigns that these communities have produced serve as inspiration and examples that other communities can look to develop their own educational campaigns. Here are examples of how eight cities have promoted entrepreneurship in their community.
Community Campaigns Celebrating their Entrepreneurs and Startup Community
Whether they’re highlighting a few entrepreneurs in the community, a new innovation district or initiative, or how their startup community has come together to support entrepreneurs, these cities have created engaging messaging that showcases their entrepreneurs and startup community and in the process supports a culture of entrepreneurship.
Detroit
Developed by the New Economy Initiative (NEI) in Detroit, the In Good Co. Detroit campaign’s aim was to help unify and grow Detroit’s small business community. This video highlights and celebrates the hustle of Detroit entrepreneurs, the culture of entrepreneurship, and is sure to make everyone in Detroit proud of the entrepreneurs.
Memphis
Epicenter wanted to share truths they learned from building a culture of entrepreneurship in Memphis. They set out to intentionally create a community of innovation and entrepreneurship.
“What would it be like if we had a thousand entrepreneurs running around Memphis, Tennessee funded, excited and supported? Would that be transformational? My answer to that is yes. Epicenter is a very big idea that we could transform a community, a culture, a city through galvanizing and supporting and activating thousands of entrepreneurs.”
This video tells the story of how Epicenter and over 40 community partners co-created a vision for what a thriving entrepreneurial community could look like in Memphis.
Minneapolis
A community needs to feel pride in its entrepreneurial heritage. Community members need to be aware of the rich history of innovation and entrepreneurship in its region. This video from Forge North celebrates the history of innovations and startups in Minnesota. It instills a sense of pride in its community of collaborators working together.
“Entrepreneurs travel different paths and they move at their own pace. Some of them bootstrap and some raise venture money. Some need mentorship and expertise that others don’t. If we’re not working together as a community, to connect more inclusively, to celebrate each other more proudly, to challenge ourselves to dream bigger, we’re not only letting those problems solvers down, we’re limiting our own potential.”
This second video from Forge North showcases and celebrates the stakeholders in the startup community.
Winston-Salem
Accelerating a startup community in a city is a community effort. In this video the Winston-Salem entrepreneurial ecosystem came together to show off their full stack of resources for founders, and in the process celebrate their collaborative entrepreneurial culture.
“It’s not about organizational ego. It’s really about remaking our economy.”
Erie
In 2012, Erie, PA resident Beth Zimmer launched a PR campaign to educate the public about entrepreneurship and change the local culture. A multi-year initiative culminated in a PR campaign to promote awareness of entrepreneurship. The initiative created a broad spectrum of media messaging, including multiple videos that explained the importance of entrepreneurship.
“We needed to educate people to the fact that a strong, entrepreneurial environment is very important for communities if they ever hope to realize a healthy economy.”
Birmingham
In 2018 the Rise of the Rest tour showcased the Birmingham innovation ecosystem. Startup community leaders there recognized the importance of entrepreneurship to their local economy.
“Worldwide culture is shifting toward entrepreneurialism. So people are realizing that there’s an opportunity for anybody to innovate, and we in Birmingham have to take part of that revolution in order to participate in the future economy.”
This video features Birmingham entrepreneurs championing Birmingham’s entrepreneurial culture and celebrating its supportive startup community.
Sacramento
As part of a City of Sacramento innovation grant, this short video celebrates the spirit of the local startup community and the innovation that is fueling growth in the community.
The Made in Sacramento series is a series of six videos that highlight the stories of 12 inspiring entrepreneurs and innovators that have chosen to build their companies and products in Sacramento.
Kansas City
Community leaders in Kansas City set out to intentionally make Kansas City America’s most entrepreneurial city. They created this animated video to explain the importance of entrepreneurship to Kansas City.
This video featuring several “main street” entrepreneurs celebrates the growing “main street” economy on Central Avenue in Kansas City, Kansas,
These are great examples of communities coming together to tell their story and celebrate entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Imagine what could happen if communities across the country created similar educational campaigns that begin to change their community’s culture. Collectively, we could change our country’s culture to one that values and celebrates entrepreneurship and its impact on the economy.
