With less than two months until Global Entrepreneurship Week – a celebration of entrepreneurship held simultaneously in 160 countries around the world – Little Rock, Arkansas is mobilizing their startup community to help new businesses start and scale this November.
Kim Lane, director of operations and community development at the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub, is one of the lead organizers for GEW Little Rock, and is excited to participate in her first GEW celebration.
Little Rock is an emerging entrepreneurial hub in the United States, and one of three new GEW USA Startup Cities – an initiative by GEW USA to spotlight strong and emerging local communities who are championing startups and helping new firms start and scale.
“Our whole ecosystem is in a growing space right now,” said Lane. “Arkansas in general is a great breeding ground for entrepreneurs – there a lot of co-working spaces, support programs, mentors eager to get involved in this space, and a push by the community to bring in this sort of culture.”
During GEW, November 14 – 20, Lane said various entrepreneurial and innovation support centers are coming together to collaborate and promote activities and programs as a way to help drive excitement for entrepreneurship and economic growth in the community.
“I’m definitely excited about all of the collaboration. I think it’s a great way for people to get entrenched in this ecosystem who might not consider themselves entrepreneurs, or who might not know how to get involved. I think they’ll get their feet wet, and get to see what the ecosystem is.”
The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub will be hosting 1 Million Cups that week, and the U.S. Small Business Administration will also hold two intensive workshops on finance and the process of starting your own business. The workshops are free.
A local support program to empower women and minorities in entrepreneurship, Start Here Little Rock, will also be hosting an event. The Clinton School of Public Service has a speaker series each month, and has partnered with GEW Little Rock to bring the topic of entrepreneurship into the series during the week.
Lane said one of the reasons why she, as director of operations and community development for the Hub, wanted to bring GEW to Little Rock is because of the opportunity to provide resources for the community on a larger scale.
“A lot of times, people don’t know where to start,” she said. “I see Global Entrepreneurship Week as a great opportunity to bring everyone together.”
GEW is still taking shape in Little Rock, and Lane said there will be more activities to come. To follow the city’s Global Entrepreneurship Week process and entrepreneurial ecosystem, follow the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub on Twitter at @arinnovationhub.
“We are bringing new people into the ecosystem, and getting people excited about what’s going on here.”
The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub is one of the community organizers for 1 Million Cups Little Rock – a Kauffman Foundation program for entrepreneurs. The Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing innovative and entrepreneurial activity in Arkansas by creating a collaborative ecosystem and pipelines that mobilize the resources, programs and educational opportunities necessary to develop, attract and retain talent and to build the state's economy.