Grow Your Innovative Thinking at Summit
Explore the ideas needed in today’s business climate to accelerate innovative thinking at the 2016 Entrepreneurship & Innovation Summit on Sept. 8, 2016, hosted by the College of Southern Maryland and the Small Business Development Center on the college’s La Plata Campus.
The summit, to be held from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm in the Center for Business and Industry Building, will examine what drives business growth through innovation and technology commercialization.
Don Macke of the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship and business incubation consultant Carol Kraus Lauffer will be the speakers at the event.
Mr. Macke has close to 40 years of community and economic development and policy experience. He regularly helps communities throughout the country grow entrepreneur-focused economic development strategies. He will discuss “Defining an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.”
Ms. Lauffer is a partner at Business Cluster Development for nearly 15 years. She consults with universities and colleges, communities, and businesses to plan and create successful business incubation, acceleration and technology commercial programs. She has close to 30 years of experience in economic development. She will discuss “Tech Commercialization and Incubators.”
The day’s break-out sessions will involve topics like solving social and economic challenges in the region with facilitator Angela Singleton; opportunities for bringing research and inventions to market with facilitator Gary Evans;community readiness with facilitator Kim Mozingo;sustainability with facilitator Angela Thornton, director of CSM’s Corporate Center; exploring the business development model that would work best for the region with facilitator Lynn Reed Selby; and identifying and leveraging the education and research community with facilitator Thomas Luginbill, director of CSM’s Entrepreneur and Innovation Institute.
The Small Business Development Center promotes and supports entrepreneurship throughout the region. The SBDC helps small businesses succeed through high-quality, confidential consulting, cost-effective training and valuable business resources. The organization focuses on providing information and guidance to entrepreneurs, helping them utilize effective strategies, initiate start-up or manage growth. Through various workshops, training sessions, and one-on-one expert counseling available throughout the region, the CSM SBDC assists more than 400 clients each year. Of those, approximately 250 are existing businesses.
Information on SBDC can be found at on the organization’s website. To register for the Sept. 8 summit, visit this website.
For more about the College of Southern Maryland, visit their Leader member page.
