StartUp with Innov8GA

Innov8GA, a coalition of 15+ Georgia college and university entrepreneurship departments dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and community building, held its semi-annual conference on October 20th. Together, the coalition works to support our Georgia’s young entrepreneurs with programming, mentorship, and events, led by faculty and staff, together with catalyst organizations in the ecosystem.

The theme for the conference was "How Might We Encourage Community and Entrepreneurship via Interdisciplinary Partnerships". Over sixty entrepreneurs’ partners, faculty and educators made the trip to Mercer University’s Innovation Center [mic.mercer.edu] in Macon, GA to network, share ideas, and find opportunities to collaborate.

The event’s program was led by Paul Lopez with TiE Atlanta. TiE Atlanta [tieatlanta.org] supports entrepreneurs in all stages through mentoring, funding & providing access to a global network. The organization is a part of TiE Global, an organization that includes 60 chapters, over 10,000 members across nine countries. The Atlanta chapter is ranked in the top 5 for all TiE chapters.

Starting the program, Lopez encouraged participants to stick to two goals, “Learn one thing new that you can bring back to your university or program and meet someone that can help strengthen your program.

One of the highlights of the conference was the panel discussions featuring representatives from various organizations in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. These included business incubators, innovation hubs, and other college or university sponsored organizations.

They shared their experiences on building interdisciplinary partnerships and how it has contributed to fostering entrepreneurship and community development.

One of the newest Innov8 members, Dr. Grant Muhoozi Warner [linkedin.com]shared a newly formed partnership the Black Economic Alliance. The Black Economic Alliance is an educational partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). His shared what he hoped to accomplish in his new appointment as the inaugural Bank of America Endowed Professor of Entrepreneurship and Director of the Center for Black Entrepreneurship (CBE). The CBE is a collaboration between the Black Economic Alliance [linkedin.com], Spelman College [linkedin.com] and Morehouse College [linkedin.com], and is anchored by a $10M contribution from Bank of America [linkedin.com].

Dr. Warner provided sage advice to other entrepreneurship organizations to, “Eat your own dog food”. Encouraging programs to consider utilizing the advice they often provide to their students or small business customers relating to understanding your organization’s value proposition, program-market fit, and funding.

Trent Coggins, owner of Recoil Trampoline Park, LLC, in Valdosta, GA provided valuable insight on the panel from the perspective of a small-business owner. When asked what was one of the most valuable lessons learned while building his business his response was simple, “That people like you, exist.” Coggins continued sharing how he has utilized statewide resources like the University of Georgia’s Small Business Development Center to not only start but continue growing his business.

His parting remarks were the perfect introduction to the morning’s last speaker, Vanessa Wagner, Georgia Power. Vanessa’s focused on the current data and trends for small businesses and minority-owned founders as well as GrowGeorgia.com, a website launched in 2022 that promotes training, certification and funding that is focused on small businesses and diverse founders.

Vanessa highlighted several metrics that demonstrated where Georgia’s small businesses are excelling, but also provided research demonstrating the gaps in funding that founders of color and female founders experience in Georgia and nationally.

“In Georgia, our startups and small business are an important source of job creation, talent attraction and economic development. Investing in their success and aligning resources to their unique needs is a priority for the Grow Georgia website and overall program,” she shared.

The speakers were followed by breakout sessions where attendees had the opportunity to engage in more intimate discussions with the speakers. This allowed for a deeper exploration of topics such as creating effective partnerships, leveraging resources within the ecosystem, and aligning goals for maximum impact.

Learn more about Innov8GA and upcoming events at Innov8GA.org [innov8ga.org]

This text has been generated by an AI model, but the ideas and underlying research are original and generated by a human author, Vanessa Wagner. The organization, grammar, and presentation may have been enhanced by the use of AI.