Building Ecosystems Off The Beaten Path: Lessons from New Orleans, Omaha & Cedar Rapids on Prezi

This presentation was prepared for the Startup America Partnership Regional Leaders Summit in Nashville, TN USA on October 18th, 2011.  It is a short presentation on some of the learning derived from research and work in New Orleans, Omaha and Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, on how to catalyze and begin to build a connected network/ecosystem for entrepreneurs in a city not traditionally known for a strong entrepreneurial culture.  This presentation  is not intended to present a comprehensive solution, but rather some key principals and a common theoretical model that has emerged in the research.  Some additional links to key players in each ecosystem, as well as further readings, are listed below.

Please feel free to contact us with questions, thoughts or criticism:

Andy Stoll, Seed Here (andy@seedhere.org)
Amanda Styron, Seed Here (amanda@seedhere.org)

Seed Here
302 3rd Ave SE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52401
www.seedhere.org
Twitter: @seedhere

Seed Here is a social good start-up working to catalyze a more connected community of entrepreneurs, creatives and the people that support them in Cedar Rapids/Iowa City, Iowa and across The Silicon Prairie.

Additional Links:

• Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Lessons from Omaha, paper by Tom Chapman (abridged version). 7 page PDF
• Building An Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: Lesson from Omaha, paper by Tom Chapman (full version), 28 page PDF
• Seed Here (Cedar Rapids) (Seed Here Facebook Page)
• Thinc Iowa Conference (Des Moines)
• Big Omaha (Omaha)
• Silicon Prairie News (Omaha/Des Moines)
• Idea Village (New Orleans) (non-profit ecosystem building organization at the heart of New Orleans
• LaunchPad (New Orleans) (coworking space)
• New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week
• Listen to Tim Williamson, CEO and co-founder of Idea Village, in an interview on where their ecosystem got its start.  Listen to the podcast here.