Washington D.C., Dec. 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announces the second annual Innovation Ecosystem Summit for entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) to gather virtually on December 6-7. The free event is curated for those who work with and support entrepreneurs from high-tech startups in research and development (R&D) to the lab-to-market spaces.
“The Innovation Ecosystem Summit brings together leaders across the public and private sectors working every day to strengthen the relationships between local and national innovation and entrepreneurship networks,” said Bailey DeVries, Associate Administrator for the SBA’s Office of Investment and Innovation. “Collaboration is vital to opening and sustaining access to knowledge networks, resources, relationships, and capital sources capable of fueling ideas so opportunity can be equally distributed. While SBA’s mission is evergreen, our work to unlock access to capital and assistance has arguably never been more essential to a thriving American economy and our global competitiveness.”
The Innovation Ecosystem Summit will connect ESOs across the country with opportunities that can accelerate their efforts to build inclusive innovation ecosystems and leverage Federal funding programs. The Summit’s sessions will touch on the following topics:
- The state of entrepreneurship ecosystem building in the United States, including promising practices, funding, and resources for ESOs;
- Successful tactics and resources to grow an inclusive startup network that welcomes communities that have historically been underrepresented in innovation;
- Value of collaborative partnerships and how to leverage each partner’s strengths; and
- How ESOs can support frontier tech entrepreneurs through funding and resources available via America’s Seed Fund, the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs.
The Summit’s sessions include speakers from Techstars, America’s Frontier Fund, Black Innovation Alliance, Village Capital, Ecosystem Building Leadership Project, State Science and Technology Institute, leaders from across a variety of federal agencies, and more.
Attendees are individuals from entrepreneur support organizations on the front line supporting the nation’s innovators and include incubators, accelerators, universities, private investors, corporate venture capital, venture studios, research laboratories, philanthropy, state and local economic development groups, and others working with innovation economy startups and entrepreneurs.
View the full schedule at http://est.us/ESOSummit2022.
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About SBA Office of Investment and Innovation and America’s Seed Fund
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Investment and Innovation (OII) leads programs that provide the high-growth small business community access to financial capital and R&D funds to develop commercially viable innovations. OII’s work is underpinned by public-private partnerships that help small businesses on their trajectory from idea to IPO. America's Seed Fund, the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) programs, is the nation’s largest source of early-stage research and development funding for small businesses. SBA coordinates the programs, collaborating with 11 federal agencies, who collectively support more than $4 billion a year in federal research and development funding. Learn more at sbir.gov.
About the U.S. Small Business Administration
The U.S. Small Business Administration helps power the American dream of business ownership. As the only go-to resource and voice for small businesses backed by the strength of the federal government, the SBA empowers entrepreneurs and small business owners with the resources and support they need to start, grow or expand their businesses, or recover from a declared disaster. It delivers services through an extensive network of SBA field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations. To learn more, visit www.sba.gov.
