While I feel fortunate to have joined the conversation in Kansas City, I believe similar national events needs to be held around the world. In the interest of joining a conversation about what this might look like for Australia, I share my reflections on: Who was in the room, what we did, and main take-aways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who is in the room<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Over the course of the Summit, we were put into working groups made up of a cross section of an ecosystem. At any given time you could reach out and collaborate with someone in areas of investment, accelerator, physical space, policy maker, philanthropy, and education to address challenges and define opportunities for entrepreneur activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Summit provides a great benchmark for similar events to consider who might need to be in the room. Given this is my assessment of what people did from reviewing the 400 or so attendees who registered in the conference app, some usual caveats on any level of second hand analysis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- This is only an interpretation based on a 5-minute look at what each of the over 400 participants nominated as their primary organisation in the conference app.<\/li>
- The graph is not one-to-one, meaning an individual often represents multiple functions. An Accelerator or Foundation may also offer Finance, a University may have a dedicated Space, and Government may be a focused on entrepreneurial Research \/ Policy department.<\/li>
- There can be a blur between who you are and what you do. You are a Foundation who provides Finance through grants, or you are a Finance VC who runs an Accelerator. <\/li>
- The location is based on an assessment on both impact and presence. A local accelerator may have a global reach. A co-working space with three locations remains a local impact.<\/li>
- The categories should be self-explanatory. There are a couple of catch-alls in collaborations \/ association and support agency \/ tools which I expect could be refined further. <\/li>
- At a glance, it may appear that entrepreneurs and corporates are underrepresented. This makes sense within the context of the event being the building of ecosystems versus delivery of outcomes from those ecosystems. Separate events exist to support entrepreneurs and engage corporations in innovation.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe people in the room are those involved in the transformative work of ecosystem development, as compared to transactional activities in that ecosystem. Investors in the room were creating and educating angel investor networks, as compared to those looking for projects in which to invest. Accelerator program leaders were involved in program development, versus looking for entrepreneurs to add to their programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Summit provides an opportunity for those building the ecosystem to rapidly collaborate and build networks to better support those who benefit from the outcomes of the ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six lessons<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Everyone who attends will take different lessons based on their unique perspectives. Already there are some great reviews and reflections from Clay & Milk<\/a>, SourceLink<\/a>, NationSwell<\/a>, Galvanize<\/a>, Austin\u2019s Joshua Baer<\/a>, Virginia\u2019s Anika Horn<\/a>, Oregon\u2019s Julie Harrelson<\/a>, and Startup Sacramento\u2019s Laura Good<\/a>. I expect more to come as we collectively develop the ecosystem playbook. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The flow of the Summit covered three areas of: head<\/strong> \u2013 providing information and frameworks for critical thinking, heart<\/strong> \u2013 inspiring through emotional calls for diversity and social change, and hands<\/strong> \u2013 activities for practical application and development of models. Woven into the agenda were constant interactions and workshops to form new networks, develop strong relationships, and create opportunities for random collisions. The program overall was supported by professional facilitators from The Value Web<\/a> who captured outputs from the sessions and guided participants through the exercises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
New lessons from the Summit will continue to emerge as I share and receive feedback from other ecosystem leaders in my network. The six conversations below seem to come up more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Healthy connections and relationships are key<\/h3>\n\n\n\n