Exciting News From the SCN Denver Summit & Denver Startup Week

Our Denver Summit kicked off this week amidst the flurry of activity in Denver for Denver Startup Week. It has been awesome to meet with our members and be among so many innovation ecosystem builders.

We are delighted to be running the official Ecosystem Building Track during Denver Startup Week while also continuing a deep-dive on inclusivity and diversity via our Inter-Cultural Unity (I-CU) programming.

So far, we’ve heard from Scott Case and Steve Nager on the power of connections and ecosystem building, NFL players Ryan Shaw and Shadow on learning to work and live with your fears, and we’ve had some amazing breakout sessions that spoke to the core of ecosystem building.

As we head into our programming for Denver Startup Week, as the Startup Ecosystem Building Track, we have a few exciting (and big) announcements!

First, we are elated to announce a collaboration with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation! They have awarded us a grant that will help formalize and professionalize our efforts around creating sustainable economic impact by supporting innovators and entrepreneurs.

“We are energized to engage with Kauffman Foundation on an ambitious plan to amplify and scale the efforts of ecosystem builders. As the guiding light for activation of the entrepreneurial spirit for more than 50 years, the Kauffman Foundation has become a trusted peer in support of the SCN mission, vision and values.” — Larkin Garbee, Interim Executive Director of the Startup Champions Network

In the U.S. we have seen a rise in startup and innovation activity outside of typical epicenters like Silicon Valley and on the East Coast. These developments are a direct result of the work of entrepreneurial ecosystem builders who are driving economic outcomes by creating local and regional initiatives that support and grow new businesses. SCN’s primary mission is to connect ecosystem builders so they can share best practices and learn from each other — no matter where they operate. In order to achieve this vision and activate the SCN values at-scale, we encourage and welcome the support of other organizations.

“We are delighted to see where the SCN team has taken the craft of ecosystem building. With their micro-level access to ecosystem builders across the country and our focus on empowering communities to scale the entrepreneurial spirit in their communities we look forward to working with SCN and learning from their knowledge and experience in this space while also helping them become a formalized and even more effective ecosystem support organization.” — Philip Gaskin, Director of Entrepreneurial Communities at the Kauffman Foundation

It’s tough to overstate the importance of this development for SCN and Entrepreneurial Ecosystems across the country and this grant will help our organization to continue to drive forward. With that, we come to our second exciting announcement: the locations of our next two summits! Our SCN Spring Summit will be held in Portland, Oregon and our SCN Fall Summit will be held in Madison, Wisconsin.

Read the official press release HERE.

— — from the SCN Communications Team