Rural Entrepreneurship Roundtable Listening Sessions

1
Rural Entrepreneurship Roundtable Listening
Sessions

• Greg Clary
• Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
• Texas Cooperative Extension
• Alan Barefield and Bo Beaulieu
• Southern Rural Development Center

2
SRDC Overview

• The Southern Rural Development Center is one of
  four USDA designated Regional Rural Development
  Centers. Others are located at
• Pennsylvania State University
• Iowa State University
• Utah State University
• Primary mission is to work with the 29 land-grant
  universities in the Southern region to increase
  capacity to deal with rural development issues

3
SRDC Overview

• The SRDC has several major focus areas. The two
  most relevant to todays discussion are
• E-commerce (curriculum development)
• Entrepreneurship

4
Why Are We Here?

• National attention has been placed on rural
  entrepreneurship
• Focus stemmed from a national grant sponsored
  from the Kellogg Foundation
• 600,000 per grant potential generated over 180
  proposals
• 6 proposals were chosen nationally
• 1 was chosen from the South

5
Major Interest Found in the South
6
Major Interest Found in the South
7
Changing our Economic Development Orientation
Entrepreneurship
TODAY
Retention
THE FUTURE
Recruitment/ Attraction
Source Brian Dabson, RUPRI
8
Why Are We Here?

• Due to the large amount of interest, the National
  Coalition for Rural Entrepreneurship was formed
• Mission of this Coalition is to provide the
  following in support of rural entrepreneurship
• Education
• Training
• Technical Assistance
• Research
• Extension
• Demonstration Projects

9
Why Are We Here?

• These listening sessions are the first project of
  the Coalition
• Listening session foci include
• Current programs in existence
• Wants and needs of rural communities
• Dialog creation among stakeholders
• Development of entrepreneur-friendly communities
• Creating a basis for network and alliance
  formation
• Begin a basis for local, state, regional, and
  national policy formation

10
What Are We Going To Do?

• Introductions around the tables
• World Café
• Round 1 Sharing What Works
• Round 2 If I Had Three Wishes
• Sharing Ideas
• Round 3 Entrepreneurial Friendly Communities
• Rapid Response Session
• Building Networks/Alliances
• Policy Efforts
• What will you do next?
• What should SRDC/TCRE do next?

11
Introductions

• Write the following on one of your index cards
• Name
• Business or Organization
• Address
• Phone number
• E-mail Address
• What do you expect to gain from the time spent
  here?
• Introduce yourself around the table and tell
  everyone else what you expect to gain from your
  time here.
• Give the index cards to your tables facilitator

12
Round 1 Sharing What Works

• Look at the blue sheets
• Complete Form 1-A (page 5) (15 minutes
  1020-1035)
• What are the three key topics that you address
  when working with entrepreneurs
• Who are the major audiences that you work with
• What are the three products or skills that you
  most often use to support work with entrepreneurs
• What is the best resource that you want people to
  know about
• Share your responses with the others at your
  table (20 minutes 1035-1055)
• Facilitators capture the most common responses
  on Form 1-B
• Facilitators report the most common responses
  to the group (10 minutes 1055-1105)
• Facilitators collect all Forms 1-A from the
  group

13
Round 2 If I Had 3 Wishes

• Look at the yellow sheet (page 7)
• Write down the three wishes that you would ask
  for to make a positive impact on entrepreneurship
  in your community or state (10 minutes
  1120-1130)
• Share your responses with the others at your
  table (10 minutes 1130-1140)
• As a table group, what are the most important
  wishes that you want the entire group to hear (10
  minutes 1140-1150)
• As a table group, what would it take to make
  these wishes come true (15 minutes 1150-1205)
• Facilitators share the three most important
  wishes and what it would take to make them come
  true from your table with the entire group (10
  minutes 1205-1215)
• Facilitators collect all of the yellow sheets
  from the rest of the group

14
Round 3 Entrepreneur Communities

• Look at the green sheet (page 8)
• Think of an entrepreneur-friendly (versus
  entrepreneur-neutral) community
• What is this community doing that makes it such a
  great place for entrepreneurs (10 minutes)
• As a table group, select the four key activities
  that make a community entrepreneur-friendly (15
  minutes)
• As a table group, what can we do to make these
  key activities a reality (10 minutes)
• Facilitators report activities and actions to
  the entire group (10 minutes)
• Facilitators collect the green sheets from the
  table group

15
Rapid Response Sessions

• Use your index cards
• Round 1 Building Networks/Alliances (15
  minutes)
• Describe the type of network/alliance that would
  be most valuable to you
• What level should this network operate at (local,
  state, regional, national)?
• What specific things should the network do?
• Who should be part of the network?
• Post the index cards on the flip chart paper on
  the walls

16
Rapid Response Sessions

• Use your index cards
• Round 2 Policy Efforts (15 minutes)
• What current policy areas are of interest to
  entrepreneurs in your communities?
• What specific policies are needed to build rural
  entrepreneurship?
• At level should the policies be enacted (local,
  state, or federal)?
• Who has to be at the table to enact the policies?
• Post the index cards on the flip chart paper on
  the walls

17
Next Steps

• Use the index cards
• Write three things that the Texas Center for
  Rural Entrepreneurship can do to support rural
  entrepreneurship on a state basis
• Write three things that the Southern Rural
  Development Center can do to support rural
  entrepreneurship on a regional basis
• Write three things that you are going to do as a
  result of this meeting (2 copies)
• Facilitators collect the index cards and keep
  them sorted