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The inaugural regional Economic Development Summit will take place this week, hosted by two nonprofits, Rochester Economic Development Corp. and Venture Jobs Foundation.
The two-day event is a Global Entrepreneurship Week official activity, bringing together entrepreneurs, business owners, nonprofits, community organizations, and industry leaders with the goal of advancing economic development and co-creating the future of Rochester.
Global Entrepreneurship Week is a weeklong campaign with the goal of empowering individuals by removing the barriers to successfully starting and scaling a business. Since its start in 2008, GEW now serves 10 million people in 40,000 activities across over 200 countries each year. This year’s Economic Development Summit will be the only GEW official event serving Upstate and Western New York.
The momentum for this event resulted from a collaboration between Kenneth Marienau, vice president of community services for Venture Jobs Foundation, and Lomax Campbell. The duo met in 2018 when Campbell was working for the city of Rochester’s Office of Community Wealth Building. Started more than a decade ago, Venture Jobs Foundation from 2018 through 2023 hosted its Prosperity Conference, focused on economic development and helping small businesses connect with support organizations, thought leaders and funders.
ROCEDC, part of the city of Rochester government for nearly four decades, became an independent entity in early 2020. Late last year, Campbell’s management strategy firm, Third-Eye Network, became the organization’s third-party administrator. It was at this point that Campbell and Marienau joined forces to create Rochester’s Economic Development Summit.
“Collaborating was a natural fit since Venture Jobs Foundation was running the Prosperity Conference. When Ken found out we were interested in doing a full economic development summit, he said it doesn’t make sense to compete; it makes sense to collaborate in the spirit of ecosystem building,” says Campbell.
“I had wanted to invite a larger presence in the community and expand the Prosperity Conference to economic development in a broader sense rather than just focusing on small businesses,” says Marienau. “How do we consider neighborhoods, support organizations, potential employers, and workforce development to get a whole community picture of economic development, and how can that be supported?”
This question became the guiding mission of the Economic Development Summit, which the team began planning in April. Now a week away, the Nov. 20-21 summit will invite 200 attendees to engage in interactive workshops, networking opportunities, panels, and keynote presentations.
While drawing the insight of local economic champions was important for the planners in crafting the summit’s schedule of events, they also wanted to bring in the perspectives of economic development thought leaders from across the country.
The Nov. 21 morning keynote speaker is Andy Stoll, from Omaha, Neb. Stoll was the former senior program officer in entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the world and co-founder of GEW along with the Global Entrepreneurship Network. Stoll now serves as the founding executive director of the Ecosystem Building Leadership Network.
The afternoon keynote speech will be delivered by Lyneir Richardson. Richardson is CEO of the Chicago TREND Corp., a commercial real estate firm that owns six shopping centers with over 380 community investors.
By aligning the summit with GEW, the local team gains free promotion to millions of participants worldwide. Previously, Rochester and other Upstate and Western New York metros were not GEW communities, so this summit provides ROCEDC the opportunity to become a local organizer in a region that has not previously participated.
“Aligning our event with GEW was a great strategic move, and I think it further helps us make the case that co-creating the future of Rochester is better than trying to have any one organization do it alone,” says Campbell.
Adds Marienau: “GEW provides us with promotion and access to resources while putting us in touch with people we may not have reached out to for attendance and participation. It’s a beneficial connection for now and the future of the summit.”
Campbell and Marienau note that Rochester and the surrounding region will experience significant economic changes over the next decade, ranging from the construction of semiconductor plants to emerging optics and laser energetics companies. They hope the summit serves as an annual forum for navigating changes and challenges.
“I’m hoping that beginning to have this cross-sector, communitywide discussion about economic development in Rochester, during GEW, will bring entrepreneurship as a pathway to addressing our structural and systemic challenges into the center of the conversation,” says Campbell.
“The main thing I’m looking forward to is the connections people will build,” adds Marienau. “We hope that this event spurs ongoing activity throughout the year, where we recognize and celebrate those championing economic development, and discuss what is coming next.”
More information on the summit can be found here.
Evan Coleman is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
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