Thursday, July 23, 1 PM – 2 PM EST

Moving towards the recovery will require a recalibration of your Entrepreneurial Support Organization’s (ESO) business model. Rethinking everything from mission and target customers to service offerings and facility use will be necessary to enable your ESO to operate effectively in the “new normal”. In this timely webinar, Carol Lauffer of Business Cluster Development will walk through the steps for fine-tuning your ESP model and strategy in order to effectively tackle the challenges of the economic recovery and seize the upcoming opportunities.
Topics to be discussed include:
• Recalibrating your mission and business model to the “new normal” and aligning on a path toward economic recovery
• Focusing your program to help diversity your economy
• Re-evaluating your target market segments and members
• Assessing the needs of your members
• Determining the service offerings and role of virtual services in the long term
• Adjusting your facility for the health and safety of others
• Marketing to reach new market segments
• Planning budget and funding strategies for the recovery

About Our Speaker
Carol Kraus Lauffer
Principal, Business Cluster Development LLC

Carol Lauffer, Principal, Business Cluster Development LLC, advises communities and universities on innovative strategies to drive entrepreneurship and business startup in targeted clusters and industries. Carol has assisted more than 80 communities across the U.S. Her work includes the development and implementation of plans and programs to strengthen ecosystems, support entrepreneurship and launch new businesses; commercialize technologies and move innovative products to market; and diversify regional economies.

Prior to BCD, Carol was Managing Director of Panasonic’s corporate, venture-backed incubator in Cupertino, California and a Principal in its $100 million venture fund.

Carol is a former board chair for InBIA and recipient of InBIA’s President’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2015.

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1PM – 2PM EST

By focusing on its key assets and values, Austin transformed from a sleepy college town into a world-recognized economic hub. Today, many communities and their entrepreneurial organizations face the same problems that Austin did in the 1980’s as it began its re-invention: an ongoing economic crisis, difficulty retaining young talent, inadequate access to capital, and poor alignment of governmental, industrial, academic and social organizations to pursue coordinated economic development goals. Learn about the progress of cities in Northern Sweden (Luleå, Piteå, Skellefteå, and Kiruna) who, over the past eight years, have embraced regional values and key environmental and human assets to create organizational alignment, a fitted innovation economy, and become leaders in the EU in key metrics.

Hosted by: Greg Pogue and Jonathan Alba of the IC2 Institute at The University of Texas at Austin.