Earlier this month, I had the privilege of addressing a roomful of individuals at the 49th Annual Conference of the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) in Kansas City, MO.  The theme of this year’s event was “Energizing Entrepreneurship: Monitoring Progress, Making Change,” and my presentation centered around a few related themes, essentially trying to answer some of the larger, looming questions around entrepreneurship and what makes it so vitally important.

At the macro level, we step back and try to put a fence around “the ecosystem of entrepreneurship” for the purpose of studying and understanding:

– What is entrepreneurship?
– Who are the practitioners of the craft?
– Why should we care?
– Why should it be a policy priority?
– When and where should we be practicing entrepreneurship?

We then delve into greater detail to discuss questions such as:

– How do the nuances of entrepreneurship differ across cultures, internationally?
– Are entrepreneurs born or made?
– Can entrepreneurship be taught?
– Within the U.S., what’s the difference between “What do you do?” (West Coast) and “Who do you work for?” (Middle America)?

I found it to be a thoroughly rewarding experience, and very refreshing to actually see the increased energy, attention and focus on entrepreneurship that may be the “silver lining”/byproduct to our current economic woes.

To view all of the presentations from the conference, visit the C2ER archive.

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