Join Mary Anne Petrillo, CEO of West Business Development Center, Carmen Herrera-Mansir, Executive Director of the El Pajáro Community Development Corporation, and Heidi Pickman, VP, Engagement and External Relations at California Association for Micro Enterprise Opportunity, who will speak about Building Entrepreneurial Ecosystems into Local Economic Development Plans.
The pandemic shone a light on the importance of small businesses to our communities. With record numbers of applications, especially by women and minorities, local economic development teams can boost their outcomes and tackle the wealth gap at the same time by investing in and supporting a local entrepreneurial ecosystem.
In this session, we’ll discuss the components of an entrepreneurial ecosystem and hear about the who, what, when, where, why, and how of two economic development projects that focus on entrepreneurship in rural areas: a community fish market and a loan fund to boost rural businesses.