You Can Support Young Entrepreneurs-Here's How

The organization, Entrepreneuring Youth, fosters and supports entrepreneurship in young people by teaching them business skills that they can apply in real life. The program also connects middle and high school aged future entrepreneurs to business owners, so that they can gather insight into what it takes to run a business from the people who have actually done it.

If you are an entrepreneur, you could be a perfect mentor for a young person with the same drive. Entrepreneuring Youth is holding their 4th Annual Retail Expo at One Oxford Centre on December 13. From 11am to 2pm you can meet 30 teen entrepreneurs, take a look at the homemade products they will be selling and offer business tips and advice.

For more information, visit www.eyouthamerica.org.

Pittsburgh is Revamping Its Innovation Plan

If you didn't know about Pittsburgh's Innovation and Performance Department before, then you should get to know it now. The department was created in February and has the goal to further innovation. Its impact could change how the city operates, and technology is being viewed as one of the primary drivers behind the innovation movement.

The group's biggest project they have underway is what has been dubbed Pittsburgh's "Innovation Roadmap," which will provide a basis to guide major innovation activities over the next three years. 

Speaking Wednesday evening at anMIT Enterprise Forum hosted at Carnegie Mellon University, Lam unveiled the early work on the plan. 

What's important, she said, is that the plan go beyond the latest trends and fads to provide a proactive blueprint to drive strategies. 

Ideas for the project were generated this summer through a series of five roundtables that brought together about 120 stakeholders to discuss the strengths and weaknesses in Pittsburgh's innovation community. 

Topics included: the maker moment, clean technology, co-working and accelerators, startups and entrepreneurs and venture capital and angel investors.

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Urban Innovation Districts Are The Next Big Thing

Oftentimes, when people think of areas of innovation, places like Silicon Valley come to mind. However, some are saying that a new model for innovation is on the rise: urban innovation districts. One article in the Harvard Business Review defines urban innovation districts as, "geographic areas where leading-edge anchor institutions and companies cluster and connect with start-ups, business incubators, and accelerators. Compact, transit-accessible, and technically-wired, innovation districts foster open collaboration, grow talent, and offer mixed-used housing, office, and retail.”

Pittsburgh has been named as one of the leading U.S. urban innovation districts. Some other insights from the article highlighted this.

Globally, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Medellin, Montreal, Seoul, Stockholm, and Toronto all contain emerging innovation districts. In the United States, the most iconic districts can be found in the downtowns and midtowns of Atlanta, Cambridge, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. In each, advanced research universities, medical complexes, and clusters of tech and creative firms are sparking business expansion as well as residential and commercial growth.

What does the rise of urban innovation districts mean?

Much of this activity reflects a fundamental rethinking by corporate management about how and where innovation happens. In turn, it is making the case that discrete urban geographies can be instrumental in strengthening the competitive advantages of specific firms and clusters.

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Why Veterans Can Make Excellent Entrepreneurs

Photo by Elias Friedman

Veterans Day isn't until next week, but this week is National Veterans Small Business Week, orchestrated by the Small Business Administration (SBA). All week long, veteran business owners and those interested in starting their own companies were invited to participate in local business workshops and events. During an event this week, one speaker highlighted the key skills that can make veterans excellent entrepreneurs.

Victor Maga's eyes darted around a roomful of veterans, who were listening intently about how he built his business. They were hoping to do the same.

Maga's construction company sets a foundation out of concrete, but he said his firm is built upon a sturdy set of principles – the same ones that sustain the military.

“As veterans,” he said, “we possess some qualities that are irreplaceable for anyone looking for a contractor: planning, execution, leadership, discipline and tenacity.

Maga, a former Army paratrooper, was the featured speaker during a business workshop for veterans Tuesday inside California University of Pennsylvania's Center for Innovation at Southpointe.

The program was aimed at assisting small business owners and those planning to launch a similar enterprise. It was organized by the Pittsburgh office of the U.S. Small Business Administration, the University of Pittsburgh Small Business Development Center and Cal U.

SBA, which has at least one office in every state, provides counseling for startups, loans and loan programs, information on applying for grants and programs such as the one last week.

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