Tag: Entrepreneurship
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Small Towns, Small Companies…Big Opportunity
Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit and native of Kenova, WV, delivered a compelling keynote address on leadership at the Charleston Area Alliance annual celebration event last evening. His insights on where the economy and technology are headed could be of real interest to West Virginia. From the Charleston Daily Mail: “Ten years ago, eight out…
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Pushing Back on Cultural Bias Against Academic Attainment
We’ve heard several people comment over the last several months about a perceived bias against education in our great state. The basic recounting goes like this: The bias manifests itself in other ways, such as resistance to teacher pay raises (“they already make more than most of us, and they get the summers off!”). I…
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4C Region Getting Serious About Creative Communities
On May 1 in Beckley, over 50 leaders and interested citizens from Fayette, Nicholas, Raleigh and Summers Counties convened at Tamarack for a regional Create WV Summit. From the Mayor of Beckley to a whole contingent from Sophia, WV, participants learned about and discussed the power of the new economy and attracting creative workers and…
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Creativity…It’s All Over Us!
One of my favorite lines from the kids movie Madagascar is from Melman, the hypochondriac giraffe: “Nature! It’s all over me!” Well, I just felt the need to report this morning that creativity is all over West Virginia. A year ago the Creative Communities team was wrangling over the final edits of the white paper…
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Cool Towns – How Did They Get That Way?
David Ivan is a passionate guy. A researcher and program manager at Michigan State University’s createwv.typepad.com Extension Office, he spends a great deal of time talking to people in small towns like many of those in West Virginia. createwv.typepad.com What’s his purpose? To identify those rural, small town communities that are bucking the trend and…
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New Entrepreneurial Directory
We all know the importance of entrepreneurs and small business growth to West Virginia’s economy. Connecting them to the right source for services, information and products is critical. A Vision Shared, in collaboration with the West Virginia Small Business Development Centers, is creating a new, comprehensive online directory. It is designed to connect West Virginia…
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West Virginia Says YES to Entrepreneurs
Last night in Morgantown, Martinsburg, Charleston and Fayetteville, dozens of young entrepreneurs gathered to launch the YES Network (Young Entrepreneurs Support). It was an energizing and inspirational milestone for the Vision Shared Entrepreneurship team – congratulations! It is YES Network’s goal to: provide active, consistent programming that spurs the development of peer to peer and…
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What is West Virginia’s Brand?
What does the name West Virginia stand for in the minds of most people? For those in the business world, this is often referred to as our “brand.” One definition of the term brand from BusinessDictionary.com is: Unique design, sign, symbol, words, or a combination of these, employed in creating an image that identifies a…
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Measuring Return on New Economy Investment
The recent proposal by Governor Manchin to essentially mimic Kentucky’s “Bucks for Brains” program on a smaller scale is an encouraging sign that our state is ready to think beyond traditional economic development boundaries. While it would be great if West Virginia were someday on the leading edge of creative initiatives like Bucks for Brains,…
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Creative Resolutions for 2008
Happy New Year! We thought it would be interesting to throw out some recommended resolutions to get us started on the right creative foot in 2008. In addition to the ones below, the createwv.com site has a list of “Big Ideas” your community might want to use as inspiration (see the Big Ideas link on…