In case you missed it...
What a great 2nd Quarter meeting! We had a great line up of presentations and really engaging dialogue. Here are a few highlights:
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS:
Congratulations Shanese Slaton! She was nominated and confirmed to the OkBIA Executive Committee as the VP of Marketing and Communications. Glad to had you on on the leadership team!
Stacey Brandhorst, Director of Venture Assessment for i2E, provided an overview of a new program designed to grow jobs in rural Oklahoma. Grow OK is a three-week program designed to explore the product/market fit of a new business concept. Get the full details and upcoming workshop locations here: GrowOK.org
How does the GE Global Research Center in Oklahoma City encourage internal innovation and commercialization? James Roller, Manager of GE Commercial Initiatives of the Oil and Gas Technology Center talked about their processes for nurturing innovation and bringing products to market. And, we now know a hidden architecture design secret!
The OU Center for the Creation of Economic Wealth (CCEW) has an impressive menu
of programs and services. Jeff Moore (Executive Director) and Susan Moring (Program Director) shared about their entrepreneurship programs including a software accelerator, OK Coders, student internships and product design. Want to learn more? Go to the CCEW website!
Survey Time! (and we need your input). OkBIA is surveying its membership to learn more about how we serve our clients and communities.
The survey will ask for:
1. Incubator program design (recruitment, qualification, and duration)
2. Pricing ($/sq. feet)
3. Service offerings (consulting, bootcamps, software, etc)
4. ???? What other metrics are you interested to know? Send us your additional metric questions to okbialeadership@gmail.com.
The plan is to survey our membership in July and have the analysis ready for our next meeting in September. Look for a survey in your inbox soon!
OTHER NEWS:
Global Entrepreneurship Week is November 13th-19th. Are you planning any events or programming? Add your event to the GEW website!
The Business Incubator Tax Incentive is scheduled for review in 2018 and we need to be building a case for continuation of this program. Do you have a former client that has utilized the Tax Incentive to reinvest in hiring employees or continued growth? We need to hear about it! Please send us your graduate's testimonials to okbialeadership@gmail.com. Here is a full listing of the state tax incentives under review.
~MARK YOUR CALENDARS!~
The next OkBIA meeting is September 12th at the Francis Tuttle Launch Pad in Edmond. 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The fourth quarter meeting is scheduled for December 5th at the new industrial incubator, Hemphill Create in Tulsa.
Is there something the OkBIA membership needs to know? Send us your upcoming events or other big news to okbialeadership@gmail.com