St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman is spending the next couple of days in Albuquerque, N.M., for the third annual Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship. The event is just as it sounds; it’s aimed at helping mayors foster business growth in their communities.
Kriseman will “discuss the role of cities and mayors in creating vibrant and innovative entrepreneurial economies” during the three-day conference.
“I am pleased to join with my colleagues from across the country for this conference. Nourishing entrepreneurship and small businesses has been a focus of my administration. I look forward to sharing with fellow mayors what has worked in St. Petersburg, and learning from others as well,” Kriseman said.
Topics this year include understanding the entrepreneurial environment and how entrepreneurs start and grow companies, leveraging community assets to spur entrepreneurial growth, exploring the role of private charities in building vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystems and measuring entrepreneurial activity.
The conference is hosted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The private organization seeks economic independence through advancing educational achievements. The nonpartisan foundation partnered with Albuquerque Mayor Richard J. Berry.
“The mayors attending this conference understand how important entrepreneurs are to economic growth, job creation and innovation,” said Jason Wiens, policy director at the Kauffman Foundation. “The goal of the conference is to send mayors home with new ‘recipes’ for how to best support the entrepreneurs in their city.”
Mayors will look specifically at the roles of universities, federal research laboratories, industry-leading firms, startup capital, infrastructure, and philanthropy in generating innovation and entrepreneurship.
