ENTREPRENEURSHIP & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

Technology-Enabled Entrepreneurship in Michigan (TEEM)

    Several entrepreneurial support organizations throughout the State of Michigan share a common interest in facilitating the success of practicing and prospective entrepreneurs.   CyberMichigan has recently convened a number of these statewide organizations in a working group, including: Smartzones and business accelerators, Small Business and Technology Development Centers (SBTDCs), university offices of technology transfer, university entrepreneurship education programs, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Department of Labor and Economic Growth and others. Under the leadership of CyberMichigan, these organizations have joined together to articulate a collaborative vision for technology-enabled entrepreneurship in Michigan (TEEM).

Michigan Entrepreneur

    A bi-weekly e-notification of statewide entrepreneurship events; an initiative of TEEM.

Michigan Entrepreneurship Education Network (MEEN)
   Originally launched in 2002 in partnership between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and  the University of Michigan Business School’s Zell-Lurie Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies, MEEN was created to develop and strengthen entrepreneurship education in Michigan’s traditional degree-granting public universities. 

   From 2002 to 2004 MEEN conducted a number of outreach initiatives - assisting many public universities in  developing entrepreneurship curricula, and launching enduring partnerships and networks among education programs and between educational institutions and other state-wide entrepreneurship organizations such as Michigan’s SmartZones.  As part of this effort, MEEN launched a national benchmarking study of “best practices” for Entrepreneurship programs at the university level:

2003-2004 Entrepreneurship Education Benchmarking Report (opens in new window)

   Today, MEEN has broadened its audience to include private colleges and community colleges, while at the same time, refocusing its efforts on technology-enabled entrepreneurship education within the state of Michigan.

• including educational materials from a broader range of sources, expanding beyond U.S. public and private universities to include community colleges, and non-profit and for-profit organizations
• broadening the audience beyond college and graduate level entrepreneurship educators to include:
  • entrepreneurship educators targeted at community colleges and youth (high school)
  • entrepreneurs (and prospective entrepreneurs)
  • entrepreneurship service providers (consultants, coaches, mentors)
  • economic development organizations

   

  2006 Resource Guide to Technology-Enabled Entrepreneurship Education and Training (opens in new window)

   The purpose of this Resource Guide is to provide a quick and easy method for understanding and using web-based technology to achieve entrepreneurship education. The overall goal of the Guide is to facilitate and enhance the entrepreneurship education of individuals involved in or with aspirations for entrepreneurial pursuits. 

Facts, Fads, and Fantasies of Economic Development in the Knowledge Economy”, a June, 2003 MSU Conference
   Key conference presentations:

• Katherine Willis, retired   (opens in new window)

• Bob Filka, Michigan Broadband Development Authority (opens in new wWindow)

• Dave Childs, Heart of Michigan Planning Group (opens in new window)

• Ron Choura, Michigan State University –Site for Information and Telecommunication Experimentation (opens in new window)

Information Technology & Workforce Development

   This brief explores the gap between the views of Michigan's employers and higher education administrators   regarding the issue of IT worker shortages in the state.  From conversations in 2002-2003, CyberMichigan learned    that executives anticipated needing fewer IT workers while universities were increasing their capacity to grant    computer science degrees.