There are so many of us in the area, and a lot of us have no idea who else is out there. Many of us are remote workers, and depend on phone calls, email, and social networking for our contacts during the day. There are a lot of local resources that could be tapped if we only knew about them.
Yesterday's session was a great one, with a few special guests. Joe Keck, who is the Director of the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center which provides free counseling services to existing and start-up businesses. The Center also provides workshops and training programs for small businesses. The territory served by the Center includes: Archuleta County, Dolores County, La Plata County, Montezuma County, San Juan County, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe.
We also had Gary Masner, a well known local business consultant and investor. Gary managed to squeeze this in before heading out on a month-long sail in the Caribbean.
And there was Robert Yearout with Professional Associates of Fort Lewis College, which is an organization comprised of people with substantial professional, business, or academic experiences and skills. The organization endeavors to use this reservoir of expertise in support of Fort Lewis College’s role as a multifaceted learning resource for its students and for the people of the Four Corners region.
Rounding out the group were Walker Thompson, Scot Davis of Sage Technology, Robin Johnson from Syndicom, Nathan Disser from Southwest Adventure Guides, Richard Leavitt from Rally Software, and myself.
A lot of the conversation was around how we could increase the number of technology sector companies and jobs in our area. It requires a blend of investors, entrepreneurs and talent. We have some of this now, but need to do more.
The first step is to start the conversation flowing amongst ourselves and see what we come up with as far as initiatives and ideas. We also need to start to identify what talent we have around the area already, and what they need to to be successful. To that end, we are rounding up local entrepreneurs with business ideas and doing a 'pitch night', probably in late November. Stay tuned on format and logistics... but hey, if you have an idea you want to pitch, let me know!
We are getting some great momentum around these coffee get-togethers. Come on out to the next one and hang out, get to know people like you who live and work here, and join the fun!
The first step is to start the conversation flowing amongst ourselves and see what we come up with as far as initiatives and ideas. We also need to start to identify what talent we have around the area already, and what they need to to be successful. To that end, we are rounding up local entrepreneurs with business ideas and doing a 'pitch night', probably in late November. Stay tuned on format and logistics... but hey, if you have an idea you want to pitch, let me know!
We are getting some great momentum around these coffee get-togethers. Come on out to the next one and hang out, get to know people like you who live and work here, and join the fun!
A great meeting today! In talking to some of the city councilors, they are psyched to grow this!!!
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear about this group and I look forward to participating. I'm a 20 Silicon Valley high tech executive moving to Durango this coming May. My wife and I are both from Colorado, Greeley and Crested Butte respectively, and have had a home in Durango for a few years. We are really looking forward to becoming full time residents.
ReplyDeleteI'm the Managing Partner at a firm that has specialized in helping companies build their business models around open source software for over nine years (olliancegroup.com).
I'm happy to participate and help however I can.
Andrew Aitken
andrew@olliancegroup.com