On Tuesday, some of the leading experts on business start-ups and entrepreneurship will convene in downtown Augusta. The Startup Champions Network fall summit will get underway with an opening reception on November 4th and presentations beginning on November 5th.
Between 150 and 200 are expected to attend the summit. Destination Augusta estimates an economic impact of nearly $167,000. This marks the first time Augusta has been selected to host the twice annual event.
“If I’m allowed to say so, because we’re kind of badasses,” quipped Eric Parker, co-founder of Make Startups, Inc. and theClubhou.se. “We do amazing work in our community, and I think we don’t celebrate it enough.
Even with the shutdown going on, we still have folks from Savannah River National Lab participating in this. So, this is a highlight of everything that’s going on in our community, and a way for all of those players to collaborate with each other and to build partnerships with other organizations around the country.”
Topics to be explored and speakers include “What Information Do Entrepreneurs Need?” with Brian Baik and Kyeema Peart, “The Value of Mentors and Mentorship” by Tanya Morris, “Making Local Policy Work for Entrepreneurs” from Chad Reese, and learning about federal policy, presented by Parker, Ga Congressman Rick Allen (R-12th District) and John Dearie.
Although speakers come from across the country, Parker said there is an Augusta-centric theme to the topics.
“We met with the leaders at Startup Champions Network, and we talked about the successes that we’ve had and the challenges that we face, and together, designed themes for the conference that are focused on sharing what Augusta has succeeded in, but then bringing outside speakers in to help us address the places where we might still be struggling.”
That shared information is at the heart of the summit. It is an opportunity to learn best practices and pitfalls experienced by other teams while sharing what has been learned in Metro Augusta.
How this movement started
The local summit will continue the collaborations Parker and Grace Belangia, his co-founder at Make Startups and theClubhou.se, fostered when they set out on a 24-stop road trip in early 2024.
“One thing that Grace and I have really focused on for the entirety of the existence of theClubhou.se is going out around the rest of the country every single year and meeting the people who are doing the most interesting, innovative stuff, so that we can bring that back to our community. And over time, I’d like to think that we’ve become one of those organizations as well that is doing some really, truly innovative stuff.”
Parker said, while this event has the potential to be a watershed moment for the local community, the question remains if the community will embrace the opportunity.
“We do have more things springing up in our community, and that’s wonderful. That is a tremendous sign of growth. It’s felt lonely for the last 15 years, trying to convince our community that startups matter and that we should be investing in them,” he said. “And now that our community is finally doing so, this is an opportunity for us to come together and learn from the best of the best around the country.”
If you want to attend
https://www.startupchampions.co/augustasummit
As the summit winds down on Friday, Parker has one thing he hopes participants take with them.
“That we’ve actually in our community, cracked the code on how to build and scale trust,” he said. “That being very cybersecurity forward has given us a unique lens on how to think about how these ecosystems function and work together. And so even though something may not look cyber forward on that surface, cyber is imbued in everything that we do now as a community.”
