2010 Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship Fosters Idea Sharing and Networking

Interest among young Nebraskans in starting a business is high. According to a book published by Gallup, more than half of Nebraskan college-age students want to start their own business. However, research revealed gaps in the education, training, skills, resources and general support entrepreneurs need to successfully launch businesses.

The annual Nebraska Summit on Entrepreneurship is one event addressing those needs. It brings together those committed to increasing entrepreneurship – university officials, educators, business development specialists, business leaders and government officials – with students and members of the public who want to be entrepreneurs.

The Gallup Organization, the Nebraska Business-Higher Education Forum and the University of Nebraska sponsored the fourth annual summit. The event drew about 400 people from across the state on February 26, 2010 to the downtown Lincoln Holiday Inn to share ideas, create partnerships and network.

President JB Milliken

James B. Milliken, president of the University of Nebraska, said difficult economic times should not discourage Nebraskan entrepreneurs.

“I believe that opportunities for entrepreneurs in Nebraska are ripe, despite the struggling economy, or more accurately, because of it,” he said.

Milliken cited a recent Kauffman Foundation study that found more than half the companies on a recent Fortune 500 list were launched in a recession or bear market. The same study suggested job creation from startup companies is less sensitive to market downturn compared to job creation from other companies.

In addition, Milliken said, studies cite Nebraska as a good place to work and live. For example, in February, Gallup.com named Nebraska the second best market in the nation for job creation. Fortune Small Business magazine named Omaha and Lincoln among the best ten mid-sized cities in which to launch a business. The magazine article called Omaha, third on that list, a “hotbed of entrepreneurial activity.” The article said Lincoln’s small business owners form a “tight-knit community” that offers support for entrepreneurs.

Milliken said the University of Nebraska is committed to equipping students not only to get jobs but also to create jobs.

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman said Nebraska is a model for the rest of the country in job creation and job opportunities. While the U.S. overall unemployment rate is about 9.7 percent, Nebraska’s 4.7 percent unemployment rate is among the lowest rates of unemployment by state.

Keynote speaker Jim Clifton, chairman and CEO of the Gallup Organization, gave a call to action.
He said keeping the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) larger than the GDPs of other countries is necessary to maintaining U.S. leadership in the free world. If the U.S. doesn’t build businesses bigger and faster than other countries, the U.S. will lose that leadership, he said.

“We simply have to out-enterprise the whole world,” he said.

Thirty years ago, Clifton said, economists predicted the U.S. GDP would be behind that of Japan and Germany by today, given the economic trajectories of the time. The U.S., however, outperformed the projections by $100 trillion over that 30-year period.

Clifton credits entrepreneurship for making the difference. The economists’ predictions did not account for the invention of the Internet in the U.S., Clifton said.

Entrepreneurs of today and their mentors are keys to keeping the U.S. GDP in the lead in the next 30 years, Clifton said.

“The only way out of this is entrepreneurship,” he said.

The next big discoveries need to occur in the U.S., he said. Business leaders must ensure inventions like the Internet get commercialized and star innovators make their discoveries here, he said.

“As mentors, you and me, we’ve got to keep our eyes peeled for the best and brightest in the world,” he said.

Bo Fishback - Photo courtesy Kauffman Foundation

Bo Fishback, vice president of entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, told participants about the foundation’s work in promoting and studying entrepreneurship.

Nearly 100 percent of net jobs are created by companies less than five years old, he said.

“Without startups, there is no job creation engine in this country,” he said.

The foundation is studying high-growth companies, which are critical to the economy, he said. About one-third of all new economic growth comes from fewer than 1,000 new companies started in the U.S. annually, he said. The foundation wants to help an additional 1,000 high-growth companies start up every year, he said.

The summit also included panel discussions on family business in Nebraska and student entrepreneurship and breakout sections on outreach, finance and taking products to market.

Shawn Thornton, a former heavy equipment operator who moved from California to Nebraska, said events like the summit have made him aware of the entrepreneurship resources available in Nebraska.

“There is a network of people and mentorship that I can tap into if I search for it,” he said.