scaleup america: inclusive competitiveness summit series

Inclusive Competitiveness

Summit Series 2014 Changing the economic narrative, scaling up

what works, and connecting the disconnected to

local economic opportunity

AMERICA presents

Introducing a common economic vision, strategy and process to include underserved minorities in the

innovation economy, and help align the nation with the objectives of the My Brother’s Keeper Initiative.

Inclusive Competitiveness Summit Series

A National Response by ScaleUp America To Connect People of Color to the 21

st Century Innovation Economy

[email protected] | scaleupcampaign.org | 541-730-2164

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We made a commitment: In the summer of 2013, at the Clinton Global Initiative’s High-Growth Entrepreneurship

Working Group (CGI America), I raised my hand while standing next to Cheryl Myers, the Director of Economic and

Business Equity for Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber. Prior to CGI America, I helped the governor’s office produce a

successful “Scale Up” rally in Portland, Oregon that attracted 200 diverse business leaders and policymakers from

around the country to discuss ways to tear down the walls of competitive silos and channel collaborative resources to

the local level to scale up initiatives and enterprises through the lenses of innovation, inclusion and impact.

Ongoing commitment: Today, I am co-founder and Executive Director of ScaleUp America (formerly The America21

Project). The journey to this point has been circuitous, but our unwavering commitment has gained significant

traction. Now, we need your help to capitalize upon the hard work and sweat equity that has brought us to the point

of realizing a historic opportunity to develop inclusive economic frameworks across the nation that invest in what’s

working to ScaleUp America. Please consider supporting the rollout of our Inclusive Competitiveness Summit series as

the first step in development of a common economic vision for the benefit of our nation.

Mike Green

mailto:[email protected]

http://scaleupcampaign.org/





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Vision: Catalyze a national movement on Inclusive Competitiveness

Catalyze a new national conversation that aligns with President Obama’s initiative to

empower boys and young men of color in underserved communities. We seek to

evolve current economic narratives to align with the pace and realities of the 21st

century innovation economy and empower and connect disconnected communities

to local economic ecosystems and Inclusive Competitiveness strategies.

Impact: Increased workforce capacity, job growth and economic competitiveness

Improve level of knowledge, engagement and competitiveness of people of color in

the tech workforce and production of successful high-growth enterprises.

Process: Online & Offline Communications and Local Collaboration

Produce a multi-city series of IC Summit discussions on empowering underserved

minorities and connecting them to local innovation ecosystems. Facilitate next-day

gathering of local stakeholders following each IC Summit to discuss development of

an inclusive leadership strategy roundtable. The roundtable will produce a common

vision and strategies for developing Inclusive Competitiveness frameworks that

connect the economically disconnected to existing regional CEDS planning and

resources to identify and invest in scaling up what’s working in regional blind spots.

Target Outcome: Move the needle of economic impact and contribution to GDP

Catalyze national and local collaboration to increase economic competitiveness of

local regions through inclusive economic frameworks. Empower and connect the

disconnected to the tech workforce and tech-driven entrepreneurial landscape.

(Challenge: all black-owned businesses produce less than 1% GDP. Combined with

Hispanic-owned businesses, total contribution to U.S. GDP = less than 3.5%).

Capacity: Establish national network of regional partners

ScaleUp America will partner with multiple local stakeholder groups, including

educational and policymaking institutions. Our focus is on increasing “Inclusive

Competitiveness” across urban regions among underserved communities. We focus

on development of two pipelines that start with STEM Education at the entry point:

1. Tech-based, high-wage diverse workforce (employment pool)

2. Tech-driven, high-growth diverse enterprises (entrepreneurship pool)

On Feb. 27, 2014 President Obama launched, “My Brother’s Keeper,” a new

effort aimed at empowering boys and young men of color, a segment of our society which too often faces disproportionate challenges and obstacles to success.

“There are a lot of kids out there who need help, who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement.

Is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?”

President Barack Obama July 19, 2013

“I’m reaching out to some of America’s leading foundations and corporations on a new initiative to help more young men of color facing especially tough odds to stay on track and reach their full potential.”

President Barack Obama January 28, 2014

“Thursday [Feb. 27, 2014]

marks the start of an effort

that the president and First

Lady Michelle Obama plan to

undertake for the rest of their

lives.”

“(My Brother's Keeper)

initiative is about building on

successes and promising ideas

in the field by testing,

implementing, and scaling up

strategies which have been

shown to have the greatest

impact at key moments in

these boys' lives.”

Valerie Jarrett

Senior Advisor to

President Obama







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Partnerships: Local investment and connection to a national cause/movement

ScaleUp America will partner with local conveners to produce a series slate of

Inclusive Competitiveness summits. While the overall emphasis and framework will

remain consistent, each agenda/theme will be developed with local conveners.

ACTION STEPS: Inclusive Competitiveness Summit series will be produced by

ScaleUp America with local partners using the following formula:

Day 1: Evening IC Summit is open to the general public.

Day 2: Invitation-only local stakeholders meeting: Representative Assembly

of stakeholders in the Local Innovation Ecosystem.

Day 3: Debriefing with organizers and assess next-step outcomes.

Proposed 2014 Inclusive Competitiveness Summit venues:

April 25: Washington DC (Introduce IC Summit series during session at

UNCF’s STEM Diversity Summit at USA Science & Engineering Festival)

TBD: Houston (IC Summit Partner: University of Texas)

TBD: Oakland (IC Summit Partner: NewSchools Venture Fund/Kapor Center)

TBD: Atlanta (IC Summit Partner: Morehouse College)

TBD: Philadelphia (IC Summit Partner: PCL or UAC)

TBD: Seattle (Microsoft & Technology Access Foundation)

ASSEMBLY of the LOCAL

INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM

Primary

Stakeholder

Communities

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NOTE: The focus of the ScaleUp America IC Summit series is to create collaboration, not duplication or competition with existing

legacy efforts, as well as align with efforts connected to President Obama’s MBK Initiative. We seek to expand the education

conversation to include economic competitiveness, which is unique to our contribution to the MBK effort.

Our distinction is in catalyzing a new narrative around Inclusive Competitiveness in communities of color and fostering

collaboration among local innovation ecosystem stakeholders toward building inclusive economic strategies.







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Problem: Historic disconnects continue to produce 21st century repercussions

1. The vast majority of boys and young men of color are disconnected from the

knowledge and resource networks that comprise their local innovation

ecosystems and are ill-equipped to capitalize on economic opportunity.

2. The vast majority of boys and young men of color lack a solid STEM

education, which is the entry point to two primary economic channels in the

global innovation economy:

a. High-wage, high-tech workforce pipeline (employment pool)

b. High-growth, tech-driven enterprises (entrepreneurial pool)

3. All innovation ecosystems across America, from Silicon Valley to DC,

uniformly lack broad inclusive economic frameworks.

4. The education sector, which is responsible for the pipeline of industry

innovators, is disjointed, fragmented and disconnected from local

innovation ecosystems that drive regional economic competitiveness.

5. Regional Economic Development Organizations (RDO), which are

responsible for producing the Comprehensive Economic Development

Strategies (CEDS) plans for every MSA in the nation, lack economic inclusion

frameworks and have no plans for the forseeable future to develop

infrastructure and bridges that connect economically disconnected

communities to local innovation ecosystems and economic opportunity.

Challenge: Establish a common communication, vision and alignment between the

education sector, industry, investors, economic development and policymakers

Expand and augment college to career emphasis to include the realities of inclusive

economic productivity in a 21st century fast-paced, knowledge-based, tech-driven,

globally competitive innovation economy.

Q: How can the education sector (P-20) adequately prepare the landscape of

millions of multicultural students to be America’s next generation of innovators and

job creators?







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Opportunity: Leverage existing assets; invest in transforming landscape

Data show that entrepreneurship has transformed the fortunes of immigrant

families to America in a single generation, and is key to building net worth and

creating generational wealth. Reports also show that American-born boys and

young men of color have the highest levels of interest in entrepreneurship.

Moreover, Census data reveal that entrepreneurial growth is highest among Black

and Latino Americans at 60% and 44% respectively. Even the school-to-prison

pipeline is filled with would-be entrepreneurs. Wrapping educational curricula

around an entrepreneurship core with experiential project-based outcomes is

currently showing dramatic improvement in student interest, engagement and

achievement in schools experimenting with such educational innovations.

ScaleUp America Process: Communication and Development

Communication: Creating a common narrative, understanding and vision

ScaleUp America will take a two-prong approach to community communication:

A. Build and maintain a digital media platform focused on covering the

landscape of innovation currently occurring in regional blind spots. Focus

coverage through the lenses of local innovation, inclusion and impact.

B. Produce offline IC Summit series to catalyze conversation, collaboration and

change in the economic narrative at the local level while promoting a

common vision of Inclusive Competitiveness across America.

Development: Breaking down walls of competitive silos

ScaleUp America will continue working with willing IC Summit series partners

beyond the events to help evolve regional stakeholders into an inclusive

collaborative body we call a ScaleUp Innovation Team (SUIT).

Each SUIT is tasked with identifying and vetting local ready-to-scale initiatives and

enterprises -- through the lenses of innovation, inclusion and impact -- and connect

them to a portfolio of national and local resources to scale up impact. The result is

increased workforce capacity, job growth and regional economic competitiveness.







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AMERICA

©2014

WHAT IS INCLUSIVE COMPETITIVENESS?

Inclusive Competitiveness is achieved as a result of policies, strategies, practices and metrics to improve characteristic performance of underrepresented populations within innovation ecosystems and clusters, emerging industry sectors, and other areas critical to overall economic competitiveness.

Inclusive Competitiveness neither alters nor replaces, but rather complements and enhances, existing and emerging economic competitiveness metrics and strategies, exclusively focusing on the characteristic performance of underrepresented populations.

Johnathan Holifield, Vice President of Inclusive Competitiveness at NorTech

WHO WE ARE

ScaleUp America is the new name of The America21 Project, a nonprofit economic and social impact

organization co-founded by Mike Green, Chad Womack, Ph.D. (National Director of STEM Education at UNCF),

Johnathan Holifield, Esq. (Vice President of Inclusive Competitiveness at NorTech) and Dwayne Johnson

(Founder and Past President of IDEAL Portland).

Since 2011, America21 has developed a track record of producing successful events connecting a diverse

landscape of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, educators and business leaders. America21 has gained

national recognition and traction across America with its vision of Inclusive Competitiveness as a national

economic imperative.

ScaleUp America

Executive Director: Mike Green

Deputy Director: Dwayne Johnson (Executive Director, Technology Association of Oregon Foundation Center for

Inclusive Innovation)



http://www.nortech.org/about-us/our-team

scaleup america: inclusive competitiveness summit series

Economy & Finance