Jeff Standridge to speak on entrepreneurship at Arkansas Tech

Jeff Standridge, chief catalyst with the Conductor at University of Central Arkansas, will speak on entrepreneurship March 9, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., at the W.O. Young Building at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville as part of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institutes’ Uncommon Communities program.

Standridge, author of “The Innovator’s Field Guide: Accelerators for Entrepreneurs, Innovators & Change Agents,” will speak on community-based entrepreneurship and ways to collaboratively support entrepreneurs throughout the region, according to a press release from the institute. A panel discussion with area entrepreneurs will immediately follow Standridge’s presentation.

“Through this session, the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute is highlighting the entrepreneurship opportunities currently taking place in Pope County while also encouraging community-based entrepreneurship in our target communities,” Janet Harris, director of programs, said in the release. “Participants will also have the opportunity to engage in a ‘first impressions’ exercise for Pope County, which will provide community leaders in Pope County with feedback on the county’s strengths and opportunities for enhancement.”

In its third year, Uncommon Communities is a community and economic development program focused on five Arkansas counties – Conway, Perry, Pope, Van Buren and Yell – with an objective of “empowering community influencers with strategies to reimagine their cities and towns as vibrant, livable communities capable of success in the 21st century economy.”

The session is open to residents of those five counties, and registration is free, according to the institute.

Uncommon Communities employs the methodology of Dr. Vaughn Grisham, professor emeritus of sociology and founding director of the McLean Institute for Community development at the University of Mississippi, with the Breakthrough Solutions partnership, under the direction of Dr. Mark Peterson at the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.  This comprehensive program aims to produce a group of community leaders who are equipped to assess, plan, visualize and mobilize citizenry to work together in the areas of economic development, education and workforce development, and quality of life and place, according to the press release.