Conductor CEO selected to join US delegation to Global Entrepreneurship Congress

Kim Lane, CEO of the The Conductor, has been selected to serve as a delegate and mentor to international startup community organizers at the upcoming Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul. The Conductor is a public-private partnership between the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and Fayetteville-based Startup Junkie Consulting.

Lane, promoted to CEO earlier this year, is one of six experts throughout the United States who will train organizers of Startup Huddle, a program intended to help entrepreneurs around the world thrive by strengthening their local support networks. She also served as a delegate to the 2017 Congress in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“I’m honored to serve as a mentor to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in Istanbul,” Lane said in a news release. “This is a great opportunity to meet other entrepreneurial change agents from around the world, share best practices and success stories from Conway, Arkansas and discuss ways we can collaborate in the future. I’m extremely grateful to the Global Entrepreneurship Network for this opportunity to serve the Congress, and am excited about working together to make an impact internationally.”

Startup Huddle, according to the release, was launched by the Global Entrepreneurship Network in 2017 and currently has locations in 19 cities, including Amman, Johannesburg, Moscow, Riyadh, Toronto and Taiwan.

The Global Entrepreneurship Congress gathers thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, researchers and support organizations from more than 170 countries. GEC 2018 is the 10th anniversary of the event, which was first hosted in 2009 by the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City.

Lane was selected for her experience as a regional representative for 1 Million Cups, a Kauffman Foundation program in more than 160 U.S. communities that is based on the notion that entrepreneurs discover solutions and network over a million cups of coffee. As the Southwest regional representative, Lane mentors all of the 1 Million Cups chapters in New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Puerto Rico.