As we get closer to our Fall 2023 Summit in Phoenix, we sat down with a few key members of the Summit Host Team to get a little insider information about the Arizona entrepreneur ecosystem and what to expect as an attendee.
Jenny Poon, a serial entrepreneur and founder of CO+HOOTS and HUUB,who is also an SCN Board Member, as well as a board member of the National Women’s Business Coucil. Read more about her work here.
Isha Cogborn, the founder of Epiphany Institute and Startup Life Support, author of the book, 5 Rules to Win Being You, volunteer organizer for 1 Million Cups - Phoenix East Valley, and a seasoned media personality and podcast host of On Purpose with Isha Cogborn.
Jennifer Wong, the Project Manager at StartupAZ Foundation, Co-Founder of The Mountains, and organizer for Techstars Startup Weekend.
The uniqueness of Arizona: Resilience + Collaboration
If you’ve never been to the Phoneix-Mesa region, or Arizona in general, our Summit Hosts would like to paint a different picture than the typical desert and tumbleweeds mindset. Arizona is an extremely diverse state - ecologically, culturally, and politically. There are big cities like Phoenix but also rural communities, immigrant communities, and native communities. That diversity plays into the strengths of Arizona but so does the resilient mindset of its citizens. Through scarcity they’ve discovered collaboration. It’s a big theme you’ll see play out in many ways throughout the Summit.
“I was born and raised in Arizona. There’s a perception from the outside that Arizona is the wild, wild west - that’s it’s just a desert. But Arizona is actually really a diverse ecosystem - biological and cultural. We have Tucson in the south, Phoenix and the central area, and then Flagstaff in northern Arizona. One of the things that I've heard in my time working in Arizona is that there's a scarcity mindset because we live in a desert where water's gonna run out, or we don't have a lot of resources. But it kind of reflects on how people live and react to that type of scarcity. And so we have a theme of resilience in this whole summit, to show how resilient Arizonans are in working with what they have and building something from the ground up. So I think that's what makes Arizona unique,” says Jennifer.
For Isha, it’s the diverse perspectives of people who come from outside, ready to be a part of the community.
“One of the things that's that's very unique about this region is that this is an area of transplants. If you talk to most people who live in the area, they're from somewhere else. I'm originally from Michigan. I've been here for 13 years. If you talk to 10 people, you may find one or two people who are originally from Arizona. And so that allows people to bring a lot of different perspectives. Our community is able bring those lived experiences and perspectives together and ask the question: what do we want our area to be? It’s a special type of person who's willing to uproot themselves and move somewhere else - sometimes sight unseen. People tend to be more optimistic - more entrepreneurial in general than maybe in some other areas of the country. I think that's what really makes this area very special,” says Isha.
For Jenny, it’s the tourist mentality that has bound everyone together with the common goal of creating something better.
“I came from Minnesota, moved to California then came to Arizona. There’s this tourist mentality that exists here where everybody's trying to learn about what exists here and how to contribute. We’ve got this vibrant energy where everybody's trying to build something and be a part of something here. It also helps that Arizona is one of the youngest states in the nation. I think we like to look at other communities and to see what they did well and then examine how to adopt it here, but do it better. We’ve also built a culture of generosity, I think because we all came here from someone else and we're essentially tourists. We all kind of had to lean on each other to figure out how to navigate everything. I think that culture of “the new frontier” does exist in a lot of the community here.”
Why they chose to host the Summit
The Summit planning team is so ready to showcase all of the work they’ve been doing over the past decade or so. But they’re also ready to gain insights and learn from our attendees.
“So often when you're doing the work, you get so focused on just addressing the, the day-to-day challenges and the obstacles and trying to get the work done and trying to make resources stretch. It can just feel like work, work, work all the time. If you are looked at as the experts in your community, then you're expected to figure it out all the time. The reality is some of the challenges that you may be experiencing, you don't know the answers to. And so to be able to put together this event here locally and invite other people in from across the country is exciting. We have three days to rejuvenate, take a break from feeling like they have to be the experts about everything related to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, sit back and say, ‘Hey, I got questions and I don't know how to figure this out. Anybody else dealing with this too?’
I am excited that we are able to create that environment, have those very meaningful and beneficial conversations, but to also start to build those relationships so that when you get back home, you don't feel so alone.” - Isha
“We've been building the Arizona ecosystem since 2010. We've always been seen as an outlier. I think we're always third or fourth or kind of forgotten in the mix when they think about cool cities - even though we're the fifth largest in the nation. We've been battling that for a really long time, and I'm just excited for people to see what we've been doing. It has been a lot of work over a decade - we started 13 years ago but there were people doing this long before we were. To be able to show the journey of how our community has grow and tell those stories so that other people can learn from them is exciting.” - Jenny
Things to get excited about
The Host team has been planning such a dynamic agenda, we had to know what they were most looking forward to showcasing.
“I'm excited for the tours. We have three exciting tours, one of downtown Phoenix Arts community, which has been a really vibrant. I think they've been ranked best neighborhood in the Roosevelt Row area. I'm excited to showcase that and just how you nurture entrepreneur artists. We also have the Phoenix Innovation Tour, all the different spaces that are doing great things to support entrepreneurs from bioscience labs to inclusive coworking spaces, to creative community spaces and startup communities that are popping up. And then we’re also showcasing the City of Mesa's initiatives with nurturing the Asian district - like actually planting a flag and saying, this is a safe place for Asian communities. They’ve been nurturing that and have made investments across the entire city to support creative spaces and entrepreneurship,” says Jenny.
What our Hosts are excited about
As the planning team, our hosts are excited to showcase their ecosystem. As attendees, here’s what they’re excited about.
“I’m really looking forward to learning from other people, learning about their communities and the work they do. We all have different perspectives. Being able to have a broader and a better perspective allows us to be better as we are creating programming, building relationships, looking at at policies, etc,” says Isha
“I'm excited about the programming, but I'm also excited about the connections that happen in the hallways, the times in between, the programming where you're really connecting with people. So I'm really excited about being able to do because since the pandemic, everybody's just kind of been like hermits. I'm also very excited about the unconference on the third day of the summit because it's a little different than the usual programming. Where people get to dive deep with each other in smaller groups. I think there's gonna be a lot of great ideas and a lot of inspired conversations that will come out of that,” says Jennifer
Jenny is also really excited about the Unconference (so attendees, come with your ideas)!
“I'm really excited about the Unconference but we have something interactive every single day. We've got the Phoenix experience, the scavenger hunt, the tours and then a full day of actually digging into what our audience is specifically looking for in small group format,” says Jenny.
Hidden Gems in the area
Finally, we asked each host to tell us about a hidden gem in their ecosystem. Here’s are some insider tips.
“When you're walking around downtown Phoenix, if you take a picture in front of the Renaissance hotel at night, something appears on the building. It only shows up in your picture.” - Jenny
“This isn't so much a hidden gem, it's not hidden, but in Mesa there is an Asian district and I just freaking love it. Being Asian in Arizona, those communities are there, but not in that type of density like in the Chinatowns of New York and San Fransisco. To have this Asian district in Mesa pop up is cool. Not so much of a hidden gem, but it's a gem for me.” - Jennifer
“I think the whole area is really a hidden gem to be, quite frankly. It really is a vibrant city.” - Isha
This summit would not be made possible without an entire team of passionate ecosystem builders who worked to put it together. Jenny, Isha, and Jen are just three of the many. Here’s a look at your full Summit team. We can’t for everyone to join us in Phoenix!
