Photo courtesy of 58inc.org
58 INC recently hosted an event to celebrate Shelby County being designated as an Innovative Community in the Innovate Alabama Network.
At a recent event for resource providers and innovators, 58 INC, City of Hoover and Shelby County celebrated their recent network designations by Innovate Alabama, whose network program evaluates and encourages three major types of innovation assets of a potential designee: pathways for people, places and entrepreneur resources.
58 INC proudly featured Shelby County’s array of “innovation assets,” including corporate parks repositioning as innovation districts, growing downtowns and micro-urban places, programs that bring innovators, those in knowledge-based companies of all sizes and stages, CO. STARTERS in Montevallo helping founders test and set their business model, the Shelby County Chamber’s education and workforce initiatives, and many more.
“The Innovate Alabama Network is a major step forward to growing the entrepreneurial and innovation environment in Alabama,” said Innovate Alabama CEO Cynthia Crutchfield, keynote speaker at the event. “By providing funding and resources to our local communities, nonprofits and higher education institutions, we are developing a statewide network for innovation programming and catalyzing entrepreneurship in all of our communities, both rural and urban.”
Joining the Innovate Alabama Network supports Shelby County’s short-term goals of promoting awareness of innovation assets and interconnectivity, as well as the long-term mission of fostering a thriving environment where innovative companies can prosper, grow, and create diverse career opportunities over multiple generations.
