Hear from Wilmington Alliance’s CEO at this national Roadmap to Inclusive Entrepreneurship event

National League of Cities, an organization comprised of local leaders across the US that are focused on improving the quality of life in their communities, is developing an action guide called A Roadmap to Inclusive Entrepreneurship. And Wilmington leadership is involved.

Renata Kowalczyk, CEO of the nonprofit Wilmington Alliance, joined NLC’s 2020 City Innovation Ecosystems program, a cohort with five other cities led by Samira Cook Gaines of Rising Tide Capital. The focus of the cohort was finding solutions to make it easier for entrepreneurs to get business licenses, one of the challenges faced by entrepreneurs from marginalized communities.

Wilmington Alliance is behind local economic development projects such as WilmingtonMade small biz campaign, the grant-driven Wilmington Strong Fund, the Yes, Wilmington! Summit and the Wilmington Kitchen Collective incubator. The org was also the underwriter for Technical.ly’s 12-part Seeking Equity in Wilmington series in 2020.

Kowalczyk will join five other leaders from across the country to talk about some of the recommendations outlined in the Roadmap to Inclusive Entrepreneurship. The goal is to help communities build entrepreneur ecosystems more sustainably inclusive to historically marginalized groups.

In addition to Kowalczyk, the panelists will be:

• Bruce Katz, founding director of Nowak Metro Finance Lab
• Charisse Conanan Johnson, managing partner at Next Street
• Della Clark, president and CEO of The Enterprise Center
• Brooks Rainwater, senior executive and director of the Center for City Solutions, National League of Cities
• Jenn Steinfeld, director of entrepreneurship and economic development for the National League of Cities

The free webinar will be held on Monday, Jan. 10, from 1 to 2 p.m. on Zoom. Registration is required.