Recently, a team from 1Berkshire joined over 100 representatives from across the commonwealth at the Governor’s annual Economic Development Summit in Worcester. This event brought together municipal representatives, economic development organizations, and private industry leaders to learn, network, and share challenges and practices from across Massachusetts. With top officials including Governor Baker, Lieutenant Governor Polito, and Secretary Jay Ash leading the event discussions, there is one thing that is for sure, economic development is something we all play a role in.
From the islands off the Cape all the way up to the northwest corner of Williamstown, and everywhere in between, individuals, organizations, and municipalities are tackling the issue of economic development head on. Strategies revolving around housing, marketing, education, workforce development, infrastructure and mentoring are but a few that bubbled up to the top of the summit dialogues. Here in the Berkshires however, there were definitely themes and trends that related directly to the great work we are setting the groundwork for, and here at 1Berkshire we’re are excited to help push the envelope even further.
In Orange MA, a new vibrancy has grown around the development of the Orange Innovation Center (OIC) and it’s in-house incubator LaunchSpace. This developing co-working and co-making space, once complete, will provide over 100,000 sq ft of space to tenants and users to do everything from robotics to woodworking to photography and more. Capitalizing on the Massachusetts Collaborative Workspace Program, along with passionate local investors, the OIC is slated to be fully operating this year, and is already creating a gravitational point for collaborative thinking in the greater Orange area.
We here in the Berkshires are also innovating in a similar fashion. In recent years the opening of Cloud85 and the Makers Mill in North Adams and Framework in Pittsfield have both created similar hubs to help drive new co-working and collaborative practices in the County. Future spaces in south county are gaining momentum as well, offering a dynamic network of these unique work environments countywide. Creating space to work, make and meet, venues like these offer new avenues for sprouting business ideas and well-established entities to adapt, grow, and thrive together.
Right over the mountains in the lower Pioneer Valley, Valley Venture Mentors (VVM) is taking entrepreneurial mentorship to the next level. With relatively low financial investment VVM has grown since 2011 from a small group of entrepreneurs meeting in a bar to a monthly symposium taking over a vacant mall. This regularly meeting community of entrepreneurs, along with a well-rooted mentorship program including over 1200 mentors and 4000 participants, has helped advance 212 young companies. What’s the magic sauce you ask? Free food, drink and childcare for all of their monthly meetings, leveraging support through the MassTech Collaborative, and following the mantra of Give.Get.Grow. Participants help give advice and feedback, get input themselves, and grow through the networks, relationships and information they develop through the program.
Here in the Berkshires, we are lucky enough to have a number of grassroots and organizationally facilitated opportunities as well. Lever Inc in North Adams has achieved this through the MCLA Innovation and Entrepreneurship Challenge, and the recent North Adams Arts Enterprise Challenge. Additionally, 1Berkshire has for 20 years run the Berkshire Leadership Program, and more recently our Berkshire Starts program, featuring Entrepreneurial Meetups, Business Boot Camp and Get Mentored Series which focuses on bringing together mentors and blossoming entrepreneurial enterprises across the county. Each of these programs aims to push the needle further by investing in people across the region as an economic development strategy.
There are many pieces to the economic development puzzle, and we here at 1Berkshire, along with you, are excited to continue facilitating and engaging new approaches, strategies, and mechanisms across the county to create the most cohesive and dynamic economic ecosystem possible. For more information about what we have to offer around economic development, feel free to contact us!