NEWSRELEASE
For Release: September 21, 2006
Contact: John
McDowell, (202) 205-6941
john.mcdowell@sba.gov
SBA Number: 06-19 ADVO
Press Kit
Entrepreneurs Will Help Rebuild The Gulf Coast
Conference Proceedings Detail Strategies, Initiatives
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Small businesses can play a large role in the economic renewal taking place in the Gulf Coast Region, said speakers at a recent conference in New Orleans. The conference, titled Entrepreneurship: The Foundation for Economic Renewal in the Gulf Coast Region, was cosponsored by the Office of Advocacy, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Public Forum Institute, and the Urban Entrepreneur Partnership Gulf Coast (UEPGC)
. The conference proceedings were released in conjunction with the opening of the New Orleans office of the UEPGC, the first of three in the Gulf Coast Region.Participants in the conference came from small and large businesses; think tanks and universities; business organizations and trade associations; financial institutions; nonprofits; and federal, state, and local government. A creative mix of ideas and views emerges from the pages of the proceedings. Included in footnotes to the conference transcript are the websites of more than 100 organizations with initiatives relevant to the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort (hotlinked at www.sba.gov/advo/research/proceedings06.pdf).
“This conference brought together the best entrepreneurial thinkers and doers from across the region and the United States,” said Dr. Chad Moutray, Chief Economist for the Office of Advocacy. “They were united on one major point; entrepreneurs will play a key role in rebuilding the Gulf Coast Region.” According to Gulf Coast Rebuilding Federal Coordinator Donald Powell, “This is going to be a unique opportunity that only comes along not in a lifetime, not in a generation, but maybe once every hundred years.”
UEP National Director Daryl Williams spoke of opening three UEPGC offices in the Gulf Coast region that will provide training to those who choose entrepreneurship post-Katrina. While government has a key role, Williams said, “I really believe that the final version, the final chapter of the story is going to be told by entrepreneurs.”
###
The Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is an independent voice for small business within the federal government. The presidentially appointed Chief Counsel for Advocacy advances the views, concerns, and interests of small business before Congress, the White House, federal agencies, federal courts, and state policy makers. For more information, visit
www.sba.gov/advo, or call (202) 205-6533.