Kauffman Sketchbook: Kansas City is the ‘City of Entrepreneurs’ (Video)

“The entrepreneurial spirit in Kansas City,” says one of the video’s narrators, “is stronger than the lines that separate us.” That narrator, Kansas City, Mo. Mayor Sly James, is referring to the state boarder separating the Missouri and Kansas sides of Kansas City. And though the state line has served as a point of contention…

“The entrepreneurial spirit in Kansas City,” says one of the video’s narrators, “is stronger than the lines that separate us.”

That narrator, Kansas City, Mo. Mayor Sly James, is referring to the state boarder separating the Missouri and Kansas sides of Kansas City. And though the state line has served as a point of contention for the two cities in the past, these two mayors, as Mayor James said in recent speech, are taking an entrepreneurial approach to government and looking to bolster the region around Kansas City through cooperation instead of competition.

With that in mind, Mayor James and Mayor Joe Reardon, the Mayor/CEO of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., have become two of the loudest voices and advocates for the multitude of efforts around encouraging entrepreneurship in Kansas City – from bringing more visibility to established organizations, such as the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the creators of the video below, to assembling their own team to look at how to best use the pending Google Fiber implementation.

Check out the video below to hear and see mentions of several more organizations – private and governmental – working towards solidifying the tagline the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce announced in September as a part of its “Big 5” initiative: “Kansas City, America’s most entrepreneurial city.”

For more on this topic, including news that the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Bloch School of Management was tabbed No. 1 in innovation management research, see Monday’s press release from the Kauffman Foundation: “Kansas City leaders seek to create America’s most entrepreneurial city“.

Video from Kauffman Foundation on YouTube

For the speech mentioned above, see “Kansas City mayors speak at Startup Weekend KC (full video)“.

Image of mayors: Screenshot from “City of Entrepreneurs” video.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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