All right, Ms.

Dixon.

Good morning, Mayor, Commissioners.

So this morning, we have uh an exciting update, um, particularly around our uh strategic work with small business, entrepreneurial and small business development.

You know, the city of Dayton is a city of small businesses, and 80 percent of our economic growth comes from our existing businesses.

So we work obviously very hard with those existing businesses, small businesses to help them scale when they are ready to help them with investments and these um to do that.

And so these public private partnerships are really important in the landscape of economic development.

What's also really important is entrepreneurial development and facilitating a strong ecosystem that serves and supports those entrepreneurs, whether they're baking in their kitchen, um, you know, maintaining their landscaping equipment in their garage or starting a completely different entrepreneurial um uh endeavor with technology, etc.

We have um a rich ecosystem, and um Scott Korndike, as the president of Entrepreneur Center, has been driving these missions and visions um for many years now, and um getting some great traction, particularly with the expansion of the hub at the arcade.

And so he's gonna walk through uh the scope of work that that they provide.

Um we have long time been an investor and supporter of the entrepreneur center and their work because of the importance of that entrepreneurial strategy.

And um, so I'll turn it over to Scott Korndike to lead us through the presentation.

Thank you, City Manager.

Uh Commission, um let me get you begin by saying thank you.

Um I don't think you can overstate the importance of the city.

The city leadership in the last 10 years of the entrepreneur.

You just can't.

Um, yes, we as a community and as an ecosystem have gone on to do one of the things, and we're gonna talk about that.

The work really started 10 years ago when the entrepreneur center, the city, and other organizations learned to get out of our own way.

And learn to work as a community, learn to work in our respective spaces.

And honestly, that was driven by the city.

It was driven by the city manager, it was driven by the city commission.

It was driven by the confidence that the city had in the organizations inside of the community.

So at the outset, there's nothing you remember from this presentation today, other than this.

Thank you.

The leadership, I have think has been tremendous.

Uh, and that the residents of Dayton and the region have been well served by the leadership of the commission.

Commissioner, I've had the pleasure of working with all city managers.

I had the pleasure of working with managing commissioners, a couple mayors, um, and the leadership from the small business perspective is tremendous.

So thank you at the LSAP for that.

One little uh quick note.

My presentation views the entrepreneurial ecosystem from the regional perspective.

And the reason I think it's important in standing in front of the city commission to talk regionally is because our region can't be the region it is without the urban.

It just can't.

And so I will do everything I can to when I give you a number or give you a total or I give you an impact to bring it to the city.

We produce a report for the city manager and for the commission each year, which which implies in very specific ways exactly what we've done in the city.

But I thought it might be helpful just to give you the grander vision because that's how you all you know think, and that's how you operate the commission, the grander vision of the region, how important the city is uh to the region and the ecosystem of the region.

So forgive me for that.

It is a regional presentation, but I will I will bring it to the to the city level.

A pretty aggressive agenda, and I want to be respectful of your time.

I threw everything in here, and I can go any direction you want.

Um, I don't expect that you're gonna be particularly interested in the capital access strategies you were employing.

I don't expect that you're gonna care a great deal about what we're doing from an operating perspective, the budgets, but I want to be an open book.

I want to be totally transparent with you as to how we use our money, where we get our money from, how we deploy those resources.

So this is a lot.

So we'll go quickly, but please ask any questions.

If I'm going down a path you don't want to go down, correct me, point me in a better direction.

Um, but I'm excited to do this because it's the first chance I've had in in this current commission to give you that 30,000 foot perspective.

Questions before I begin at all?

Anything any of the commissioners specifically would like me to cover as I followed.

All right.

So let me begin by the regional framework.

I have had the pleasure, as I said, of working with this commission and the city manager for a number of years, and you've seen these evolutions.

And I just want to foot stomp what I said earlier.

The belief in the entrepreneur center, the partnership with the city has been transformational for us.

We originally were an incubator.

We were on 714 East Monument Avenue, as you might recall.

Uh 1998, we were incorporated, 2000.

We opened that building, which has now, as you know, been repurposed.

We were an incubator.