Innovation-Led Economic Development CertificationThe Trent Lott National Center of Excellence for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship at The University of Southern Mississippi and the Mississippi Technology Alliance recently convened the first class of the Innovation-Led Economic Development (ILED) professional development course. The ILED course is designed to educate community leaders and economic developers about how to plan and implement activities for innovation-related economic development. The highly-interactive course teaches core concepts, tools and techniques for:
The next class will be held October 22-24, 2007 in Hattiesburg. The ILED course will form the foundation of the MTA Allies Training Institute, along with the Kauffman FastTrac® TechVenture™ series, the Goldsmith Commercialization Model and other topic-specific short courses. According to one recent attendee of the course held in July: "I want to thank MTA and USM for the opportunity to get an immersion in innovation, entrepreneurship and the ramifications associated with each. I am a “convert” to the views of working toward innovative entrepreneurship as one of the primary ways to move my community and region forward. While I’ve always worked with entrepreneurs in some fashion, I’ve never had the beyond-basic knowledge of how to move forward and find ways to nurture them, nor have I tried to seek them out. That is changing and will change even more here in Jones County. The 3-day course, in my humble opinion, was well put-together, from the introductory sessions to the more-specific sessions. The flow worked well, was logical and systematic. Again, thanks for the opportunity to learn and to spread the gospel of innovative entrepreneurship!" Tuition of for the course is $495 for Mississippi residents and $595 for non-Mississippi residents. Three hours of graduate college credit from The University of Southern Mississippi can be garnered for participation in the course with an additional fee. For more information, contact Dr. Brent D. Hales via phone at 601-266-6519 or by email at brent.hales@usm.edu. |