A Year of Entrepreneurship: Calendar of Events to Celebrate Entrepreneurs and Economic Development

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A Year of Entrepreneurship: Calendar of Events to Celebrate Entrepreneurs and Economic Development

Published Jan 11, 2017 by Sarah Mote

At the end of every year (and again at the end of each quarter), we here at SourceLink sit down and map out our calendars. What conferences should we attend? What conversations should we follow? And how can we best and better raise the visibility for our affiliates, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship?

Here’s the short list we came up with for 2017.

Below, you’ll see just a few of the business- and entrepreneurial-related events we celebrate (or create) throughout the year. These events help us shine the national spotlight on local entrepreneurs and on those on–the–ground resources that make local economies and their entrepreneurial ecosystems vibrant and vital.

By no means do we create a full–blown campaign out of everything on this list, but we do use it as a foundation (a post, a tweet, a social media hashtag trawl) to help our communities and entrepreneurs stay abreast of the national conversations happening around entrepreneurship. (This list does not serve as an endorsement for non–SourceLink events.)

Want to say hi to us at a conference? We’ll be at the conferences with an asterisk.

What events, conferences and conversations do you follow?

JANUARY
All month	National Mentoring Month Financial Wellness Month
1st week	National Thank Your Customers Week Women’s Self–Empowerment Week
Jan. 13	Make Your Dream Come True Day
Jan. 16	Martin Luther King Jr. Day #MLKDay
Jan. 17–19	U.S. Conference of Mayors @usmayors #USCM2017
Jan. 17–20	World Economic Forum Annual Meeting #wef
Jan. 19–22	U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Conference @USASBE #USASBE2017
Jan. 19	Get to Know Your Customer Day
Jan. 19	Thank Your Mentor Day #ThankYourMentor
Jan. 25–28	Workforce Development Institute #comm_college (American Association of Community Colleges)
Jan 29–31	* International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Leadership Summit
Jan. TBD	Battle of the Brands Webinar for Affiliates
FEBRUARY
All month	Black History Month Youth Leadership Month
Feb. 11	National Inventors Day #nationalinventorsday International Day of Women and Girls in Science #womeninSTEM
Feb. 18–25	National Entrepreneurship Week #NEW2017 (Consortium for Entrepreneurial Education)
Feb. 28–Mar. 2	Sustainability, Ethics & Entrepreneurship Conference #SEEConf2017
MARCH
All month	National Women’s History Month Battle of the Brands, powered by SourceLink
Mar. 8	International Women’s Day #internationalwomensday
Mar. 10–18	SXSW Conference #SXSW
Mar. 12	Daylight Saving 2017
Mar. 11–15	National League of Cities Congressional City Conference
Mar. 10-16	* South by Southwest (Tech Industry and Government) #SXSW
Mar. 14–17	Global Entrepreneurship Congress #GEC2017
Mar. 21–23	* California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) Conference
Mar. 23–25	VentureWell 21st Annual Conference #VWopen
Mar. 26–28	* EDA University Meeting
Mar. 26–29	* 31st International Conference on Business Incubation (InBIA) #ICBI31
Mar. 29	National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day
APRIL
First Week	National Library Week #nationallibraryweek #librariestransform
TBD	Shop Local Webinar for Affiliates
Apr. 4–7	Skoll World Forum #skollwf
Apr. 11	National Library Workers Day #NLWD17
Apr. 30–May 3	Milken Institute Global Conference
MAY
All month	Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Jewish American Heritage Month Shop Local, powered by SourceLink
First Week	National Small Business Week #DreamSmallBiz (U.S. Small Business Administration)
May 1–3	Main Street Now Conference #NOW17
May 17–20	Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Summit #BESummit
May 19	The Startup Conference #startupconf
May 21	Armed Forces Day
May 29	Memorial Day
May 31–June 2	National Alliance of Community Economic Development Associations Conference
JUNE
All month	Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual Pride Month
2nd Week	Families in Business Week
June 4–6	International Economic Development Council (IEDC) Economic Future Forum
June 4–7	National Association of Regional Councils Annual Conference
June 7–10	Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference
June 20–22	WBENC National Conference & Business Fair (Women’s Business Enterprise National Council
June 21–23	Mid–America Economic Development Council Best Practices Conference #MAEDC
June 22–23	Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Summit
June 22–24	Global Entrepreneurship Summit #GES2017 (U.S. Agency for International Development)
JULY
July 4	Independence Day
AUGUST
All month	National Inventors Month Diversity Awareness Month
Aug 9–12	Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives Convention #ACCE17
Aug. 20–22	* Southern Economic Development Council Conference
Aug. 21	World Entrepreneurs’ Day #TwentyFirstAugust (Alliance of International Business Associations)
Aug. 25–26	Last Best Conference #lbcon (Montana Enterprise Center)
Aug. 26–29	National Urban League Annual Conference #saveourcities
TBD	Global Entrepreneurship Week Webinar for Affiliates
SEPTEMBER
All month	Hispanic Heritage Month
Sept. 4	Labor Day
Sept. 17–20	* International Economic Development Council Annual Conference
Sept. 26–27	The N.C. Rural Center Assembly
Sept. 27–29	CEO for Cities National Meeting #cbusceo
Sept. 29–Oct. 1	Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers Conference #GCEC2017
OCTOBER
All Month	Women’s Small Business Month National Home–Based Business Week
1st week	Customer Service Week
Oct 1–3	* Northeastern Economic Development Council
Oct. 8–11	National Association of Community College Entrepreneurs Conference #NACCE2017
Oct. 9–12	Association of University Research Parks International Conference
Oct. 16–19	* University Economic Development Association Annual Conference #uedasummit
Oct. 18–20	Texas Economic Development Council Annual Conference #txedc17
Oct. 30–Nov. 3	National Veterans Small Business Week #MyVetBiz

NOVEMBER
All Month	National Entrepreneurship Month American Indian Heritage Month
TBD	Shop Local Webinar for Affiliates
Nov. 1–3	* SSTI Annual Conference #SSTI2017 (State Science & Technology Institute)
Nov. 1–3	National Rural Economic Developers Association Annual Conference #NREDA
Nov. 9–11	NRETA Job Creation Summit (North East Regional Employment and Training Association)
Nov. 11	Veterans’ Day
Nov. 13–19	Global Entrepreneurship Week #GEW
Nov. 15–18	National League of Cities Summit #NLCSummit17
Nov. 19	Women’s Entrepreneurship Day #choosewomen
Nov. 25	Small Business Saturday
Nov. 28	Giving Tuesday
DECEMBER
All month	Shop Local, powered by SourceLink
Dec. 1–2	Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship (Kauffman Foundation)
Dec. 5–7	BALLE Leadership Summit #BalleSummit17 (The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies)