Rural entrepreneur ecosystem challenges addressed with community opportunities - Road to GEC preliminary input

What can be done to transform the world for entrepreneurs in rural, regional, and remote communities?

We ask this question in preparation for the 2023 Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) coming to Melbourne from 19 to 22 September. The GEC ?brings together 4,000 delegates from around the world to create one inclusive global ecosystem through networking, learning, and sharing. Founders connect with experienced mentors and investors, thought leaders challenge the status quo, policymakers advance ways to support entrepreneurs, and academics explore new ways of working and new sources of data.

To support this goal, we are hosting a series of "Road to GEC" sessions to gather your input and develop challenges for delegates and the wider community to engage before, during, and after the Congress. The sessions provide a?global overview through an Australian lens of key challenges that affect us all and solutions that will?transform our world.

This post outlines challenges identified by leaders registering for the upcoming session on Challenges in Rural and Regional Entrepreneurship. If you are reading this before 18 April, you can add your contribution by registering for the event here. We will also provide a follow-up with how you can engage with the challenges after the event and let you know about future events on the different GEC focus areas including sectors such as space, health, food and agriculture, sports, financial sector, and creative industries; technologies including Quantum, Web3, and artificial intelligence; and areas of impact including climate and inclusion.

Building on community contribution, current policy, and entrepreneur opportunities

The Road to GEC events build on workshops we held last year with over 500 leaders across the Australian innovation ecosystem. The graphic below captures the priorities identified in the conversation with leaders in regional innovation development, including a need for clarity and equity; promotion and advocacy; building capability, capacity, and sustainability; and related to workforce and talent.

Support for rural, regional and remote entrepreneurship is complex, involving a large number of factors with challenges shared across a number of organisations. In Australia, the "ecosystem" of regional innovation ecosystem support includes peak bodies including Regional Australia Institute (RAI), dedicated research centres such as the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence, private and not-for-profit organisations including the Australian Centre for Rural Entrepreneurs in Victoria and MeshPoints in Western Australia, and technical support including the Regional Tech Hub. This is in addition to the number of local economic development organisations, chambers of commerce, coworking spaces and innovation hubs, angel investors, networking and meetup groups, and school programs.

National government support is through the fifty-two Regional Development Australia (RDA) committees and many regions have local community foundations which also support emerging businesses. Each of the eight Australian states and territories has dedicated regional plans that cover infrastructure, planning, and long-term economic and community development. Industry peak bodies such as the National Farmers Federation and Rural Research and Development Corporations all include aspects of innovation and entrepreneurship support in their industry remits.

The large number of organisations involved raises the challenge of developing a shared collective impact approach. For example, RAI recently released the Regionalisation Ambition 2032 framework under a mission to Rebalance the Nation.

The structure for rural entrepreneur support is replicated around the world as each country brings together diverse roles to address the challenge. Each country has a network of policymakers, academics, entrepreneurs, community builders, investors, service and support providers, and philanthropists working on the challenge. We are keen to build on these conversations at the Global Entrepreneur Congress in September.

Challenges and opportunities for rural entrepreneurs

This brings us to what people who registered for the upcoming Road to GEC event had to say about the challenges and opportunities facing regional entrepreneurs. We asked people on registration what they felt were the biggest challenges and opportunities for support for rural, regional, and remote entrepreneurs. Respondents included entrepreneur support (30%), entrepreneurs (26%), university and researchers (14%), other economic and community development (10%), corporates and established businesses (8%), government (6%), and other roles (6%). Input came from those in rural (48%), metro (42%), and remote (10%) regions.

We reviewed the open responses and grouped them into 70 common codes which were grouped further into 15 themes. We then counted the number of times these codes came up in the responses. The results are outlined in the infographic below.

The diversity of the themes below highlights the complexity of the challenge as well as opportunities for different roles to play a part in the solution.

• Ecosystem - related to local entrepreneur support, including access to resources, local entrepreneur community, leadership, mentors and role models, and structural support such as connection to R&D and challenge-led innovation.
• Workforce - related to attracting, recruiting, and retaining skilled support, talent and staff.
• Funding - related to investment and risk capital
• Market - related to access to markets and customers
• Infrastructure and logistics - related to transportation, transport of goods, and internet connectivity
• Entrepreneur - related to capability and capacity of the individual entrepreneur
• Technology - related to access to technology
• Events - related to hosting and access to events
• Hubs and spaces - related to physical hubs and spaces.
• Community - related to connection to the local community, including tourism, livability and amenities, and connection to local challenges and industries
• Youth - related to the development and retention of young people, including school entrepreneur programs and entrepreneur engagement
• Network - related to access and connections to external networks including connecting regional ecosystems and connection with city resources
• Government - related to government support, participation, and leadership
• Advocacy, awareness, and promotion - related to promotion and advocacy for entrepreneurs, including reporting and media
• Women - related to support for women entrepreneurs.

Participants registering for the Road to GEC session highlighted ecosystem, workforce, market, funding, and infrastructure as the main challenges, while areas related to the local community including connection to local challenges and customers were noted as main opportunities.

The results prompt questions that will help us develop ideas leading to the GEC. How can we create sustainable and equitable programs to support entrepreneurs in rural schools? Who is best positioned to lead in connecting regional entrepreneur communities? What models suit rural communities for providing risk capital? When should local government be involved and when should they step back? How can the connection with local and global markets be better facilitated?

We can also ask what, and who is missing from the results. We need feedback from a diverse audience to ensure the challenges are representative of all people and regions.

No single program or initiative will be the solution, each region is unique while sharing common challenges, and everyone views the challenge from their unique perspective. However, we can progress more through collective impact by hearing from multiple perspectives, building on existing work, and sharing efforts towards ideas and solutions. The aim is to create practical opportunities for everyone in the ecosystem, including entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, ecosystem builders, and leaders in established businesses.

Next steps for defining challenges and ideas

The feedback above is far from comprehensive. The intent is to prompt conversation leading up to next week's session and beyoind. If you would like to add your input into the challenges and opportunities facing rural entrepreneurs, you can register for the event.

You can also register for the challenge platform to be the first to see the challenges as they are released. We will refine the challenge statements for the GEC through the Road to GEC session, share the results, and invite the global audience to submit ideas to explore before, during, and after the GEC.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts in the Road to GEC session next week and in future sessions as we examine different areas leading up to the GEC in September.