Entrepreneur conference successful

Hermann Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Melissa Lensing provided the following statement on the Creating Entrepreneurial Communities Conference, which was held the week of Sept. 19:

"This conference was created by the University of Missouri Extension and was modeled after a similar conference created in Michigan.  The purpose of this conference is to educate communities on how to develop an environment that fosters entrepreneurship to promote community economic development. To create networks, cultures, resources, and policies that enable invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship to succeed.  The conference aims to create, connect, and promote community economic revitalization through entrepreneurship as a driver for economic growth across communities in Missouri where entrepreneurs and innovators flourish and are celebrated!  For two days, approximately 120 attendees from Hermann and across the state heard from speakers on various subjects involving supporting an entrepreneurial community.  

We knew this was a unique type of conference and that Hermann’s downtown would make a great environment for the conference. Attendees could attend a large meeting space and then walk to attend breakout sessions inside of businesses.  The conference agenda intentionally allows for time between sessions to allow for time inside businesses or visiting with business owners, (and) we hope this translated to sales.  The Hermann committee that worked with MU Extension was comprised of Melissa Lensing with the Hermann Area Chamber of Commerce, Lee Pettijohn, Georgie Busch, Pam Jacquin, Brian Jett, Karla Uthlaut and Hannah James, planned for over eight months. We added to the conference agenda a pre-conference event, held at Hermann Farm, and an evening reception called “Taste of Hermann”, where 23 Hermann Area Chamber members set up food or beverages sampling.  This was held at the Hofgarten.

From the beginning, we knew we wanted to involve as many of our member businesses as possible.  We wanted to showcase our many Hermann entrepreneurs!  I think we accomplished that, with 18 sponsors that provided money or in-kind donations, two sponsors for the high school scholarships, 23 businesses at the Taste of Hermann, 11 businesses that hosted breakout sessions, all the lodging businesses that reserved rooms for attendees, (and) 10 businesses provided items for the swag bags, with 10 restaurants that opened or stayed late to accommodate the attendees on Wednesday night.  We have heard nothing but rave reviews on every aspect of the conference. I think I speak for my committee members in saying how much we enjoyed working together to create such a unique event for Hermann.  We could not have accomplished such a successful conference without our business community’s support.

There were two special presentations made by Rep. Sassman and Sen. Bernskoetter’s offices to Stone Hill Winery and Hermann Lumber on their anniversaries.  They were given framed resolutions from their state offices in honor of the companies' 175th and 100th year histories.  The awards were presented by Jan Sassmann, wife of Rep. Bruce Sassmann, who did an excellent job tying in the history to the entrepreneurial spirit of the conference.  Jon and Karen Held accepted for Stone Hill Winery and the Baumstark Family accepted for Hermann Lumber.