The University of Vermont held its third legislative summit, "Vermont's 21st Century Economy: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem," on Tuesday, attracting more than 40 legislators to campus for a packed-full day of presentations and roundtable discussions. Thirty UVM faculty and representatives from 20 state agencies also participated. 

The broad topic of the summit --  economic development -- was proposed by the legislature, said UVM trustee Anne O’Brien, a state representative from Richmond and a key organizer of all three summits. The subject emerged after O’Brien canvassed her colleagues in the House, spoke with Speaker Shap Smith, and conferred with her house colleague and fellow UVM trustee William Botzow of Bennington County, who also played an key role in organizing the event. 

Past summits have been helpful, O'Brien said, and she felt this one, too, would serve as a "conversation starter" designed to get members "thinking about these issues -- and hopefully jazzed by these ideas."

UVM narrowed the focus of the summit to bolstering entrepreneurship, a growing strength of the state and a focus of the university. With the construction of a new STEM complex, a raft of recent hires, new curricula, a variety of new programs that stimulate entrepreneurship on campus and a series of evolving partnerships with off-campus organizations, UVM is increasingly playing a catalytic role in helping shape a new innovation economy in the state. 

Many of the UVM players who are part of the effort to advance the new Vermont economy were on hand on Tuesday, from Provost David Rosowsky and Vice President for Research Richard Galbraith, both of whom addressed the gathering, to Erik Monsen, a professor in the Grossman School of Business who is an international expert on entrepreneurship, and College of Medicine Professor Polly Parsons, who was instrumental in launching UVM’s SPARK-VT program, which promotes technology commercialization based on faculty research.

Legislators were exposed to a wealth of programming during the day, including 25 roundtable discussions they could choose from, most led by UVM faculty in partnership with experts from public or commercial entities. Topics ranged from “The Intersection of Higher Education, Private Sector and Government in Technology and Economic Development,” presented by Monsen and John Evans, special adviser to the vice president for research, to “Marketing the Vermont Brand,” presented by Jane Kolodinsky, Community Development and Applied Economics professor, and Patricia Moulton, secretary of the Agency of Commerce. 

Attendees also heard an address by Marguerite Dibble, the founder of a thriving, Vermont-based gaming company called gametheory, and got a tour of two new business incubators in downtown Burlington, the maker-space Generator, and the accelerator/co-working space VCET@BTV.

The goal of the summit, Botzow said, was to more deeply connect the legislature and the university, two “primary institutions in Vermont. In economic development, personal relationships are the name of the game and building deeper personal relationships among all the people in this room will lead like the market to innovation.”

“I think it went great,” said O’Brien at the end of the day. “We had a wonderful lineup of speakers, and the tee off with Marguerite Dibble in the morning” was illuminating, representing just the kind of entrepreneurship Vermont is trying to cultivate, O’Brien said.  

Past summits -- on education in 2013 and climate change in 2014 -- had an impact on two of the last legislative session’s major accomplishments, O'Brien said: bills addressing educational governance reform and clean water. 

“To directly correlate them is a little tricky,” said O’Brien, but the summits definitely helped build momentum for the legislation, she said. 

UVM trustee Frank Cioffi, president of the Greater Burlington Industrial Corporation, who presented at the summit, was hopeful that this year's summit could have a similar positive impact. 

“The university has so much experience,” he said. “We can look at case studies and what’s working and what’s not working, which will help inform legislators to think creatively about problems.”