Jerry Roper, President of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, gave an important speech this morning at the Mid-America Club on “Chicago’s Economic Standing in the Global Marketplace” with a particular emphasis on the activities and strategies that will be necessary to help maintain and enhance the City’s position. He was kind enough to include a nice reference to Flashpoint Academy in his comments.
• Number 2: Inspire the entrepreneurial spirit.
Entrepreneurs are the heart and soul of our economy, and we must do more to sow the seeds of business success.
We have seen an explosion of entrepreneurial activity in Chicago through this past year in the creative industries. From fashion designers like Maria Pinto who is making national news designing clothes for Oprah, to boutique entrepreneurs like Jake who is expanding into new cities, to new music labels starting in Chicago, to the opening of Flashpoint Academy which will be training the next generation of video game developers and digital film directors.
Chicago is continuing its rich tradition of enabling innovate entrepreneurial industries which keep our young dreamers here to build businesses and at the same time make our neighborhoods vibrant and diverse.
We expect this trend to continue along with real growth in local green technology businesses. We also see continued growth in new company formation around the financial exchanges including companies like Archipelogo and OptionsExpress. These disruptive new technology businesses are changing the global financial markets and tapping into one of Chicago’s historic industries in the financial exchanges.
We can’t let the entrepreneurial spirit die – we can do more to help it flourish – and increase the number of small businesses that can grow to become large businesses.
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