Community-building is a key goal for the startup campuses that make up the American Underground in Durham and Raleigh.
And that’s why reporting on the progress and momentum of the people and companies that make up that community has become so important in the last two years.
This afternoon, American Underground (ExitEvent’s parent company) hosts its second “Annual Finale”, where leaders will report to a crowd of city leaders, community stakeholders and its own members on all kinds of facts and figures about jobs created, venture capital raised, coffee and pizza consumed, as well as gender and racial diversity stats. They’ll also share some goals and priorities for 2016. And ivestor and AOL founder Steve Case and North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell will make an appearance.
We’ll publish the results and a recap later tonight.
In the meantime, here’s a short talk American Underground Chief Strategist Adam Klein gave at the Downtown Durham Inc. annual meeting last month. He was asked to cast a vision for the future of Durham, and you can bet we’ll hear some similar themes at tonight’s event. His key charge: “Build a counter story to what has developed in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.”
Namely, he wants to build density and diversity of entrepreneurs in Durham, as well as our own unique culture of entrepreneurship, which includes all ages, races, sexes and people. Here’s a video of his talk:
