1st Gear: a hands-on study in innovation

Bob Miller of the Opportunity Machine has been working on something cool. It is a one day seminar in Lafayette designed to provide a hands-on experience for startups and existing companies to develop innovative products. He is collaborating with powerhouse MEPoL (Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana). The seminar, “1st Gear,” is free and will be held during Global Entrepreneurship Week, on Tuesday, November 13th in Lafayette. Register here.

The Opportunity Machine is an accelerator in Lafayette. One thing I love about Bob and the OppMac is they love Baton Rouge. He has visited several times to help out on local events, such as Startup Weekend Baton Rouge, and he’s very supportive of the community here. I also love the roughneck mentality of the Lafayette entrepreneurial and tech scene, but that’s another blog post.

Bob contacted me last week to encourage Baton Rouge entrepreneurs and companies to come to the course. Not only is he offering this class to us for free, he has told me he is happy to hold the program in any and every city in the state as long as a community organizer provides a venue and food.

I’ve noticed that Baton Rouge has had an undercurrent of resistance to working collaboratively with our metropolitan counterparts west, south, and north of us. But the protectionist/isolationist position is nonsensical in the global picture: The population of our entire state equals the population of Houston. To be competitive nationally or globally, we have to connect and collaborate as a state.

Bob Miller gets it.