Newly-designed ESHIP Goal Meetup calls were relaunched in August and the Storytelling Meetup Group convened online on call on August 28. Since this was a relaunch, inviting new people to the call, the main objective of this month’s call was customer validation in a sense—finding out from the participants what was important to them about storytelling in ecosystem building and discovering expectations for future calls.
Here’s a brief overview of the August 28 call.
General Updates – What’s happening in the ecosystem building storytelling world
- SCN sharing lots of stories on the SCN website
- Anika’s Social Venturers website launch – social impact focus
- Yuval Yarden’s podcast The Keystone launched
- CoStarters’ Medium publication Intersections
- Ecosystem Builder Hub
Following general updates, the group participated in a roundtable discussion around two topics:
- What is important to you and your organization about storytelling for ecosystem builders?
- What are you hoping to get out of the Storytelling Meetup calls?
Group Roundtable Discussion: What is important to you and your organization about storytelling for ecosystem builders?
Some (anonymized) responses include:
- Stories about resources, navigating challenges, and illuminating opportunities can create an opening or pathway to gain access and be successful
- Make Ecosystem Building visible and something that people can identify their work with. Human side, struggle, challenges…telling the things that don’t show up in a study but say a lot about the culture of ecosystem building work.
- Talking about a sense of community to let people know they are not alone. It’s empowering for ecosystem builders to know they’re not alone.
- There is a personal element of sharing our stories more often that creates a community of support and also sharing these stories attracts more people to the work. It helps legitimize the work
- It helps connect people’s WHY and PURPOSE. Data can fall flat to help people feel connected to other people’s work.
- There is almost nothing out there on Ecosystem Building and I see an opportunity. Storytelling is how we learn.
- Creates a great opportunity to advocate with each other. Adds legitimacy across many boundaries and borders.
- We have an opportunity to shift the narrative around economic development and the role of entrepreneurship
- How can we bring this into the more traditional economic development space?
- It creates third party validation
Group Roundtable Discussion: What are you hoping to get out of the Storytelling Meetup calls?
Some (anonymized) responses include:
- Two minute updates, lessons learned, tips and tricks
- Specific projects/initiatives I can go off and tackle
- Key takeaways and actions that each attendee plans to take within the next 24-48 hours
- Invite ESHIP Goal Champions to outline their storytelling needs.
- Explore being on other goal Meetup calls to dialogue with those participants about their storytelling needs/opportunities
The call was recorded and can be watched here.
RELATED: Get the backstory on the ESHIP Storytelling Initiative
ESHIP Storytelling Calls: 4th Wednesday of each month @ 2:00pm CST
Next Storytelling Meetup Call
The next call will be Wednesday, September 25, 2019 at @ 2:00pm CST
Topics of discussion will include:
General Updates
- General news from the Ecosystem Storytelling Community
- News from Kauffman and ESHIP
Project Team Updates
- Report from 6.2/Storytelling Team
- Report on Twitter ecosystem builder influencer list
- Report on list of ecosystem builders to interview
Main Meetup Activity/Curated Content Community Call Questions
- Two minute updates from attendees: What’s worked well, lessons learned, practical tips and tricks
- Conversation with Goal 1 Champion. How can ESHIP storytelling help Goal 1?
- Review & discuss ideas for supporting Goals 1 & 2
- Relate key takeaways, actions each attendee plans to take within the next 24-48 hours
- Homework Challenge: Find an ecosystem building story. Read it and be prepared to give a quick summary on the next call