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Entrepreneurship promoted through Greater Lansing event

September 27, 2009

About 500 people filed into the upper floor Friday at the Old Town Temple Building, 500 E. Grand River Ave., in Lansing, to watch as presenters gave their perspectives on everything from living with a handicap to watching bad movies.

IgniteLansing 2.0 was the second Ignite event hosted by the Old Town Commercial Association in Lansing’s Old Town, and promoted entrepreneurship and a flow of ideas between people within the Lansing community.

The Ignite program is a worldwide event hosted by individual communities. Lansing’s first Ignite event was in April, and program volunteers said they hope to host another event next spring.

“I think it’s a really cool opportunity, especially for start-up firms to get their ideas out there,” said international relations senior Jennifer Seager, a volunteer at IgniteLansing. “A lot of times these ideas sit under the water because they can’t find people to fund them, or get them off the ground, because you need support.”

The event was free and open to the public, but attendees had to sign up for tickets in advance. There were three sets of presentations with five presentations in each set.

Topics ranged from community development and leadership to wedding planning.

“It’s just about sharing and celebrating creativity,” said Jen Middlin, one of the coordinators of IgniteLansing.

Before the event, Spotlight Michigan, an MSU group, hosted Eve of Ignition. It encouraged MSU students to mimic the IgniteLansing event by presenting their own projects.

Five students were selected from five student organizations to make their presentations and compete for the opportunity to start their own business.

Spotlight Michigan was born out of a James Madison College seminar last year, which since has grown to a yearlong seminar promoting entrepreneurship in Michigan.

“We decided to create Spotlight Michigan not only as a way to see how small entrepreneurial firms start by experiencing it firsthand and starting our own business, we also wanted to use it as a vehicle to connect students to businesses,” international relations senior Chelsea Burnett said.

Burnett, who was involved with the creation of Spotlight Michigan, said IgniteLansing and Spotlight Michigan raise awareness about different ideas in the community.

“It’s only going to better the Greater Lansing area, East Lansing area and Michigan in general,” she said.

Attendees of the events said they looked forwardto becoming more involved in their own communities.

East Lansing residents Chris Fritz and Katie Johnson came to the event to see some presentations they thought sounded interesting and to become more involved in the Greater Lansing area.

“I think it’s really important to get to know the people that you’re living with and working with,” Fritz said.

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