Source: HUB-IN toolkit
This page will help you understand how to connect, engage, and activate the various parts of the entrepreneurial ecosystem you have mapped out.
HUB-IN toolkit
Hubs of Innovation and Entrepreneurship for the Transformation of Historic Urban Areas (HUB-IN) is a project to revitalise historic urban areas (HUAs) without destroying their historic character. Introducing or increasing the amount of innovation, in a way that is in tune with the spirit of a place.
The HUB-IN toolkit provides a number of tools, including excellent examples of proven methods and case studies. Below we have selected one specific tool from the toolkit that helps with inspiration for ways to connect, engage, and activate an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Using the Entrepreneurial quick scan tool will help you:
- make use of existing strong relationships, and spot gaps where you need to make new relationships
- identify existing strengths of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, and what you can do to improve things
- find out how open people will be to getting involved with your HUB, and how they might want to work with you
- understand the role of 3 possible approaches to regeneration initiatives: public, entrepreneurial and community
Entrepreneurial ecosystem quick scan tool
There are essentially 2 parts to the tool.
The first part is a template in the shape of a circle which includes a range of stakeholders and resources that you could engage:
- heritage
- physical and digital infrastructure
- marketplace demand
- support organisations
- human resources
- knowledge
- leadership
- finance
- formal institutions
- urban culture
- entrepreneurial culture
- Networks
The second part is a set of Ecosystem Elements cards that include instructions for what to do in relation to each of the stakeholders and resources, as well as successful examples from various places.
For example, as regards “heritage” – the card suggests you find ways of connecting the old with the new. And it provides a mini case study of how one local resource was re-activated:
“The city of Tibro (Sweden) can draw on a long tradition of furniture and interior design. With the initiative Inredia, a former textile factory has been repurposed as a vibrant knowledge hub for innovative furniture and interior design. It provides this traditional industry with a new future.”
Or for “urban culture”, how traditional and new traders were brought together:
“SkULL is aimed at reviving the Old Bazaar in Skopje (North Macedonia) as the beathing heart of the historic town. Part of the project has focused on supporting traditional crafts still practiced in the market and introducing new ones emerging from the contemporary creative industries”
To get started, go to the Entrepreneurial Ecosystems quick scan toolkit page, download the toolkit, and look through the template and the cards.
There is also a supporting detailed report on how to connect, engage, and activate heritage and new communities:
HUB-IN Entrepreneurial-Ecosystems-in-HUA report.pdf