This facility welcomes 75,000 thought leaders per year to an atmosphere of candor and purpose, where innovative thinking and dialogue lead to action. The work we do would not be possible without our vast social network of grantees, partners, experts, and practitioners. We help cultivate these relationships by playing the role of convener, bringing together […]

Host to more than 75,000 visitors a year, the Kauffman Foundation Conference Center could be the site of your next event. Visit the Conference Center > The Ewing and Muriel Kauffman Memorial Garden is a place of peace and tranquility. It is the final resting place of Ewing and Muriel Kauffman. Visit the Memorial Garden […]

By Jami Milne At the 2019 Summit, attendees had the opportunity to enter The Creative Confessional, where visual artist Jami Milne captured their story by building connections through conversation and photography. Attendees confessed the creative endeavor they never followed through with or the idea that never came to fruition. The Creative Confessional allowed attendees to […]

Like previous ESHIP Summits, the Ecosystem Building Science Fair took place throughout the venue in 2019. These curated display boards featured Summit attendees’ programs, learnings, research, tools, and work (or work in progress) and invited connection throughout the ESHIP Summit. Click through the gallery below to view the science fair projects.

Our 2019 Firestarters had a common thread – the power of action in an entrepreneurial community. As we move through the Deliver phase of this work, watch these Firestarters for inspiration.

Based on the input of 800 ecosystem builders at the two ESHIP Summits, we’ve formulated the ESHIP Goals: a proposed set of collective objectives to further fortify the entrepreneurial ecosystem-building field. The solutions to the ESHIP Goals will serve as tenets to the field, and the goals themselves are a checklist to help us prioritize, […]

Please note that the following content is specific to the 2019 ESHIP Summit. Updates for the 2020 convening can be found here. The 2019 ESHIP Summit in Kansas City brought together more than 500 entrepreneurial ecosystem builders – leaders connecting communities to accelerate entrepreneurship. Over the course of three days in late May, the group gathered […]

The ESHIP Summit 2017 was the Kauffman Foundation’s inaugural global gathering of leaders working to facilitate and spread entrepreneurship through the creation of entrepreneurial ecosystems. 450 attendees from 48 states and 9 countries – entrepreneurs, mayors, economic developers, grassroots community leaders, university leaders, academics, philanthropists, corporate leaders, and media – collaborated to create actionable plans […]

Published in 2019, the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Playbook 3.0 shares some of the Summit community’s collective learning and progress following the 2018 ESHIP Summit. It builds on earlier learnings from the ESHIP Summit series and sets goals for collective efforts to explore and progress the ecosystem building field of practice. See the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Building Playbook […]

The ESHIP Summit is a convening that brings together entrepreneurial ecosystem builders – leaders connecting communities to accelerate entrepreneurship.