Boston Region Entrepreneurship Week…oops, Month! BREW Boston 2010
It was only six weeks ago when Joe Caruso, Advocate for Entrepreneurs for the past 20 years, called his friends with a great idea…let’s celebrate everything related to launching and nurturing companies in the Boston area. Silicon Valley does it; New Orleans does it, so why not Boston? The greater Boston area is full of seasoned resources and a history of success but we in New England seem to forget that we have a rich and fertile ground for innovation. We just don’t think about it in this way.
Just off the top of my head, here are a numbers of companies that were started in Greater Boston. Let’s see, back in the good old days Boston incubated tech hardware companies like DEC, Wang, and Wellfleet and software companies like Lotus (Ok, I am dating myself!). Early Internet companies such as Open Market, Lycos and TripAdvisor among others were also started here. More recently we have had RSA, EMC and Netezza (just acquired by IBM for a mere $1.7B). And there are a number of consumer companies such as Dunkin Donuts, Nantucket Nectars, Sam Adams Brewery, and Au Bon Pain that have all flourished in the Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem.
All of these companies have brought innovation and lots of jobs to our economy.
Joe’s vision started modestly with a weeklong series of entrepreneurial events hosted by the community that provides resources and support to entrepreneurs. Somewhere along the way, BREW took on a life of its own. With close to 50 events, it now runs the entire month of October!
Attendees at BREW events will have the opportunity to win items such as books on entrepreneurship; gift certificates for mobile-phone based gifting, free website design and coding, and free printing services… as well as benefit from free beer being supplied to a few events by local breweries.
And who does not like handcrafted beer?!
So, check it out www.brewboston.org and I hope to see you at least one of the 50 events!
