Detroit's Tech Town Represented At Clinton Global Initiative
DETROIT (WWJ) - Detroit's Tech Town, one of the city's most successful economic growth engines, will share it's success stories at this week's "Clinton Global Initiative" meeting in Chicago.
Tech Town is Wayne State University's business incubator and technology and research park. Leslie Smith is President and CEO of Tech Town.
"Tech Town has, on its behalf in the work that we're doing in the city of Detroit, submitted five commitments to the Clinton Global Initiative that we will seek out partnership which will provide anything from physical support or tactical support, financial support or network support to the work we do here," says Smith.
And, Smith hopes to come away with more support for Tech Town projects.
"More than 50 percent of the folks invited to the conference are funders, so they act as a real kind of convener of appropriate parties to get projects funded. And so although they won't necessarily write us a check, they will connect us with people who will write checks," she says.
Over the past 5 years, Smith says Tech Town has enjoyed lots of success.
"Since 2007 we've created over a thousand jobs and find funding - in an environment where folks say that funding is not available - over 85-million dollars," says Smith.
Tech Town has also directly invested nearly a million dollars in partner companies.
The "Clinton Global Initiative" event, established by President Bill Clinton, focuses on economic recovery in the United States, and works to create jobs and foster innovation.
