The Coastal Bend Business Innovation Center continues on its journey to becoming an entrepreneurial hub in the Coastal Bend of Texas. Peer to peer meetings and collaboration are a very important part of the incubation process for clients of the Innovation Center. The Innovation Center also works with other incubators and, at the request of the Economic Development Administration (EDA), recently hosted a peer to peer meeting with three University Center Grant recipients to share best practices in incubator program development, center management, and client coaching.
According to an article, “Designing Peer-to-Peer Learning Exchanges,” on the New York University (NYU) Wagner website, “Supporting interaction among peers can foster some of the most fruitful learning because peers often share a deep understanding of each other’s common challenges, experiences, and practices, and have developed valuable expertise in their fields.”
Creating the right atmosphere for idea sharing and group feedback works well for clients in the Innovation Center’s programs where they often learn more from each other than any other source. The Innovation Center utilizes peer incubator programs to enhance business practices and accelerating the development of its entrepreneurial clients.
“Peer groups give you a process to help you find your own answers. They allow you to hear the methods other people have used to solve problems and to learn from what they have done,” stated an article by the New York Times, titled “The Value of Peer-to-Peer Business Groups.”
The Innovation Center was honored to be selected by the EDA to host the representatives from the Enterprise Center at West Texas A&M, McNeese State University, and Lamar University. The program included presentations on the local and Texas economy from Dr. Jim Lee, director of the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s South Texas Economic Development Center, updates on new corporate investment in the Coastal Bend from Iain Vasey, executive director of the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation. Jessica Faulk, senior project officer out of Austin, Texas, represented the EDA. David Fonseca, Incubator Manager of the Innovation Center organized and played host for all present.
Mr. Fonseca offered some information about the use of the Wendy Kennedy, Inc. business development model for the Innovation Center’s pre-incubation program. This program was initiated in late 2013 and already 17 clients have completed the program. The program’s success is due in part to the peer-to-peer interaction between the participants in each class of the pre-incubation program. He also shared how the Innovation Center utilizes the Growth Wheel incubation model for its incubator program clients. The incubation program will soon include peer-to-peer networking events to fully leverage the experience, including success and failures of the entrepreneurial clients of the center.