WFU leader participates in ‘Innovate Local’ event

Ariel D. Smith, assistant teaching professor in Wake Forest’s Center for
Entrepreneurship, was one of 20 leading experts nationwide to participate in an invitation-only policy hackathon to reimagine city regulations to empower entrepreneurs.

“Innovate Local,” held October 16-18, in Kansas City, Missouri, brought together leading experts to instill new energy and innovative ideas into the local small business regulation field that is characterized by outdated and exclusionary policies.

Policy experts, local officials, entrepreneurs, design thinkers, and community leaders discussed the process of designing a city’s small business code from the ground up. The exercise provided a unique opportunity for diverse stakeholders to explore how to develop city regulations that promote entrepreneurship while being untethered to the divisive political environment that can constrain innovation.

The teams’ ideas will serve as a starter kit for city councils to encourage innovative small-business policy reform. Ideas that champion equitable access to entrepreneurship will have the opportunity to be further researched, developed and potentially adopted into a city’s code.

Innovate Local is hosted by Cities Work, the Institute for Justice’s nonpartisan regulatory consulting initiative committed to increasing economic opportunity and fostering entrepreneurship in cities across the country.