ATLANTA — The Partnership for Innovation (PIN) announced the 2025 cohort of PIN Regional Leaders and provided an update on the work of the 2024 Regional Leaders cohort during a recent event at the Georgia Municipal Association. The Regional Leaders program, the signature offering of PIN’s Economic Opportunity pillar, nurtures tech-based economic development rooted in local needs. The program supports cross-sector, public-private-civic teams to implement tech-based economic development practices and strengthen local communities.
The 2024 inaugural PIN Regional Leaders cohort will be part of PIN through the end of the year and are already delivering big wins for their communities. The four pilot projects have received $1.6 million in matching funds; $4.2 million in additional project funding; and served 89 entrepreneurs and 85 small businesses or startups.
The 2024 projects are:
- The Multi-institutional Technology Transfer Network, a collaboration between Kentucky and Tennessee, spun out from a National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engines initiative, GAME Change Engine. The project looks to continue expanding its network and has been invited to highlight its work as part of Harvard University’s Reimagining the Economy
- The Launch Room, Albany, Georgia’s, entrepreneur support center, has been successful at building early-stage entrepreneurial programs in Albany using a local partnership approach and will launch cohort two this fall.
- The ACCESS Montgomery team in Alabama has secured an additional $3 million in funding to continue to build out its Small Business One-stop Shop (SBOSS) to enhance the long-term success and sustainability of local small businesses.
- The Thomasville, Georgia, team has created that city’s first Community Development Loan Fund (CDLF), InvestTVL, to increase access to capital for economically disadvantaged communities and address the local housing demand. They broke ground on the communities first four housing units over the summer.
“The interesting takeaway that we learned last year, and that I think we’ll see this year, is that all of the teams benefit from each other’s projects,” said Jamal Lewis, PIN’s economic opportunity manager. “At some point, they’ve either worked on a similar project or will need to work on a similar project.”
The highlight of the event was the announcement of the 2025 PIN Regional Leaders, teams that will work to build entrepreneurial activity, better understand the needs and challenges of their communities, and foster collaboration.
The 2025 Regional Leaders and their projects are:
Georgia Flex, Fitzgerald, Georgia: The team seeks to expand its high school student entrepreneurship mentoring and competition program statewide and ultimately across the region and country. Team members are Melissa Dark and Tara Smith with Georgia FLEX; Fred Rayfield with the Georgia Department of Agriculture; and Tiffany Holmes with the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“When we found out about this opportunity to work with PIN, we jumped on it,” said Dark. “We thought this would be a good opportunity for us to solidify our team partners, work together, and use the workshops and the sessions to do some facilitated strategic planning together.”
Danville Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Pipeline, Danville, Virginia: The team will work to formalize systems to improve quality of life with small business resources, including the establishment of a Community Development Financial Institution and the buildout of underused space for a business incubator. Team members are city of Danville employees Samantha Bagbey, Corrie Teague Bobe, and Kelvin Perry; Anne Moore-Sparks of the Danville Pittsylvania Chamber of Commerce; and Alexandra Veatch of Letterpress Communications. “We were excited to join [PIN] because it gives us a chance to connect with other communities that may live in different states but face many of the same challenges and opportunities,” said Bagbey, Danville’s economic development project manager. “It’s not every day you get to sit in a room with leaders from across the South and really trade ideas about what’s working. That mix of perspectives is something PIN does so well, and we’re looking forward to bringing fresh ideas back to Danville while also sharing what’s working here.”
Macon-Bibb Building Data-driven Collaboration for Inclusive Growth: The project will expand the Macon-Bibb Inclusive Innovation Ecosystem Dashboard as a resource hub and alliance for entrepreneurs. Team members are Christele Parham, Erin Keller, JR Olive, and Charise Stephens. “Our goal is to be able to connect with other ecosystem leaders within the program to see what they’re building and to see what we’re missing, or how we can potentially collaborate,” said Parham, who has worked with PIN before. “The programs that PIN curates always help us move a needle. It’s a trusted source for ecosystem development.”
The 2025 PIN Regional Leaders cohort will work together for nine to 12 months, with three months of programming and workshops on topics including economic development and using AI, then six months to implement their projects and report back on them.
The announcement event also included elected officials, public safety leaders, and academic, government, and business leaders. Lewis welcomed everyone, then introduced Georgia Tech’s Executive Vice President for Research Tim Lieuwen, who spoke about the importance of deploying innovation to solve real-world problems, which is one of the goals of PIN.
State Sen. Sonya Halpern (District 39) spoke about the importance of innovation to problem solving, saying that innovation involves looking at existing issues from new angles. It’s a point of view that plays to PIN’s strengths, which include seeking out innovative ideas from across the state and the Southeast.
PIN’s strengths have created a powerhouse program of award-winning, community building projects in just five years. PIN Executive Director Debra Lam highlighted the organization’s impact: 220 projects across 111 counties in Georgia and in several Southeastern states. In addition, PIN has brought together almost 200 technology and civic partners and delivers a return on investment of $5.07 for every dollar invested.
A panel discussion on Building Local Public-Private Partnerships for Regional Impact was moderated by Lam and included Nashlie Sephus, a PIN board member and AI expert; Halpern; and Dan Gordon, principal with Jabian Consulting.
“We’re excited about the possibilities with this year’s cohort,” Lewis said. “A big focus of this year’s programming is on utilizing purpose-driven data and technology in the team projects. How can we help these projects, these communities, become data informed and make data driven decisions? At the minimum they’ll leave the program and say, ‘Okay, we understand why data is important. We understand how to collect the data that we need and how to make decisions based on this data in partnership with our community and our other partners.”