Entrepreneur Jubilee co-founder Brad Canham, shown at the event's scheduled Purgatory Creek Park location, says the prevalence of side hustles indicates an entrepreneurial spirit. Photo by Joanna Werch Takes
The Entrepreneur Jubilee: Prosperity in the Park event scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20, is “very purposely a jubilee,” said Brad Canham. Jubilees, Canham said, “look at the conditions of the present, and then at the future.”
Canham, an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas and the event’s co-founder, says those present conditions include the prevalence of an entrepreneurial spirit among all generations. “It’s clear to me that entrepreneurial activities, side hustles, all that, is becoming increasingly a part of everybody’s lives, especially young people.”
Attendees at the event will encounter speakers, exhibitors, prize drawings, live music, food trucks, and a Magnetic Vision Awards competition sponsored by Hill Capital Corp.
The way the competition will work, Canham explained, is, “You come, you talk about your big vision for the future as an entrepreneur for three to five minutes. It’s kind of this ‘Shark Tank’ slash ‘America’s Got Talent’ thing.” Participants will be eligible for cash prizes and for moving on to an additional level in the competition.
Canham said he hopes the event will attract not only people interested in entrepreneurship, but also families, businesspeople, representatives of nonprofits, and more.
The number of young people participating in side hustles, says, Brad Canham, reaches nearly 50%. Image courtesy of Brad Canham
“I invited literally everybody I could think of to offer their perspective on prosperity,” he said.
Speakers and exhibitors will include inventors, investors, representatives of the EOS Entrepreneurial Operating System, a SCORE business mentor, Eden Prairie High School football coach Mike Grant and former Iowa State University basketball player and founder of One City Minnesota Jake Sullivan and co-founder Krystal Queen-Sullivan. A representative from Canopy Mental Health & Consulting will talk about mental health’s role in prosperity.
Jubilee a ‘melody’; speakers, discussions on meaning of prosperity the ‘lyrics’
Canham said he envisions the overall Entrepreneur Jubilee being like a melody, with the speakers providing the lyrics.
It draws on the tradition of jubilees from sources such as the Hebrew Bible and Christian Old Testament. In those traditions, jubilees recurred after a specified number of years and included such activities as freeing slaves, forgiving debts, and returning land to its original owners.
“It’s a renewal, and it’s a reset,” Canham said.
“I think there’s a lot of interest, and also hunger, for a space that people can reflect on, ‘What does prosperity mean to me?’” he said. “It’s a fraught moment in American technological, social, political, economic history. So Jubilee meets that space and says, ‘Wow, here we are.’”
Saturday’s speakers will include representatives from state and city government, including Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case, state Sen. Steve Cwodzinski, City Economic Development Manager David Lindahl, and the state of Minnesota’s director of social equity for the Office of Cannabis Management, Jess Jackson.
The Entrepreneur Jubilee is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Purgatory Creek Park.
“There’s no political agenda, but it is a space conceived to create a discussion,” Canham said. That discussion, Canham said, frames the subject of prosperity around both “what you have” and “as importantly: who do we become as we pursue this prosperity thing?”
As part of that discussion, people are invited to fill out an anonymous survey on what prosperity means to them.
Mike Porter, senior clinical professor of marketing in the Opus College of Business at the University of St.Thomas, will speak on reputation management and trust in the context of individual and community prosperity.
“Your ethics matter. How you treat people matters,” Canham said. In his own experience, he said, he has spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley. “It’s got this, ‘Let’s disrupt the world so that we can make money,’” attitude, he said.
In contrast, in the Midwest, Canham said, “We don’t want to be disrupted. We have a nice life here, lots of potential for this human thriving edge of the prosperity thing.”
Subsequent to the Eden Prairie Entrepreneur Jubilee, Canham will speak to the Global Bildung Network, based in Denmark, for their autumn equinox program about human thriving across cultures. “I’m going to give a talk about what does prosperity look like in the United States at this kind of event, on this day,” Canham said.
Canham’s co-founders for the Entrepreneur Jubilee include Vanessa Nordstrom, a holistic health and wellness coach, and creative director and designer Jeff Griffith.
The Eden Prairie Entrepreneur Jubilee will take place on Saturday, Sept. 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. It is scheduled to be held at the Purgatory Creek Park Pavilion, 13001 Technology Drive. In case of rain, the event will move across the street, to the parking ramp of SouthWest Station, 13500 Technology Drive. Admission is free.