This year at the Vermont Business Expo, http://www.vtexpo.com/ there were two events that were especially compelling this year, and directly relevant to the Vermont entrepreneurial economy.

Senator Leahy’s business breakfast at the VT Expo featured Don Graves, U.S. Department of Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary.  Although the U.S. treasury’s programs seem worlds away from Main Street Vermont, Don contextualized his office’s efforts for the attendees, and detailed a few programs that he is working on and most proud of that positively impact the small business community.

1)      Graves spoke about the Small Business Credit Initiative, a program designed to deploy low interest investment dollars out through state entities.  In Vermont’s case, VEDA was the recipient of $13MM, which they believe could be leveraged to provide $130MM to Vermont businesses.  Jo Bradley, CEO of VEDA affirmed during the session that VEDA is actively working to deploy these dollars and that she expects this money to assist in keeping low interest rates available to Vermont businesses through VEDA. 

2)      Graves also expounded on the Community Bank Lending Program which is designed to push capital to local community banks at an initial 5% interest rate, with that rate lowering to 1% if the banks meet established lending goals, or hiking to 9% if that capital is not adequately deployed to the bank’s customers.

3)      Lastly, Graves spoke about the formation of a Jobs Council which has been assembled to gather ideas, thoughts and recommendations about job growth from 20 CEOs, and then serve those ideas directly to the President for vetting and potential next steps. 

The second event that piqued my interest was “Power Pitches: Business Plans meet the Experts”.  The event consisted of a number of Vermont high school students pitching their concepts to 3 panelists Greg Huysman from Opportunities Credit Union, Steve Densham from VtSBDC, and Sharon Gutwin from The RehabGYM and moderated by Rocki-Lee DeWitt, Professor of Management, University of Vermont School of Business Administration.  The event was the culmination of the REAL Entrepreneurship program for these students who had been working on their business plans with teachers and mentors and prepared to present their idea in just 3 minutes a room full of business people who wanted to know what the young entrepreneurs in our Green Mountain high schools are dreaming up next.  My favorite pitch of the day came from this young man, who planned to found a luxury resort on a remote island out in the middle of Lake Champlain, reachable only by boat (or helicopter?!).   Sign me up!