Local entrepreneurs share ‘The Detroit Story’ with President Obama

Detroit was well-represented at an gathering of entrepreneurs from across all corners of the globe this week at a conference hosted by President Barack Obama.

The 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit honored small businesses quietly powering Detroit’s economy this week at a three-day conference at Stanford University in California.

More than 1,500 global delegates were in attendance, five of whom were representing Detroit: Amy Kaherl (Detroit Soup), Pashon Murray (Detroit Dirt), Jerry Paffendorf (Loveland Technologies), James Sayer (UMTRI), and Pam Lewis (NEI).  Detroit was the most-represented city at the summit.

Those five were part of “The Detroit Story,” showing the city’s progress on social enterprise, mobility and food access.

With the newly established White House Detroit Federal Working Group, the Obama administration is working to ensure the federal government is “a strong partner for Detroit as it charts its historic economic recovery.”

“Detroit is a global city with a proud history and people. Its full recovery depends on the strategic leveraging of all assets including its legacy as one of the nation’s original centers for innovation and entrepreneurship, and its position on one of the richest trade crossings in the nation,” Julie Egan, deputy director of the White House Detroit Federal Working Group, says in a statement. “It is time to tell the Detroit story, to put Detroit back on the global map, and to encourage innovators from around the world to come join the entrepreneurial movement in Detroit led by Detroiters.”