Entrepreneurial communities are neighborhoods, cities, and counties that continuously work to facilitate economic development through entrepreneurship. They strategically build and grow networks, cultures, resources, and policies that enable invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship to succeed. University of Missouri Extension created the Connecting Entrepreneurial Communities (CEC) program to help communities build and grow these resources. CEC does this by acting as a platform for economic developers, local government officials, and other practitioners to come together to share best practices, learn from successes, and sometimes failures, and exchange ideas.

CEC’s flagship event is the CEC Conference, hosted annually in a rural community in Missouri. Hosting a conference offers rural communities throughout the state of Missouri the opportunity to showcase their downtown businesses, entrepreneurs, and other assets to a broad and diverse audience from across Missouri and our neighboring states. It is an opportunity for the rural community to show potential investors, funding agencies, entrepreneurs, newcomers, and state organizations that they are "open for business."

Another way that MU Extension helps rural communities build and grow resources that support invention, innovation and entrepreneurship through CEC is the twice monthly webinar that features speakers on a variety of topics relevant to facilitating rural economic development through entrepreneurship.

CEC is building momentum. We invite you to join a community that is shaping the future of rural Missouri.