This episode checks in with various figures from the NWPA Innovation Beehive Network and beyond, detailing the progress and future of our network. Interviews include: Jacob Marsh (Penn State Behrend), Dr. Lisa Jo Elliott (Penn State Behrend), Brad Gleason (Gannon), Brian Fuller (Mercyhurst), Patrick Moran (Erie County Public Library), Dr. Michael Hannan (Edinboro University), and Dr. Scott Miller (Edinboro University). A keynote speech is provided by Hunter Klobucar and Tyler Waltenbaugh (Fish Gods).
Sponsored by: Erie Regional Chamber & Growth Partnership
Music: Kevin Macleod’s "pamgaea" available via Creative Commons Attribution-International 4.0. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, No changes were made.
Music by audionautix.com. Audionautix's "Roboskater" by Jason Shaw available via Creative Commons Attribution-International 4.0. License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, No changes were made.
Transcript
JACOB MARSH: The network over the next year has a lot of exciting growth planned. Every site has new programs that they're starting, and I'm excited to see those ones come to fruition. So far, every program that we have started since the beginning has been quite successful. And so I'm looking forward to seeing the success in these other programs. One of the major focuses is expanding the area that we're serving.
NARRATOR: That's Jacob Marsh, industry relations coordinator at Penn State Behrend and one of the leaders of the NWPA Innovation Beehive Network. You'll hear more from him and several others in this annual State of the Union episode of Buzz, Generated. In this entry, you'll hear from Beehive and university leaders and how the network has grown throughout the past year. You'll find out what these hives mean to their respective institutions, and you'll discover what's in store for the future.
Your host and the Executive Director for the Edinboro Center for Branding and Strategic Communication, Tony Peyronel, will guide you through this discussion and introduce the various voices. Together, let's discover what the buzz is all about.
TONY PEYRONEL: Thanks to Dr. Ron Raymond for doing our voice-overs each and every episode. As he explained, our State of the Union episode will detail exactly how the beehive has grown throughout 2020 and the first half of 2021. This episode coincides with the recent event held at Mercyhurst University, where notable clients, all five beehives, and university and local officials gathered to celebrate our accomplishments. It also served as the grand opening of Mercyhurst Innovation Entente Lab, which their hive works out of.
The featured speakers at the event will be familiar voices to anyone who listens to this podcast. Fish Gods is one of the beehive's greater success stories. A duo of Edinboro alums who are, among other conservation efforts, aiming to save local and worldwide waterways through the cleanup of plastic pollution. Their signature product is the Clean Earth Bag, which began as a prototype through Penn State Behrend's Innovation Commons. It makes sense to start with a segment of their speech where they discuss working with the network. You'll hear first from Hunter Klobucar, and then from Tyler Waltenbaugh.
HUNTER KLOBUCAR: I'm going to take it back a little bit to three years ago, when I met Tyler. And we met in college at Edinboro University. And together, we created what we call the Fly Fishing Club. We were passionate fishermen, anglers at heart, and that led us to the beehive. We went on a research trip with Trout Unlimited three years ago, and on that trip, we saw plastic pollution just absolutely devastating our waters.
We did a little more research after coming back from that trip, and we found out 22 million pounds of plastic enter the Great Lakes each and every year. That really hit home to us, because these are the waters that we fish each and every day. It's in our own backyard. And on that trip, we realized we didn't have a great way to pick up the plastic that we found. And we started doing a little customer discovery and we found many anglers just like us were turning a blind eye to this issue and did not have a way to pick up this plastic.
That's how we came up with the idea of Fish Gods. And we brought it to the Ben Franklin TechCelerator program and the Beehive Network. We went through the TechCelerator, and during that process, that's when we got introduced to the beehive. And the beehive really gave us our leg forward. They're the reason that we're really here today.
They gave us our initial branding. All the legal documents that we needed to start a successful business was done by the beehive. They took us in. We went through that whole summer doing prototype work, branding work, legal work. And we came out of that summer with a legitimate business, our prototype in our hand, and winning the TechCelerator program because of the beehive.
TYLER WALTENBAUGH: So we started off at Edinboro University, under Tony Peyronel and his team. We didn't have a-- We had the concept. We had the idea, which a lot of people have. So they took our idea and they brought it to life. They made our branding guide on this-- our eco-friendly apparel, our hats, we have designs on the back. And then they created our logo, which still stands today. We've changed a lot in the past couple of years, but the logo has always stayed consistent. So we got that from Edinboro University.
They really gave us a really strong branding guide forward. They allowed us to have a foot forward in the industry. When we went to talk and to pitch our company, we had a legitimate branding guide. We looked professional. We really got our appeal and our looks from Edinboro. And then we went to Penn State Behrend, the Innovations Commons. And then they made our very first prototype of the Clean Earth Bag, which is the reusable trash bag, specifically for anglers, but all outdoor enthusiasts.
You can wear it on your hip. It collapses. You can put in a kayak, in your boat, in your car. This can really go everywhere. We are proud to say, today, we sold to 50 states and to 17 different countries. And it's really all due to this entire network. We absolutely, absolutely would not be here without this entire community.
Because as a college student-- A lot of you might be here from outside, community members that aren't college students. But when you are a college student, you don't have access to capital. You don't know where to start. You're really, kind of, in the clouds with your business idea. So this network allows you to step forward with a lot of unknowns. There's a lot of scary steps, and they kind of eliminate a lot of that stuff. You can go to Gannon, Edinboro, Mercyhurst, Penn State Behrend, and you can get a lot of questions answered. And that's really what happened for us.
TONY PEYRONEL: Next, we're going to hear from several of the Beehive Network leaders who were asked about notable growth at their respective hives. Let's start with Jacob Marsh of Penn State Behrend, along with his Innovation Commons colleague, Dr. Lisa Jo Elliott.
JACOB MARSH: In addition to just taking on a large influx of new clients, the pandemic actually seemed to increase the number of clients that we had coming in with their invention ideas. And building upon that, we started two new programs. One is related to what we call Industry 4.0, which is the fourth Industrial Revolution. And that has a lot to do with robotics and artificial intelligence and sensor networks.
And the idea is that you make your factory smart so that you can increase your efficiency in ways that you've never done before. This is an area that Erie, especially small to medium sized manufacturers, are learning that they need to embrace and implement very quickly. And our goal, in the context of the beehive, is to lower their risk for doing that so that they can implement these new ideas and policies and technologies with a limited risk to themselves.
Secondly, our big growth was in app development. And we have started a program where our team will be developing apps for clients. So our focus with this program is on user experience design. That's a step that comes before coding an app. But what that does for you is-- Actually, what that does for you should be described by my friend Lisa Jo Elliott. Dr. Lisa Jo Elliott is running that app design program and with her students. And Lisa, tell us a little bit about that.
LISA JO ELLIOT: Sure. Hi. So this is one of my research areas, usability, usefulness and ease of use, satisfaction, learnability, all of those things. And so I've had a lab for several years, but I was so pleased to be invited to be part of Innovation Commons and help the entrepreneurs of Erie develop apps for their audiences.
And so we use the standard app development strategy that UX people use out in industry. I'm did some work at IBM for a while before I came to Penn State, and we found this approach to be very successful. We work closely with the entrepreneurs to develop something that's going to be useful, and then we take it out to the public and do user testing to make sure that your average person is able to use the app in the way that the entrepreneur intended.
And so not only do the entrepreneurs leave Innovation Commons with an app, they are also assured that this app is going to work for most of the users that they're going to encounter. So they're not going to get a bunch of negative comments in the App Store. Things that are breaking, people complaining, we head all that off at the start. And then the students that graduate from this lab have been very successful at getting employment in Pittsburgh and all sorts of places. So it's a win-win for everybody, and it's a lot of fun, too.
TONY PEYRONEL: Dr. Elliott also brought up a very timely project that came from the app development program. I'll let her tell you about it.
LISA JO ELLIOT: One of the first apps that we developed was an app called Serene Helps. And it's available on the Android platform, so the Google Play store. And this app helps people focus on mindfulness during the pandemic. So it gives you some things to do, trying to alleviate feelings of anxiety or depression. It also connects you to local mental health resources in the Erie area. And so we're hoping that a lot of people download this app, and it helps alleviate some of the stress and anxiety during this difficult time.
TONY PEYRONEL: Next, let's move to Brad Gleason, director of entrepreneurial operations at Gannon, who was, again, asked about the growth of that respective branch of the Beehive Network.
BRAD GLEASON: Our University is kind of an overarching umbrella. So for our beehive, we really get a-- I call it a feed of faculty, students, and public at large coming into our beehive. And the growth that I've seen so far is really the public at large. I use the term, we are a first-generation startup community, so it's all about education and awareness. And I think that's starting to resonate, and people are starting to want to actualize ideas that they have. And the general public is showing that by coming in in larger numbers into our beehive.
TONY PEYRONEL: Next, we'll go to Brian Fuller, director of operations for Mercyhurst Ridge College of Intelligence Studies and Applied Science, which houses the Innovation Entente Lab.
BRIAN FULLER: Inside the innovation Entente Lab, the notable growth has been the capabilities and the services in which we are able to provide. We've basically gone from what was originally just market analysis and competitive business intelligence to branching out into data analytics, cybersecurity, communications with our YouTube algorithms, and being able to provide patent research, intellectual property research, as well as support graphic design where needed.
RON RAYMOND: This episode of Buzz, Generated is sponsored by the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, the voice of the business community in the Erie region. The chamber provides advocacy and access to people, education, and information, so the businesses have the leadership resources and expertise needed for continued prosperity throughout the region.
Schedule a time to meet with a business action team and learn more about how the chamber can help, or visit the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership online at www.eriepa.com. The growth of our vibrant community in Erie PA depends on a dynamic business environment. The Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership aims to provide just that. Let's get back to the episode.
TONY PEYRONEL: And finally, we'll hear from Patrick Moran, the emerging technologies librarian at Erie County Public Library and the Idea Lab. The Idea Lab is a first step for many entrepreneurs when they enter the beehive program, as they offer general business education and adult maker space, access to technology, and much more. Here's what he said about notable growth at his hive.
PATRICK MORAN: So the Idea Lab, which is the adult maker space at Blasco Library, our biggest thing in the last year, year and a half, has been taking a lot of the entry-level classes we do for people. So learning to 3D print, learning about applying for grants for your non-profit or for your idea, and making that information available to people online. But in a, hopefully, a little bit more of an engaging format than just lists or words.
So we've been making videos, doing exercises, doing demonstrations of how you use a lot of the technology in the space, so that even people that aren't able to make the trip to the library can still learn how to 3D print, can still learn about podcast, and can still learn about using a CNC machine. And we found, originally, it was as a replacement for in-person stuff while we were closed.
But since we've reopened, we've actually realized now it's a really great resource to have alongside all the in-person stuff. Because people come, they work in person, but then a week later they've forgotten a bunch of it. Now they have an easy reference. A lot of other libraries in the area have looked and reached out with questions about getting similar technologies in their library.
So realizing that, just making a lot of what we do and the kind of things we've learned about being a adult maker space in a library, is information that can be helpful to other libraries and institutions, as well as lots of individuals. Not just in Erie County, but kind of throughout western Pennsylvania. Or people in Erie County but who aren't able to make the trip, for whatever reason.
TONY PEYRONEL: We also ask Patrick to generally discuss the Idea Lab's role in the greater beehive, as it's, again, that first step for many and a crucial part in our process.
PATRICK MORAN: The library has always been and is always trying to be a relevant community resource for people who either don't know where to go or don't have other places to go, or don't have, maybe the background, whether it's education or business wise, needed to kind of break into different spheres. So the library has always been a place where people come to learn about something or find out a little bit more, or work, because of the free space.
And I think that kind of ties in really well to what the beehive does, in that a lot of the other beehives offer more advanced services, as far as prototyping a product idea you already have, helping you do graphic design, and tell your story for the business that already exists. But there's not necessarily from another hive, that service of.
You just have a one sentence line of an idea of something you want to do, and you want to start thinking about and learning about, is this something I can do? What's everything that goes into trying to launch this, either full-time business or side business, or make this transition in my life?
So we very much try to have that information available for people who are true beginners, true starters, no prior experience needed. Can just come in and have a talk with someone in plain English about maybe what you need to think about or what you need to prepare as you get started evaluating an idea and maybe seeing if it's something you do want to do.
TONY PEYRONEL: We asked these same individuals about the future of their hives. When taken together, you'll see some hints of what's to come for the network as a whole. First up, let's go back to Jacob Marsh.
JACOB MARSH: The network, over the next year, has a lot of exciting growth planned. Every site has new programs that they're starting, and I'm excited to see those ones come to fruition. So far, every program that we have started since the beginning has been quite successful. And so I'm looking forward to seeing the success in these other programs.
One of the major focuses is expanding the area that we're serving. We announced this when we received funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission, but their service area is huge. And we are now going to be helping a larger service area that includes a lot of the Appalachian region, so as far away as Forest County, definitely Warren County, Butler County to the south, a little bit into Ohio and New York. And that might make you think, well, this is going to dilute our services, and we're not going to have as much in Erie. But that's not going to be the case.
This is a growth and an expansion in capability, as well as service areas. So we're hoping that we can generate these relationships with these other communities so that they can benefit from what we have established here. And we've already gotten interest, to the point where a couple of these counties want to set something up similar and engage with us at a very substantial level. And for the other counties that we haven't had a chance to, we're just excited to make these new connections and build bridges with them so that their entrepreneurs and their companies can have success.
In addition, I mean, specific to Behrend, we have a strong focus on entrepreneurs at the innovation Commons. And we've done a good bit of work with industry as well. And a lot of that work with industry is also had a huge impact, and it has produced jobs and increased efficiencies. And in the current conditions, following the pandemic, I think we're probably going to be doing a bit more work with industry as well.
And that is a tremendous thing to look forward to. So we are looking to build our capabilities further so that working with established companies, that's mainly small to medium sized Erie manufacturers and industrial companies, that we can offer them a higher value and increase their contribution to the local economy.
TONY PEYRONEL: Next, we'll hear from Brad Gleason and his plans for Gannon.
BRAD GLEASON: My personal agenda is to continue to increase diversity. We've had an enormous increase in diverse female and all sorts of other representations into our beehive. I want to keep seeing that happen and promote that. Additionally, I'm all about the young generation coming in and exploring, even if their idea doesn't go from idea to wild success.
If they get partway through a startup process, they're young. They're going to do it again. So I want to keep trying to approach the young generation to get them in. So students at Gannon will constantly be a population I'm going to try to get into the beehive and explore their ideas.
TONY PEYRONEL: Next up is Brian Fuller, talking about Mercyhurst.
BRIAN FULLER: You know, the original growth we were really looking at was, in the future, was our mobile unit. And we have stood up the mobile unit, however, it's not a full robust capability as we originally thought. For the future, what we're trying to do is, we've got to break into these other counties that the ARC grant requires us to provide services. And that's really what the mobile unit was stood up for. So I see the immediate future being us being able to get the mobile unit out more regularly to these more remote locations, in which we're providing our services and getting to clients who can't necessarily get to us.
I also see the growth being the network as a whole, being able to market itself a lot more to make everybody more aware. Get more awareness out there of the services that each of the labs provides and the network provides to the entrepreneur ecosystem. Not just in the immediate Erie region that we've been servicing, all of the counties we have to service, but really, throughout the state.
And then I can also see the long-term goal here being, can we set up a network like this in other areas, other states? Is there a possibility of this being national at some point? I don't know, but that would probably be a great goal for us. We have set the example for what you can do in your entrepreneurial ecosystem to support your communities and support your local entrepreneurs and small businesses.
Why can't we do this somewhere else where we can reach a more robust population of the people who need our services? And ultimately, we would grow the economy of not only our region, but grow the economy of the nation as a whole.
TONY PEYRONEL: And finally, we return to Patrick Moran at the Idea Lab in Erie County Public Library.
PATRICK MORAN: Yeah, we have a whole bunch of equipment that we're trying to bring on board. The 3D printers that we have are perennially popular. And there's always more people coming in who want to learn about 3D printing and then who we see do really cool things. So we're just trying to find other pieces of technology that are maybe a little too expensive for people to own themselves, and also make those available. So we just got a hobbyist level CNC machine. That's something a lot of people have interest in, but they don't have a few thousand dollars to buy one and try it out at home.
So taking these production technologies or some software stuff, too. We've got some video game design software, as well as graphic design software. And just trying to take these things that a lot of people are intimidated by or have never used before and they think that there's no chance that they could do it. And being able to help people have a really good first experience so that they can either feel confident enough that, oh, if I keep putting in hours, I might be able to do some graphic design myself. Or I can at least do some basic 3D printing work.
Or they learn enough to kind of realize how much goes into those services and those skill sets. And now they go, OK, I 100% want to hire a professional, and now I feel really good about that. I don't feel like I'm quitting or giving up. I understand that these are really complex fields. So just, excited about giving people that first experience in something that you probably didn't touch in high school, or is not in a lot of schools, or you might never encounter otherwise.
And I myself fall into that group. I had never seen a 3D printer until I came to this library, after I moved here. So again, I haven't done-- I haven't made any crazy products or ideas with 3D printers. But now, I know about the technology, know how it works, and I can understand people who are doing things in that area. So really excited to just keep giving more people that general understanding, and then seeing what they do from there. No matter what that is.
TONY PEYRONEL: Lastly, we have a special appearance from two Edinboro University leaders, Provost Dr. Michael Hannan, and Dr. Scott Miller, Dean of the School of Business and the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Science. We first asked the pair what they think the Edinboro beehive adds to their university environment and offerings. Dr. Hannan will speak first, and then Dr. Miller.
MICHAEL HANNAN: I think an important part of the university is, in its mission, is to be connected to the community. And not just to benefit the students who go to Edinboro, but also to help develop the region culturally and economically. And so having-- hosting the beehive is a great opportunity for the university to be very closely related to new business development and community development. At the same time, it offers a really great opportunity for our students to get experience in multiple areas, such as graphic design and communications.
SCOTT MILLER: I think Mike summarized it well. I think an important component of it is that it's a symbiotic relationship. We are getting students engaged in businesses and working with businesses. And I think it's important, for us as a university, to also promote the region. And promote the region as a place that students would want to stay and raise their families to help the economic growth of the region.
TONY PEYRONEL: In addition, Dr. Hannan helped spearhead the Edinboro Beehive Student Start-Up Hub. We'll let him explain the premise.
MICHAEL HANNAN: So we started, as sort of an offshoot of the beehive, was this student incubator space, which is adjacent to the beehive, that allows our students to actually have a quiet space where they can work on their business and develop it. A lot of our students may live in off-campus apartments or live in dormitories where they may not have the type of privacy they need in order to actually do some intensive work on their business.
At the same time, it gives them an opportunity to meet other students who also have entrepreneurial aspirations. So that they can collaborate and learn from each other.
TONY PEYRONEL: We then asked both leaders what's impressed them about the Edinboro beehive and the overall network.
SCOTT MILLER: I've been really impressed how quickly they brought everything together and how much the coordination is occurring between the four universities and the library. Seeing the teamwork that's occurring within the labs at Edinboro. We've got a first-rate lab that the faculty and the students are working side by side as partners.
The faculty are certainly teaching the students, but it's more of a mentorship relationship, like you would see in a corporate environment where they have an employee that they're working with that they're bringing along with them. And seeing that growth is exciting, because you see that the students are energized by it. And they're getting excited about their discipline and about what they do and what they're doing for the businesses.
MICHAEL HANNAN: I've been impressed by the Innovation Beehive at Edinboro in particular, because of the excitement that it generates amongst students. And the quality of the experience that they get in meeting with clients from multiple different industries, which really challenges them to really use their skills and creative thinking to solve problems for those clients.
I think Tony Peyronel and the whole staff there have done a great job of working with students with doing outreach to recruit clients so that the community can have the greatest impact possible from the beehive. I think there has been some really great collaboration among the universities and in the library.
I know when the Beehive originally started, there were a lot of questions about whether universities that were used to competing against each other are going to be able to do a collaborative work. And as the beehive has continued to mature, I do see that collaboration really expanding. And so today's event was, I think, a great example of how the clients can really benefit from the strengths that are in the services that are brought to them from each of the member institutions.
NARRATOR: You can find the NWPA Innovation Beehive Network on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn by searching and NWPA Beehive. The beehive is made up of five grant-funded centers that collaborate to encourage business growth in the Erie area and beyond. The centers work together to form the hive network, while each location operates in its own specialized area of expertise. The Erie County Public Library, Penn State Behrend, Edinboro University, Gannon University, and Mercyhurst University are each responsible for a specific service. You can contact any of us at nwpabeehive.com.
You've been listening to Buzz, Generated. This podcast was released through Edinboro University's Center for Branding and Strategic Communication. It's produced by Chris Lantinen and Thomas Taylor. Thank you to our guests for their insight, and to you, our listeners, for taking the time to experience innovation alongside us. Consider subscribing if you like this episode to get more as soon as they drop. And if you really enjoyed it, jump over to Apple Podcasts for a five-star review. We'll see you next time.
