Kimi Yingling is bringing accessible, diverse programming and initiatives to downtown Chapel Hill’s new innovation hub as well as 79°West; programming will connect innovators with thought and industry leadership to positively influence economic development.
Downtown Chapel Hill’s first innovation hub will open as early as this spring as a place for entrepreneurs and industry partners from the university, local community and region to convene and create. Kimi Yingling, the new assistant director of innovation hubs for Innovate Carolina, is leading efforts to develop and implement educational, diverse and accessible programs that foster innovation and support entrepreneurship in Chapel Hill as well as in surrounding counties.
As the ultimate connector, she’s bringing together innovators within the community to identify and solve the most pressing, grand challenges facing our region and state to ultimately benefit the greater good. Her experience leading student programming for Innovate Carolina – the central team for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – as well as for 79°West – a flexible workspace and coworking community in Chatham Park – will help her identify programming for the hubs that will invigorate and energize the innovator community. Innovate Carolina spoke with Yingling about her new role and how she hopes to make an immediate impact.
Our community is full of entrepreneurial energy, inventive thinkers and a growing number of small businesses that make a huge economic and social impact. I’ll be developing and implementing diverse educational programming that fosters innovation and supports entrepreneurship to increase the pipeline of talent to UNC, Launch Chapel Hill and other business accelerators with the goal of ultimately creating more knowledge-based jobs and positively influencing economic development here in Chapel Hill and in surrounding counties.
At 79°West, we’re already off to a great start with free and accessible program offerings that are creating connections between Orange and Chatham counties around innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development. Through a variety of programming formats – workshops, firesides chats, networking events, etc. – we offer programming across timely topics like the power of a pitch, funding options for your idea, startup or small business, and business plan basics.
Both hubs will offer a wide range of programing: broad programming that many startups, entrepreneurs, early-stage companies and small business owners can relate to, but then also deeper content around specific areas of expertise across different disciplines that really promotes engagement between UNC faculty and staff, as well as the community and industry. Innovate Carolina will offer programming that helps individuals build skills, create connections, minimize risks and encourages frank conversations. Long term, our goals are around collaboration, community and innovation that will eventually generate new outcomes for industry, knowledge-based jobs in the surrounding counties.
I’m also focused on partnerships for both hubs and support a collection of communities including the University’s connection to Launch Chapel Hill and the 1789 Hub student community, acting as a bridge between spaces and programs.
We look forward to seeing students, faculty, alumni, industry leaders, and thought leaders as well as members of the community. The hubs are available to anyone with a curiosity for innovation, including family-owned businesses, early stage startups and even individuals that just have an idea.
We are intentionally connecting our programming to learning outcomes to accommodate companies in all different phases of growth. For example, we may offer a workshop on understanding your market that would be really beneficial for a company in the early-stage idea phase. On the other end, we may offer a workshop that is more HR-focused on finding and retaining talent, a topic that may be more appropriate for companies in a later stage.
But topics like marketing and branding, sales, or skillsets like leadership, communication and public speaking… these are skillsets that could benefit any stage of a company. We’re hoping that a diverse set of workshops, fireside chats and themed networking events aimed at companies in various stages of growth will allow different groups to find programming that suits their needs.
At 79°West, we’ve been able to offer free and open events since the summer and have received positive feedback around access to free resources, UNC expertise like professors and mentors, and the opportunity to have a nice place to network that also offers co-working spaces and conference spaces.
At the Chapel Hill hub, we’re designing the programming around wicked problems where we’ll pull in faculty who are researching those problems from an academia perspective. We’ll connect those who have commonalities – but may have never met – that run across the challenge or solution that will be needed. There’s a real value to that, and the hubs will create that opportunity. Students, faculty and staff should sign up for the Innovate Carolina newsletter to stay in the loop about upcoming free events at the Chapel Hill hub starting this fall.
Absolutely. The innovation hub in downtown Chapel Hill will be a combination of innovation resources and coworking space with a variety of options for anything you need, including creative spaces, services and programs for inventive thinking, working and meeting. We are currently accepting inquiries from people and organizations interested in securing space or participating in the hub through flexible co-working spaces, private offices, meeting spaces, the Launch Chapel Hill accelerator, and other events, programs and services.
No matter where an individual is along their innovation journey, the hubs offer a variety of programs to take advantage of. Our programs tap into the wide-ranging and deep content expertise from across disciplines at UNC, while promoting engagement between faculty, staff, community members and industry. We’re intentionally designing programs to accommodate different learning styles as well as diverse formats. Hub visitors will be able to attend programs that offer inspiration as well as experiential learning. Sometimes you’ll come to the hub and have a takeaway, sometimes you’ll come in and just listen and sometimes you’ll come in and network. And to meet the needs of community members, we’re offering programming throughout the week during both daytime and evening hours.
Some programs will focus on individual support such as office hours with subject matter experts, including market landscaping and funding research, customer and market research and engaging strategic partners and investors. We’ll also offer small business resource fairs, roundtable discussions, open houses, coffee and concepts and networking nights.
We are excited to partner with industry leaders who want to align themselves with the university for research, innovation and talent. For example, we’re partnering with the Central Carolina Community College Small Business Center on Next Level, a ten-week program at 79°West that helps participants with a new idea for a product or scalable service take their idea from development to launch. Our team is honored to partner on this program because we get to collaborate with local entrepreneurs and innovators who want to work on early ideas and venture concepts that have impact potential. Working with them in a focused, step-by-step way allows us to validate and strengthen their ideas, prepare them for larger business accelerator programs and set them up for long-term success.
We are actively looking for industry partners, and I would encourage anyone interested to reach out to Sheryl Waddell, the director of economic development and innovation hubs, for a conversation about how to partner with us because it’s so vital that industry be involved. From providing programming, to serving as a sponsor to hosting a resource for the community, we will find a place for you.
The hubs are open to all who have a curiosity for making an impact. We believe that having this open door can lead to collaborations with other community members and thought leaders, partnerships with industry or new ways of working with the university. We have seen the value that industry partners bring in creating opportunities for students, and we aim to intentionally create ways for how we can develop these intersections that allow for stronger engagement with both the community and industry.
Take advantage of spring programming now at 79°West. The Chapel Hill innovation hub is slated to open this spring. For more information about the Chapel Hill hub and larger innovation district, visit innovationhub.unc.edu.
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