Richmond's arts and culture scene is an engine for community building and economic growth. From murals that transform neighborhoods to markets that incubate small creative businesses to studios that train the next generation of working artists, Richmond's creative community has been doing ecosystem-building work for decades.

This session brings together the artists, organizers, and creative entrepreneurs shaping that work to discuss economic development through an arts lens: how public art projects build community trust and drive investment, how creative markets function as small business incubators, and how studio and gallery spaces create pathways into sustainable creative careers. We want attendees to leave understanding Richmond's arts scene not as a cultural amenity, but as a model for how creative practice and entrepreneurship reinforce each other.

Panelists: Ashley Hawkins, Hamilton Glass, Adrienne Cole Johnson

Moderator: Nicole Jones

Every founder can trace a few key decisions back to a moment of fear, anger, or desperation — and those emotions don't sit outside the business, they shape its future. The Founder Mobility Index is an analytical framework and discussion initiative created by Debbie Irwin of Lighthouse Network to explore the emotional, psychological, and circumstantial factors driving the entrepreneurial experience. Rather than stopping at the metrics on a pitch deck, it looks at what's actually happening inside founders as they make the calls that define a company's trajectory — what drives them forward, what holds them back, and how emotional awareness can change where a company ends up.

In this session, Debbie Irwin and James Warren walk through the framework's core lenses: how emotional drivers like fear, anger, and urgency shape critical business decisions and long-term trajectories; how founder choices and mobility intersect with local ecosystems to influence regional innovation; and how real founder stories reveal the tie between emotional awareness and leadership performance. Expect a candid look at the human side of building a company — and language for naming what's actually driving your next decision.

Speakers: Debbie Irwin and James Warren

We don't need to tell anyone in the room that the funding landscape is rough right now. ESOs are stuck chasing the same shrinking pool of grants, trying to reinvent the wheel to keep their critical programs running while ensuring entrepreneurs have the support they need to build and scale. But there are untapped partners with resources and funding structures that can help when applied creatively.

In this fireside chat, three Richmond-region practitioners compare notes on funding structures often overlooked: Leveraging CDFI Dollars, CD products to fund a cause and county microgrants. Join us for a lively chat on how these resources can help unlock impact in your ecosystem.

Speakers: Rasheeda Creighton, Phil Ray, Yoti Jabri

Entrepreneurship has always had gatekeepers: capital, connections, credentials. AI is lowering some of those barriers and quietly raising others. This session, hosted by AI Ready RVA, gets specific about which is which.

Across peer-led cohorts in healthcare, finance, law, cybersecurity, and manufacturing, AI Ready RVA has watched Richmond business owners move from treating AI like a search engine to using it as a working thought partner. That shift is real. It is also uneven, and it does not automatically translate into a funded, differentiated business.

The panel brings four operators who have started companies, invested in them, and built the systems underneath them. We will cover what changes for a founder with no consultant on retainer, whether the funding bar has actually moved, where adoption breaks inside real organizations, and what the compute powering all of it costs when the free tier ends. That last question matters more in Virginia than almost anywhere else in the country.

For ecosystem builders asking where AI fits in access and inclusion work beyond the hype, this is the session.

Panelists: Will Wilis, Ida Peirce, Stuart Chambers, Odean Maye

Moderator: Garett Westlake

Hear the stories of entrepreneurs who shaped Historic Jackson Ward, aka “The Harlem of the South.” This walking tour is led by 4th generation Jackson Ward resident Gary L. Flowers, who shares the story of the educational, economic, religious, and social institutions of a neighborhood that served as an early model of Black Capitalism in the United States.

Richmond is a foodie town. From James Beard nominated restaurants to packaged products featured in Forbes and chefs competing on Food Network shows, this town’s food scene is off the chain. This tour will first take attendees to VCU’s Shift Retail Lab, where you’ll learn about the “Shelfie Program” for early stage builders working on prototypes. Next, we’ll head to Hatch, where food & beverage entrepreneurs operate and scale.

Take a tour of one of Richmond’s nonprofit community arts space. Studio Two Three offers studios, classes and workshops, artist residency, and open doors. In addition to offering workspace and opportunity, they support the role of the arts in civic voice and engagement, partnering with activists and leaders to provide space for creative advocacy initiatives. They even have their own community fridge!

Some of Richmond's most active ecosystem builders share a roof, and this Ecosystem Adventure gets you inside it. Startup Virginia leads a walking tour of 1717 Innovation Center, home to organizations working side by side to support founders across the region: Metropolitan Business League, Bridging Virginia, and Startup Virginia itself, alongside the startups who work out of the space day to day. You'll see how these ESOs operate, how proximity shapes collaboration, and what it looks like when support systems and the founders they serve share one building.

The tour wraps with a panel of founders who've come up through Richmond’s ESOs, sharing firsthand what it's meant to build a business with this kind of community close at hand. Along the way, you’ll get a chance to snack on products made by local companies.