ESHIP Converge is a participatory national gathering for everyone working to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems—and the growing constellation of individuals and organizations who support them.
National anchors
National anchors help ESHIP Alliance support and extend Converge across the ecosystem-building field.
The ESHIP Summit Legacy
From 2017–2020, the Kauffman Foundation and community partners brought entrepreneurial ecosystem builders together to help shape an emerging field of practice. The Summits—and the collaborative work that continued between them—created a shared foundation that the field is still building on today.
National gatherings where more than 1,000 ecosystem builders from all 50 states and beyond connected across communities and sectors, surfaced field-wide challenges, and collaboratively developed shared priorities, relationships, tools, and knowledge.
A living record of the field’s collective learning—documenting the discover, design, and deliver process, the seven ESHIP Goals, proposed initiatives, and practical guidance for strengthening entrepreneurial ecosystems and the profession itself.
Whether you helped shape this work from the beginning, encountered it somewhere along the way, or are just beginning to see yourself as an ecosystem builder, this history belongs to a field that is still growing—and still being shaped.
A history worth building on
A field-building milestone
Approaching the 10-year anniversary of the first ESHIP Summit—and celebrating a decade of building the field together.
The Field We’ve Built
Ecosystem building is now widely recognized as essential to entrepreneurship and economic development. Across the country, the field has more organizations, stronger networks, better tools, a shared language, and far greater visibility than it did a decade ago.
The Decade We Can Shape
This milestone gives us a rare opportunity to reconnect the field, confront the pressures threatening the work’s sustainability, and turn what we have learned into shared priorities and coordinated action through 2030.
What we are solving for
Ecosystem builders strengthen entrepreneurship in communities, regions, institutions, and industries. Field building strengthens the shared profession around that work—connecting practitioners, improving methods, building visibility, and creating the conditions for ecosystem building to endure.
Together, we have helped move ecosystem building from an emerging practice toward a recognized field. Yet the people and organizations powering this work face increasing pressure to demonstrate value, sustain engagement, secure resources, and navigate a fragmented funding and partnership landscape.
Too many ecosystem builders are sustaining essential work without reliable funding, durable infrastructure, or consistent investment in the people holding it together.
Useful work, lessons, networks, and opportunities are scattered across organizations and geographies—making them difficult to see, connect, and build upon.
The field creates relationships and ideas, but lacks a recurring mechanism for turning them into coordinated priorities, resourcing strategies, and sustained action.
Fall 2026 Field Discovery
Throughout Fall 2026, four partner activations and ongoing dialogue in ESHIP Commons will gather perspectives from across the field—surfacing what is working, what is at risk, and what may require a shared response. Those insights will help shape the priorities and collaborative design work of the November 17–18 virtual convening.
Nieux + Technical.ly
IEDC Annual Conference | New Orleans, LA
SourceLink + IEDC
IEDC Annual Conference | New Orleans, LA
InBIA + Entrepreneurship Funders Network
InBIA Annual Conference | Detroit, MI
HUUB
IEDC Annual Conference | New Orleans, LA
ESHIP Commons
Ongoing online communityFive streams of discovery. One shared national conversation.
The November Virtual Convening
More than a convening—a convergence.
ESHIP Converge is a national, participatory process culminating in two interactive virtual sessions. Each day will combine national framing, practical insights, facilitated small-group dialogue, individual reflection, collaborative work, and scheduled breaks. Ecosystem builders will bring insights from communities, partner events, and the ESHIP Commons into facilitated conversations—first to understand where the field stands, then to set priorities and begin designing projects that can move the work forward.
You do not need prior involvement with the ESHIP Summits, ESHIP Alliance, or ESHIP Commons to participate.
Day One
Exchange perspectives, surface what’s working and what’s at risk, and identify what requires a collective response.
Day Two
Set priorities across sectors and geographies and begin shaping fundable projects.
What We Will Do Together
Lift up field activity, useful ideas, active initiatives, stories, tools, and opportunities from across the country.
Bring more perspectives into the conversation through partner events, shared dialogue, and collaborative sensemaking.
Focus shared priorities, connect leaders and resources, and create pathways for coordinated action through 2030.
The Participant Experience
Built for people strengthening entrepreneurship—wherever you are in the work.
No previous involvement with ESHIP is required.
Where the work leads
On Day Two, participants will turn insights from partner activations and ESHIP Commons into the ESHIP 2030 Action Agenda—a shared framework for collective action through 2030. It will identify field-wide priorities, elevate existing initiatives and leaders, and outline a portfolio of co-designed, fundable projects with clear pathways for partnership, investment, and continued progress.
Our Collective Goals
Created with input from 800 ecosystem builders, the seven ESHIP Goals define the conditions needed to strengthen the field—and provide the framework for Converge’s collaborative work.
Ensure ecosystem builders with diverse perspectives lead our field.
Cultivate a culture of trust and collaboration within our field.
Establish shared outcomes and a common lexicon for our work.
Foster coordination and collaboration efforts to connect ecosystem builders across networks.
Identify and develop better metrics and methods for ecosystem building.
Expand external stakeholder understanding of and support for ecosystem building.
Develop professional recognition and resources for ecosystem builders.
By “fundable projects,” we mean projects designed with clear outcomes, shared ownership, and credible pathways for investment and implementation—not a guarantee of funding.
What Comes Next
For those who want to go deeper and carry the work forward after the event, ESHIP Commons will provide an ongoing home for project teams to continue designing solutions, building partnerships, developing funding strategies, and moving priority projects toward activation.
Visit ESHIP CommonsVirtual by design
Virtual is not a concession.It is part of the field-building design.
Attend individually from wherever you are—or participate with a small delegation connected by a place, organization, network, sector, or shared area of work.
No airfare, hotel, or invitation required to enter the national conversation.
More people and communities can contribute across geography, role, and organizational budget.
Local and regional delegations can participate together and carry the learning home.
A growing national network
As people become Converge Explorers, their states will join this growing constellation—an evolving picture of the field gathering around the work.
Partner markers are approximate. Converge Explorer markers are anonymous and aggregated by state; no names, email addresses, or exact locations appear on the map. State outlines via SVG Maps (CC BY-NC 4.0).
One national gathering
Made tangible through communities, states, and regions.
The delegation model
Delegations bring a small group—generally no more than 10 people—into the same national experience. A delegation might be connected by a community or region, an organization, a network, a sector, or a shared area of work. Groups may gather in one physical location or participate from multiple locations.
Converge will include moments for delegations to reflect together, compare perspectives, and consider what the national conversation means for their own context. After the event, groups can carry forward stronger relationships, shared learning, and potential next steps for their organization, network, or community.
Digital Delegation ToolkitDelegations will receive a digital Delegation Toolkit they can use to enhance their local experience before, during, and after the virtual convergence.
Participate with people connected by place, organization, network, sector, or shared work.
Bring a place-based or shared-purpose group into the national conversation.
Make delegation participation possible for groups that face resource barriers.
Field-Wide Support
These partners are helping ESHIP Converge reach ecosystem builders across organizations, sectors, networks, and communities—bringing more voices into the national conversation.
Become a Converge Explorer
Becoming a Converge Explorer means joining the ESHIP Converge mailing list and raising your hand for the ways you may want to participate. Explorers will receive event updates, be the first notified when registration opens, learn about new partners and activations, and be eligible for occasional special surprises and giveaways.
Becoming a Converge Explorer keeps you connected and ensures you are among the first notified when registration opens. It does not register you for the November event.
“The future is built together.”
