Having led the organization since June 2017, Dennis Moynihan is stepping down as Executive Director of BTVIgnite. Building on Burlington’s world class fiber infrastructure, BTVIgnite is a non-profit organization sponsored by leading academic, business, and government stakeholders that helps enable Burlington’s world-class tech infrastructure to support its growing digital and tech sector.
Dennis had great success as the Executive Director of BTVIgnite, not only with an outstanding Innovation Week attracting new investors to the community and connecting local entrepreneurs with potential mentors and funders, but also in running a new accelerator program and supporting the advancement of the Vermont Innovation Commons.
The Vermont Innovation Commons is an ambitious and thoughtful project affiliated with Vermont Works Management Co. that seeks to create substantial new innovation space within the Cambrian Rise development project. Vermont Innovation Commons will help make Burlington a destination for talented social impact entrepreneurs and companies. Dennis’ success in supporting Vermont Innovation Commons is an outstanding opportunity for him to help develop programming supporting entrepreneurs in Burlington and Vermont. We wish him great success with this critical project.
Dennis’ leadership and input, and the perspectives of the Burlington’s academic institutions, private sector, and public sector interests represented on the BTVIgnite Board, have helped sharpen the focus for BTVIgnite’s efforts over the next six to 12 months as it continues its mission to support business development, innovation, and entrepreneurship in Burlington and surrounding communities. In lieu of an Executive Director, the Board intends to use its resources to augment existing capacity within the community to advance the goals outlined below, and will consider an Association Management Agreement with the Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce for one year at its March meeting.
Enhance the current marketing effort to tell the story of Burlington’s success and attract talent and innovative companies: Burlington has outstanding home-grown companies, start-ups with enormous potential, and powerful entrepreneurial support organizations. The major institutions in the community should help trumpet these successes and lend their effort in attracting and retaining people and resources through a coordinated marketing effort that BTVIgnite is uniquely placed to organize and lead. The Chamber is already heading up a well-resourced new marketing initiative that can amplify the message of BTVIgnite.
Augment ongoing Smart City successes and leverage partners and networks to attract vendor and local interest in Burlington’s efforts: Supporting ongoing and developing new, tangible smart city innovations could both improve services for City residents and support a broader marketing effort. BTVIgnite is well placed to help bring in new partners and vendors to support such projects. The Chamber’s project management capacity and prior success in this role contributed to the Board’s desire to seek an Association Management Agreement to advance this goal.
Continue the success of Innovation Week: Connect our community’s entrepreneurs across with investors and mentors and help the entrepreneurial support network in Burlington continue to grow and access new resources to support a thriving tech sector.
Grow the organization’s role as a convener: BTVIgnite provides a unique forum for the City’s institutions to grapple with the opportunities and challenges posed by a 21st Century economy. The organization expects to expand its Board to additional members over the course of the coming year.
Burlington’s natural resources or current successes make it an incredible place to live. BTVIgnite’s continued role as a convener of the major institutional players to intentionally support the development of the community’s next generation of successful innovators and businesses will help the city flourish in the years to come.