Page 32 - 2023 Westchester County Economic Development Guide

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WESTCHESTER COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT GUIDE
Cultivating and Advancing Talent WIN
Westchester for the WIN
Just over a year aer its launch, the BCW’s Westchester Innovation Network (WIN) program is already generating success stories between innovators and their matches.
Launched in December 2021, e Business Council of Westchester launched WIN to drive economic growth and development in Westchester County. By connecting innovative companies within Westchester and outside of the region, WIN’s goal is to integrate more innovation into local businesses and municipalities.
WIN launched with three components: 1. e Innovation Match Program
attracts innovators to Westchester and pairs them with leading, local companies to test their services in real-world settings. e goals are to help local host companies better understand innovation and to provide feedback to innovators who seek product testing.
2. e BCW City Labs Program spotlights a host community, and teams that municipality with students from Iona University
to identify innovative projects that deliver immediate economic benefit.
3. e WIN Implementation Guide will recommend policies to better attract and retain innovators, including funding, job training and incentives.
WIN’s first phase attracted local, national, and international
innovators who paired with local businesses to test commercially viable innovations. Notably, many WIN participants are graduates of the County’s Entrepreneurial programs: Element 46, Launch1000 and the Westcheter County Biosciences Accelerator program.
Innovation Match
Among WIN’s successes is self-service insurance management agency Ferro’s recent announcement that it will
develop a Ferro Lite insurance product based on feedback from the Rey Insurance Agency in Sleepy Hollow.
Another innovator – Lessonbee – recently announced that it received a $100,000 award from the Google for Startups Initiative.
CatchU – one of the WIN program’s founding matches – recently launched its fall-propensity app as the start-up prepares to test its app with patients at the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains. Read more about CatchU on page 26.
e YMCA of Central & Northern Westchester partnered with Kool Nerd Connect, a career readiness company that introduces and connects students to future workforce possibilities. “We are grateful for the YMCA team’s valuable input on our coursework,” said Orane Barrett, CEO of Kool Nerd Connect. “eir real-world feedback helped us improve our approach to increasing students’ awareness and inspiring them to pursue rewarding careers.”
BCW City Labs
e BCW City Labs program also delivered results through an initiative that paired Iona University with the City of Mount Vernon to identify
projects that deliver immediate economic benefit. Students met with small business owners at Mount Vernon City Hall, where small-business owners expressed their challenges in being certified as minority- and women-owned business enterprises (MWBE).
In May of 2022, Iona students delivered an action report analyzing the MWBE certification process and made recommendations to provide greater transparency and efficiency in getting necessary certifications.
Learn more about this and a new BCW City Labs program initiative on page 44.
Businesses interested in participating as either a host or an innovator to test products or services should email win@thebcw.org.
Above: Yonkers Housing Authority President & CEO Wilson Kimball; Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano; BCW President & CEO Marsha Gordon; Christoph Winkler, Founding Program Director and Endowed Professor, Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona University; Rob Kissner, GaelVentures Program Manager, Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Iona University; Groundwork Hudson Valley Director of Community Relations Candida Rodriguez and Iona University President Seamus Carey
© Courtesy of e Business Council of Westchester