Page 247 - 1-Entrepreneurship and Local Economic Development by Norman Walzer (z-lib.org)

236 June Holley

stoves, and preparation tables; and two smaller spaces were reserved for dry-
ing and cooling products. An even larger space was used for storage and had
palletized areas that entrepreneurs could rent to store bulk items such as
jars or raw materials.
The facility also contained large walk-in coolers and freezers where en-
trepreneurs rented sections or shelves. A large area next to the two loading
docks served as a staging area where finished products were palletized to be
picked up by distributors. Since there were usually at least several trucks at
the loading docks, this area became a networking hub where entrepreneurs
congregated, shared news, and discussed joint projects. Such informal net-
working spaces proved to be essential in fostering self-organized collabora-
tions among the entrepreneurs.
The front of the incubator included business offices rented by several en-
trepreneurs, a library with trade journals and regulations, a copier and fax,
and the offices of ACEnet’s three-person technical assistance staff. Eventu-
ally, the facility became self-sufficient; rental fees covered the costs of oper-
ations.

What Is a Cluster?

ACEnet decided not to limit its services to the food manufacturers who
used the Kitchen Incubator. Instead, ACEnet would serve the entire specialty
food and agricultural cluster in the Appalachian region, including food
manufacturers with their own facilities, locally owned restaurants, and
farmers interested in exploring specialty crops. The incubator also included
businesses that provided services (such as graphic designers and accounting
services), markets (from larger grocery stores to convenience stores), and
distributors.
Finally, the cluster included many nonprofits and support agencies such
as the Small Business Development Center and Cooperative Extension Ser-
vice. ACEnet helped them to customize their services to more effectively
serve food-related businesses. Defining the specialty food cluster to include
food producers, their markets, and organizations that supported their suc-
cess was an important step. From the start, the cluster included many of the
services entrepreneurs would need for continued growth and development.
Most of the partners became engaged in the cluster through involvement in
one of the many projects organized to develop a new cluster infrastructure—a
set of permanent services or programs that enabled more food cluster en-
trepreneurs to start-up and then continue to expand over the years. Exam-
ples of cluster infrastructure, described in a later section, include festivals,
regional brands, and an innovation fund. Over the years, ACEnet intro-
duced new approaches gleaned from conferences, the Internet, or from the
vast network of relationships with individuals around the country. In this