Above: The Foundry Group’s Brad Feld signs books at a recent RokkMiami event.

Knight Foundation supports RokkMiami to connect entrepreneurs and strengthen the local startup community. Below, Naheem Charania, chief strategist and founder-in-residence at Rokk3r Labs, writes about engaging the community to create a roadmap for Miami’s startups. 

This is a crucial moment in the history of Miami’s startup community.  Entrepreneurs are developing great ideas, more quality events are happening around the city and there is growing local interest in startup activities. But this leads to inevitable concerns: What’s the vision for Miami’s startup ecosystem and how do we get there? RokkMiami is one initiative created to address these questions.

Started by Rokk3r Labs, Knight Foundation and Map Your Startup, RokkMiami seeks to build a future by consensus. The inaugural event this spring gathered more than 300 investors, entrepreneurs, community stakeholders, mentors and thought leaders to establish a broadly shared vision. Brad Feld, a globally recognized expert in building startup communities, facilitated the event, which was held at the Lightbox at Goldman Warehouse in Wynwood. Together we produced a plan built around major themes such as investors, community support, early stage entrepreneurship, education, talent pipelines and more. The event created a surge of enthusiasm for finding ways to work together and strengthen the current state.

Ideas discussed at RokkMiami covered the full range of developing our local startup ecosystem. They included: fostering entrepreneurship among high school students by having startups hire interns; offering programming as a “second language” in high school curricula; creating a “Startup Chamber of Commerce” for early stage entrepreneurs; providing an information clearinghouse; and making quality business, banking, legal and business advisers widely available.

This is just the start. RokkMiami continued the conversation with a recent Tweet Meet held on Twitter. We wanted to build even more connections between entrepreneurs and further the discussion of major themes at the core of building a successful startup community. Participants provided their take on questions such as: “What aspects of Miami can be marketed to entrepreneurs and startups?”; “How can the city of Miami help startups and entrepreneurs be successful?”; and “How can younger generations be motivated to become more involved in entrepreneurship?” Sharing ideas, debating viewpoints and building connections via social media further engages and empowers local entrepreneurs.

We’re making progress. There are many advances happening in Miami’s startup ecosystem, and each one builds on previously successful initiatives. One example is the Miami Open Coffee Club, a gathering for the entrepreneurial community to connect and share ideas.. At each event, entrepreneurs have one-on-one access to mentors who offer advice based on their experiences. There are additional events happening almost daily across the city to prepare, motivate and connect local entrepreneurs.

We want to capture and build on that momentum here in Miami, and to that end, planning for RokkMiami 2014 is already underway.  A shared identity for deeper attachment to this vibrant and rapidly evolving city will help to foster meaningful advances as we all, together, help build the startup roadmap for Miami’s success.

To join the conversation and keep up with the latest, visit the RokkMiami Facebook page at facebook.com/RokkMiami.

Naheem Charania, chief strategist and founder-in-residence Rokk3r Labs. Rokk3r Labs is headquartered in Miami Beach, and works with entrepreneurs to fund, build and grow disruptive ideas.