Join us for IdeaBounce® on Thurs, Sept 30th from 5:30-7:30 to pitch your ideas, get feedback & make connections!

CLICK HERE TO RSVP AND INVITE YOUR FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK

IdeaBounce® is an event for sharing ideas and making connections. This is an opportunity to pitch your idea (no matter how “half-baked”), get feedback on it, and make connections. Inventors, founders, startups and creatives from all across the region, and those interested in supporting them, are invited to attend on Thursday, September 30th from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Jacoby Arts Center, located at 627 E. Broadway in Alton, Illinois.

As the Small Business Revolution continues to spread, please join Alton Main Street and the Skandalaris Center at Washington University for this fun, fast paced elevator pitch competition and networking event featuring the area’s best and brightest! Any idea is acceptable to pitch, including new businesses, public art or other creative enterprises, needed social services in the area, etc.

Everyone will have two minutes to deliver an elevator pitch on their idea, and participants will then convene at a reception in the gallery to support the ideas in moving forward.

15 people will be chosen to present; to submit your idea for consideration all you need to do is visit www.ideabounce.com and click “Share Your Idea” to give a brief description. Then fill out this online form to register for the event by September 15th, and applicants will be informed whether they have been chosen as one of the presenters on September 17th. https://skandalaris.wustl.edu/event/2021/08/05/ideabounce-alton/

To see what others in our region are working on, visit www.ideabounce.com, and browse the ideas or use the search function to focus on different sectors and keywords. If you think an idea is cool, give them a thumbs up! If you can help with the idea, click the message button and send a note to the poster.

To assist with advancing the ideas, $1,500 in prize money will be awarded by a panel of esteemed judges: Rhonda Breslin, Assistant Vice President at Busey Bank, Todd Kennedy, owner of EastGate Plaza in East Alton and serial entrepreneur, and Dr. Ken Trzaska, President of Lewis and Clark Community College. A people’s choice vote by the attendees will determine the winner of a complimentary month of private office accommodations donated by Alternative Office Space, a new state of the art co-working facility in East Alton.

“Alton Main Street is excited to be collaborating with Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship to take our pitch competitions to the next level,” says Sara McGibany, Executive Director of Alton Main Street. “This is another example of the advocacy and support that our organization has been providing for new and existing small businesses and our creative community members for decades.”

Alton Main Street and its partners are available to help entrepreneurs and small businesses navigate any obstacles they may face. “Our goal is to provide guidance, resources and information.” said Penny Schmidt who serves on the Economic Vitality Committee for Alton Main Street, “Providing entrepreneurs and creatives with access to this high-quality expertise enables them, and Alton, to flourish.”

Alton is fertile ground for entrepreneurs to grow and thrive.  For many communities like Alton, fostering startups and small business growth has been the key to transitioning from a formerly manufacturing-based economy. The concept of fostering entrepreneurship to accelerate urban revitalization has been embraced by a wide spectrum of supporters, from artists and cultural organizations to business leaders and financial institutions.

The event is presented by Alton Main Street, with support from Washington University, Busey Bank, First Mid Bank & Trust, Lewis and Clark Community College, Simmons Hanly Conroy, the City of Alton, Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau, Riverbender.com, The Telegraph, AdVantage, and WBGZ Radio.


Together we are committed to helping entrepreneurs, artists and existing business owners achieve the next level of success in Downtown Alton. 

Alton Main Street and its partners are available to help entrepreneurs and small businesses navigate any obstacles they may face. “Our goal is to provide guidance, resources and information.” said Penny Schmidt who serves on the Economic Vitality Committee for Alton Main Street, “Providing entrepreneurs and creatives with access to this high-quality expertise enables them, and Alton, to flourish.”

Alton is fertile ground for entrepreneurs to grow and thrive.  For many communities like Alton, fostering startups and small business growth has been the key to transitioning from a formerly manufacturing-based economy. The concept of fostering entrepreneurship to accelerate urban revitalization has been embraced by a wide spectrum of supporters, from artists and cultural organizations to business leaders and financial institutions.

The event is presented by Alton Main Street, with support from Washington University, Alton RISING, Simmons Hanly Conroy, Mathis, Marifian & Richter, LTD., the City of Alton, the Great Rivers and Routes Tourism Bureau, Riverbender.com, The Telegraph, AdVantage, and WBGZ Radio.

Watch our promotional video on the variety of ways that Alton Main Street is supporting our community’s artisan business culture!

Watch the full-length video of our workshop
presented in Downtown Alton in 2016 on

“Developing the Creative Economy
of Alton’s Broadway Corridor”

On April 22nd, 2016 a workshop presented by Alton Main Street, Simmons Hanly Conroy, and Liberty Bank broadcasted that Downtown Alton, especially the Broadway corridor, is fertile ground for creative entrepreneurs to grow and thrive. The event was at Jacoby Arts Center, located at 627 E. Broadway in Alton, IL, in the heart of Alton’s emerging creative district.

For many communities similar to Alton, fostering small business growth has been the key to transitioning from a formerly manufacturing-based economy. Creative enterprises create jobs, improve quality of life, and are an important complement to community development activities. Such shops and services attract other young professionals and tourists to our area. Often, larger companies make decisions about where to locate their businesses based on the availability of a creative workforce, as well as the quality of life that a town rich in the arts offers to its employees. The Downtown Alton district has long been a hub for many classic creative enterprises, such as visual arts and media, but attendees of the workshop were encouraged to broaden their horizons on what fields are considered creative, to include industries such as: architecture, crafts, culinary, cultural, design, fashion, film, publishing, software development and technology.

Kicking off the workshop from 3:00-5:00 p.m., Pam Schallhorn, Community Economic Development Educator from University of Illinois Extension, gave a presentation called “Developing A Creative Economy”. Attendees learned how residents, business and property owners, civic organizations, and city officials can create an environment where these types of businesses will choose to open their doors.

From 5:00-6:00 p.m., the audience enjoyed a live “Shark Tank” style session, where creative entrepreneurs delivered 2-minute pitches on the current state of their business, project, or idea and received rapid-fire feedback from a panel of experts. The workshop included appetizers from many local food purveyors.

Finally, from 6:00-8:00 p.m., a “Creative Entrepreneur Cocktail Expo” was held in the main gallery, which was free and open to the public. During the party, creatives browsed informational tables from many organizations, businesses and individuals who offered support to fledgling creative entrepreneurs. They were also able to learn about available real estate, find opportunities to sell their wares, and land contract employment. The event was a supportive atmosphere to network with successful business mentors, financial lenders and media.

“At the event, a jewelry maker will find outlets to consign her work, someone considering an endeavor in the culinary arts can learn about markets for his products, and local performance artists will receive contact info for Downtown venues who are looking to hire their services,” said Sara McGibany, Executive Director of Alton Main Street, “The goal is to provide resources and information. I’ve been involved with many circumstances where a creative entrepreneur is great at their trade, but just needed a little support on their weaker spots in regards to business. Sometimes giving a small business owner advice on where to turn for marketing, financial or real estate help enables them to really flourish.”

The Alton Main Street organization and its partners are available to help small entrepreneurs navigate any obstacles they face in order to take their business to the next level. Developers attended the workshop to learn about investment opportunities in Downtown Alton’s historic district and become acquainted with Alton’s growing creative culture.