Summary: In the center of Pembroke, a sleepy town of just 3,000 in southeastern North Carolina, the Thomas Family Center for Entrepreneurship at UNC Pembroke has set up shop in a restored furniture store. Heading the center is an unlikely leader: Thomas Hall, a man who, until recently, worked in Boston to launch a number of consumer products. His new charge is to work with an enthusiastic group of citizens to figure out how to create a vibrant innovation ecosystem in Robeson County, just a few miles from the South Carolina border. Pembroke's team is joining with similar communities as a part of InnovateNC, an initiative that grew out of IEI's 2015 Emerging Issues Forum, Innovation Reconstructed. Their goal is to, in part, assess their assets and try to build on - not abandon - them. This week, we talk to Thomas Hall in the Thomas Center's 20,000 sq. ft. incubator about "coop-itition," the county's first makerspace, and how entrepreneurial success can transform this small community.
