The PennWest Clarion Small Business Development Center, in partnership with Ben Franklin Technology Partners, is hosting a powerful new speaker series led by entrepreneur and investor Brian Slawin. This monthly lineup kicks off on Thursday, July 24, 2025, and runs through March 2026, offering real-world insights, hard-earned lessons, and actionable strategies for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Each session—ranging from topics like challenging industry norms, raising capital, and scaling innovation to lessons learned from the startup journey—is filled with practical tools and interactive discussions. Sessions 1 through 7 will be held in a Zoom webinar format.

Each event is scheduled monthly on Thursdays from 12:00–1:00 p.m., with the final networking-focused master class taking place in person on March 19, 2026, from 12:00–1:30 p.m. in Venango County. Sessions include: Growth Through Innovation on 8/28/25, 8 Questions Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know the Answers To on 9/25/25, My Dad Stole My Startup’s Money on 10/23/25, How to Start Your Startup as a Non-Technical Founder on 11/20/2025, How to Hook Investors to WIN on 1/22/26, Don’t Quit Your Daydream on 2/26/26,  NETWORKING on 3/19/26

Whether you’re launching your first business or looking to take your company to the next level, this series is designed to spark new ideas, build confidence, and provide clarity for your entrepreneurial path.

Commercializing Ideas for Growth:

This training provides a guide for:

• Understanding status quo thinking and then
• Shares specific real-world, examples of companies that leveraged the status quo thinking of their competitors to create opportunities to transform their industry and become market leaders
• Uses interactive exercises to help participants better understand the subtle status quo thinking that operates in their background and then
• Outlines the 3-step process for going from Curiosity to Challenging the Status Quo to true Innovation.