Mayor George Flaggs Jr. is in Kansas City, Missouri, to learn how to develop and encourage entrepreneurship programs to increase economic growth.

The Mayors Conference on Entrepreneurship is sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Flaggs said he was among the mayors invited to attend the conference.

“I am looking forward to meeting with other mayors from across the country and developing ideas and strategies that will help the city of Vicksburg strengthen our entrepreneurial base for years to come,” he said.

According to the foundation’s website, the conference brings mayors, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship experts together to discuss ways to promote startup activity and encourage higher levels of entrepreneurship in cities.

The mayors and entrepreneurs collaborate and align their objectives, creating a new national community where the most difficult problems are addressed using the best aspects of public and private approach. The network developed during the event will exist beyond the conference and will support efforts beyond the events of the conference.

Flaggs sees encouraging entrepreneurship as one of the ways to improve the city’s economic development by bringing in new local business.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen are supporting the development of the old Mississippi Hardware building, which is seen as an incubator for new local high tech business and entrepreneurship.