A couple of Small Business Development Centers in the Rust Belt are two of the newest GEW/USA partners and are already crystallizing their plans for November. The Toledo Small Business Development Center of Toledo, Ohio, is holding a Charting Your Course mentoring event, where an experienced entrepreneur will walk attendees through the business planning process. In neighboring Pennsylvania, the Clarion University Small Business Development Center has registered a “How-To” event for new and aspiring business owners to learn how to use QuickBooks, the small business accounting software.

As GEW/USA has been adding new Featured Events and other opportunities for participants, partners continue to create opportunities in their cities, including a couple in the Midwest:

• New partner, The Growth Council of Marion, Indiana has planned a Spirit of Entrepreneurship Awards Dinner to recognize outstanding entrepreneurs within the community.
• Menlo Innovations of Ann Arbor, Michigan is planning two events this year—The Menlo Factory Tour and Menlo Factory VIP Tour—to give participants a chance to see inside the factory and learn more about how they create award-winning products for clients.

Meanwhile, other organizations that have joined as partners but are still shaping their plans include the Metropole Capital Group of Los Angeles, California, and the Niles New Tech Entrepreneurial Academy, a DECA affiliated school in Niles, Michigan.

In other news from the Unleashing Ideas network:

• Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas received a $10,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation as part of its 2012-2013 Skills for Success Initiative.
• Babson College, AARP, and the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) are co-sponsoring a conference to be held Sept. 14 at the Wellesley campus. Featuring presentations from successful entrepreneurs, the conference is for the baby boomer generation, interested in starting their own businesses.
• This Friday, the city of Asheville, North Carolina, will be hosting a Startup Weekend where participants will join founder teams and get a chance to hear Jim Roberts of Redspire Connections in Raleigh.

tags: junior achievement, NACCE, SBDC, Startup Weekend