It may surprise you to learn that Silicon Valley isn’t the only startup hotbed in the U.S. In between Silicon Valley and Route 128 there are many pockets of growth and expansion in the startup world. We take a look at where startups are growing and where they are burning out.

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Farms, cows and Dorothy? Try entrepreneurship, high tech and the arts.

The Kansas City Metropolitan area is becoming the envy of individuals on the East and West coasts who have long since considered it merely flyover country. The City of Fountains has been praised as a great place to live, work and visit for many years, but recently it is becoming a hot bed for entrepreneurial investment, high culture and the innovations of the future.

Kansas City, Missouri, is home to the world renowned Kauffman Foundation. The foundation's mission is to help individuals attain economic independence by advancing educational achievement and entrepreneurial success. The Kauffman Foundation's focus on entrepreneurship, innovation, education, and research has helped fuel Kansas City's global presence as an attractive place for creativity and business. Nearly 300,000 individuals from throughout the world have been part of the Kauffman FastTrac program, which has helped entrepreneurs start and grow their business. In addition to the Kauffman Foundation, the University of Missouri-Kansas City's Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Graduate Entrepreneurship Program was recently named the 2012 National Model Graduate Entrepreneurship Program by the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE). Entrepreneurship is booming and alive in Kansas City.

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The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerceand Think Big Partners today announced that they are teaming up with H&R Block to host a new innovation and entrepreneurship conference later this year.

The all-day conference, which is a combination of two events — the Chamber's Innovation Conferenceand Think Big Kansas City — that were held separately last year, will be hosted by H&R Block and take place on June 20 at the H&R Block corporate headquarters building in downtown Kansas City, Mo. The mission of the conference is to help build the city of entrepreneurs, to provide startup inspiration for area entrepreneurs and to help foster innovation and creativity in Kansas City.

"There has never been a better time to host an innovation conference in Kansas City," Kristi Wyatt (below, left), the senior vice president of public policy and programs for the Chamber, said in a release. "With the implementation of Google Fiber, the efforts from the Kauffman Foundation, the presence of the UMKC Bloch School, the Big 5 initiatives and now this conference, we are truly fostering America's most entrepreneurial city."

The announcement follows on the heels of a pair of other announcements by the two organizations that are spearheading the new event. In September, as one of its "Big 5" initiatives for improving Kansas City over the next five years, the Chamber announced its aimof making Kansas City "America's most entrepreneurial city." In January, Think Big, which is an early-stage startup accelerator and mentorship-based collaborative network, announced the launch ofThink Big Nation, the umbrella under which Think Big Partners' more robust raft of operations will function.   

"This innovation conference is just the first step toward making Kansas City a part of the Think Big Nation," Herb Sih (above, right), the managing partner and co-founder of Think Big, said in the release. "We believe that by collaborating with other entrepreneurial organizations, seizing local, regional and national opportunities and serving more Midwestern entrepreneurs, we can identify more great ideas, grow more profitable companies and create more jobs in Kansas City."

In order to foster community involvement, the Chamber and Think Big are encouraging people to submit name ideas for the innovation and entrepreneur conference. Names should be submitted via the KC2012 website by March 2. The official name will be selected by the event's organizers, and the winner of the naming contest will receive a free ticket for the life of the conference, plus other prizes.

The conference is also seeking leaders in the Kansas City business community to get involved through sponsorship or speaker opportunities. Those interested in participating can visit the event's website or call 816-842-5244.

In 1967, a 30-second commercial spot cost approximately $42,000 during the Super Bowl.  In 2012, it costs about $3.5 million.

And although the costs seem outrageous, large companies still fork over millions and millions of dollars on Super Bowl advertisements.  But who can blame them?  Half of the country tunes into the Super Bowl just for the commercials alone.  They're attention-grabbers.  They're entertaining.  They're memorable.  Who could ever forget the Bud-Wei-Ser frog commercial?  Or the young Darth Vader commercial for Volkswagon?

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation is hoping to make the same memorable impression on viewers on this year's Super Bowl Sunday by launching its first-ever public service announcement aimed at sparking the interest of potential entrepreneurs.

The Kauffman PSA boldly asks the question that many entrepreneurs face every day: Will it be you?

The Kauffman Super Bowl ad, which was leaked online yesterday, guides interested entrepreneurs to Kauffman's newest site, willitbeyou.com, where it displays information for startups about inspiration, networking, creation, mentoring and capital raising.  The website features popular resources provided by Kauffman including iStart (utilized in Kansas City's Gigabit Challenge business plan competition), Startup Weekend, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Startup America, UEP, Maker Faire, PIPELINE and many others.

"As jobs and the economy take center stage this election year, the Kauffman Foundation wants both policymakers and the public to be aware of the importance of entrepreneurs to solving our economic crisis," said Wendy Guillies, Kauffman's vice president of communications, in a recent press release.  "The most-watched television event of the year is the ideal opportunity for Kauffman to inspire entrepreneurs and, in the spirit of Super Bowl advertising, to do so in a fun and accessible manner."

The Kauffman PSA validates the growing movement of entrepreneurship not only in Kansas City, but in hundreds of cities across the nation.  Entrepreneurship is growing to a level that is so big that it needs to market in tandem with the most-watched event on television, the Super Bowl.  This notion reinforces the fact that entrepreneurship is not just important, it's essential; essential for job creation, essential for a recovering economy, essential for overall growth.  

The willitbeyou.com commercial from Kauffman will air on Super Bowl Sunday (January 5, 2012) in some of the nation's largest television markets including New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and of course, in Kauffman's own home of Kansas City.

The Kauffman Super Bowl commercial, which takes the form of Kauffman's popular "Sketchbook" theme, proudly states that the next great entrepreneur is out there...and it could be anybody.  Will it be you?

Let's settle one thing up front: Google Inc.'s plan to build a far faster Internet for our homes could be, as the kids say, an epic fail.

It's easy enough to see why the global Internet company would want to juice Kansas City's Web surfing with a little rocket fuel. The faster the Internet — even measured in fragments of a second — the more time people spend online. That means Google sells more ads.

It's less clear that Google can make a business — an entirely new business for the search giant — out of a trucks-and-trenches job that even cable and telephone companies shy from.

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