Small businesses invited to share experiences at roundtable discussion

CAZENOVIA — Local business owners are invited to join Village of Cazenovia Trustee Jennifer Lutter on July 15 at 7 p.m. for a small business roundtable at the Cazenovia Public Library.

Businesses will have the opportunity to discuss their experiences in the village. Topics will include obstacles to starting, maintaining, or growing a business, and ideas for the future.

“I will be there to facilitate, listen, and gather information and will not be representing the official views of the village or village board,” said Lutter.

The new village trustee holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from Cornell University and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

She has over 15 years of community development experience, mostly focused on small towns and business district improvement.

She served as executive director of the Partnership for Community Development (PCD) in Hamilton, NY, for nearly seven years.

In that role, she launched Madison County’s first certified New York State Business Incubator, among many other planning initiatives.

For her work at PCD, she was named to the 2019 Central New York Business Journal 40 Under Forty list.

“I hope it will be a casual and informal opportunity for businesses to share their experiences and ideas,” Lutter said. “I have done similar roundtables for other business groups and found them very interesting and enlightening, so I want to do this in Cazenovia to get a better understanding of what businesses are experiencing.”

The event is free and open to all.

Questions can be directed to Lutter at lutter4caz@gmail.com.