New technologies and business innovations are creating disruptive opportunities for entrepreneurs to improve urban life. The Urban Entrepreneurship Symposium 2015 offers a day of workshops and networking around creating scalable, profit-making businesses that address important urban community needs. Miguel McKelvey, co-founder and chief creative officer of New York-based company WeWork, which provides workspace, community and services around the world, will be the keynote speaker at the event, to be held in Detroit on Oct. 23 at the College for Creative Studies. Wayne State University is a lead sponsor of the event.

The inaugural Urban Entrepreneurship Symposium was held last year on the campus of the University of Michigan to a capacity crowd of nearly 300 attendees. The event is moving to Detroit this year to attract an even broader audience of business innovators, academics, students and community and government leaders. It will be held at the College for Creative Studies' A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education.

"It is the right place and the right time to bring the Urban Entrepreneurship Symposium to Detroit," says Ned Staebler, vice president for economic development at Wayne State, and president and CEO of TechTown Detroit. "The number of entrepreneurs here with great propositions for making our cities even better is growing every day. The symposium is the perfect place for them to meet one another, leverage resources and share ideas that will be of true value to Detroit and the world."

Through expert panels and targeted business breakout sessions, symposium attendees will receive information and tools to assist in creating scalable, profit-making businesses that address important urban community needs. Advance registration is required and there are a limited number of free student tickets available. Reserve or purchase tickets online at www.urbanei.org.

In addition to Wayne State, major sponsors for the event are the University of Michigan - Innovate Blue, Michigan State University - Eli Broad School of Business, Comerica Bank, Diplomat, Fifth Third Bank, InvestDetroit, Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), mQrg LLC, New Economy Initiative (NEI) and Rock Ventures LLC.