connecticut

Gwen Edwards welcomes
David Femi, of M&amp;T Bank, who discusses its effort to bring a small business
innovation lab to businesses in the Greater Bridgeport area. 

Gwen Edwards welcomes David Femi, of M&T Bank, who discusses its effort to bring a small business innovation lab to businesses in the Greater Bridgeport area.

Connecticut

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And we're taking another look at the forecast. Morning, temperatures are going to be warm, but temps will fall throughout the day and there's still rain out there for that morning commute. So there could be a couple of issues on the roads plan accordingly. Travel could be a little disrupted by that rain. Now, there will be some snow falling mainly north, but that's going to be very brief and it doesn't look like we'll see much of an accumulation, but either way it's going to be damp out for the morning commute, the afternoon will be and colder. So make sure you have something waterproof for the morning, grab a rain jacket, don't wear the good shoes tomorrow, it's going to be very wet out, but later it up underneath because temperatures will be colder. S ra are still looking pretty messy across the area. And like I mentioned in terms of snow, there's not going to be very much but just parts of northern Litchfield County and as you go up in elevation, so this upcoming week as a whole is going to be a lot drier than what we're seeing right now. And those temperatures are in the forties.

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Our Lives: M&T Bank to bring small business innovation lab to Bridgeport

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Welcome to our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards. My guest today is spearheading an effort to bring a small business innovation lab. Two businesses in the Greater Bridgeport's area. David Finney is with M&T Bank. Welcome David. I am delighted to be here. Tell us what is a small business innovation lab. We reached out almost 400 small small businesses, multicultural small businesses across our entire footprint. And our question to them was how do you want your bank to show up? What is your bank not doing? What would you love to see your bank do differently? At the core of what we heard, Gwen was the lack of small business education. And then we asked our small businesses and prospects across our network, if we were to take everything that you've told us you want to see in the bank and put together a lab and bring all of these small business to educate, empower and enlighten, enlighten these businesses. How would you guys feel about that overwhelmingly? We had a resounding, yes, we need that in our hispanic communities. We need that in our black immigrant refugee communities. We need that in our african american and asian communities, you know, Gwen, that led to this renewed sense of purpose for us at the bank and ultimately led to the launch of the multicultural small business innovation lab. How many entrepreneurs did you except for the Greater Bridgeport area? We're going to Except 50. This is the first one here in the Greater Bridgeport area and our goal and our dream is to do this annually. We've been on the ground asking questions, we've been on the ground talking to small businesses on the east End and the greater Bridgeport area. And they've told us some of the, you know, opportunities that we as a bank have to help uplift communities. So every, every week for the seven weeks will be in Bridgeport. Well, we will be providing education to these small businesses and we will leverage partnerships with local community partners, um, you know, C. P A. S attorneys within the great Greater Bridgeport area. We are partnering with the University of Bridgeport. They've been gracious enough to be one of our partners, and the lab will run in Bridgeport for seven weeks. So one night a week will bring this 50 multi culture small businesses to educate them on topics they've told us they want to hear, David, thank you so much, Gwen, thank you for having me. The pleasure is mine and MNT. We're looking forward to working with the city of Bridgeport and the entire state of Connecticut and we want to thank you for watching our lives where we bring you information and interviews. You will see nowhere else for our lives. I'm, Gwen, Edwards

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