Local Roots, Global Reach: How Community Drives Innovation

Innovation is often associated with major cities, technology hubs, and startups backed by big investors. But innovation doesn't always begin in a boardroom or a famous tech center. Sometimes it starts right at home—with a problem to solve, a community willing to help, and a business owner willing to ask questions.

That was one of the key takeaways from the Daytona Regional Chamber of Commerce's recent panel, Growing Businesses and Innovation Ecosystems, which brought together local business and economic leaders to discuss what it takes to build a thriving environment for entrepreneurship and innovation in Volusia County.

For Details Flowers Software Founder and CEO Corrine Heck, the conversation was especially familiar. Her own entrepreneurial journey began with a problem she experienced firsthand in the floral industry and grew into a software company serving more than 1,000 floral and event businesses worldwide.

Her story is a reminder that businesses don't have to leave their communities to find opportunity. In many cases, the resources needed to grow are already there.

Innovation Needs a Community

Building a business takes more than a good idea. Entrepreneurs need people who can challenge their thinking, provide advice, make introductions, and sometimes simply encourage them to keep going.

During the panel, Lou Paris, Executive Director of Volusia County Economic Development, highlighted local initiatives such as LaunchPad Volusia and Volusia Evolution that give entrepreneurs opportunities to test ideas, receive feedback, and connect with resources.

That kind of support can make a meaningful difference during the early stages of a business. Entrepreneurs are often learning as they go, and having access to people who have been through the process can help them take the next step.

It also reinforces an important part of innovation: iteration.

Not every idea works the first time. Businesses change, products evolve, and plans are adjusted based on what entrepreneurs learn along the way. Creating an environment where business owners can test, learn, and try again strengthens a community.

Local Connections Can Lead to Global Opportunities

For Corrine, relationships played an important role in Details' early growth.

Before Details became a software company serving businesses across the globe, it was a solution developed to meet the needs of floral professionals. Local relationships provided opportunities to share the idea, gather feedback, learn from other business owners, and build connections that helped move the company forward.

Those relationships don't have to stay local.

A conversation with another business owner can lead to a partnership. A university connection can introduce a company to emerging talent. A chamber event can lead to a mentor or customer. One introduction can create another opportunity.

Over time, those individual connections can form a network that helps a business grow far beyond the community where it began.

Details is one example of what that can look like: a company with deep roots in Volusia County that now supports floral and event businesses across 18 countries.

Universities Have a Role to Play, Too

A strong innovation ecosystem also brings businesses and educational institutions together.

Volusia County is home to institutions including Stetson University, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Daytona State College, while the UCF Business Incubator provides another connection between entrepreneurs and the resources they need to grow.

These relationships can benefit both sides.

For businesses, working with students can bring fresh perspectives, new ideas, and practical support. For students, real-world projects provide an opportunity to take what they're learning in the classroom and apply it to actual business challenges.

At Details, those opportunities have included working with students on business planning and sales initiatives. Experiences like these give students a closer look at entrepreneurship while giving businesses another resource for solving problems and developing new ideas.

When education and business work together, the community benefits from both sides of the relationship.

Innovation Isn't Limited to Technology Companies

Perhaps one of the most important lessons from Volusia County's growing innovation ecosystem is that innovation can happen in any industry.

When people hear the word "innovation," they may immediately think of aerospace, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, or software. But innovation is ultimately about identifying a need and finding a better way to address it.

That can happen in a floral shop just as easily as it can happen in a technology company.

Corrine's experience is a good example. As a floral professional, she saw firsthand the challenges businesses faced in managing the many moving parts of running a floral and event company. Instead of accepting those challenges as simply part of the industry, she saw an opportunity to build a solution.

That solution became Details Flowers Software.

The story is a reminder that some of the most valuable innovations come from people who understand an industry from the inside and recognize where there is room to do things differently.

Building What Comes Next, Together

A strong business community isn't created by a single organization or entrepreneur. It grows through collaboration.

Economic development organizations provide resources. Universities develop talent. Chambers creates connections. Business owners share their experiences. Entrepreneurs bring new ideas to the table.

Each plays a role in creating an environment where businesses can take an idea, test it, improve it, and eventually scale it.

For Volusia County, that means the opportunity to continue building an ecosystem where innovation can take root across a wide range of industries.

And for entrepreneurs, it is a reminder to look around before looking elsewhere.

The next mentor could be sitting across the table at a local networking event. The next business partner could be another company down the road. The next employee could be sitting in a university classroom. And the idea that eventually reaches customers around the world could begin with a problem right in your own backyard.

Innovation may take you around the world, but it often starts with the community around you.