Cambridge Local First will host its second annual Small Business Summit for 617 Day, an event sparked both by the local area code and the date.
On June 17, the nonprofit network of 400 small business owners will bring together local business owners for networking and three panels: The Power of Local Media, The Amazon Alternative, and AI on Main Street. (Disclosure: Cambridge Day is a partner for the event.)
617 Day is “first and foremost, a holiday to celebrate small businesses in our community,” said Katie Labrie, executive director of Cambridge Local First. She added it’s also an opportunity for community members to learn new ways to support local businesses.
Last year, 617 Day also included a block party featuring local vendors and musicians. However, there will not be a block party this year due to Cambridge Local First’s participation in next week’s World Cup watch parties. There, the organization will give out small business passports, which can be stamped at local businesses, and once full, participants can enter a raffle to win prizes.
This year’s summit, hosted again this year by Daniel Berger-Jones, co-founder of Cambridge Historical Tours, expects to welcome double the attendees. It will also take place in Somerville, not Cambridge. Labrie has been looking to “bring Somerville into the [organization’s] conversation[s]” since she became the executive director in November 2024.
After a networking breakfast, the event will begin with a conversation about the relationship between small businesses and local media that will include Cambridge Day Editor-in-Chief Michael Fitzgerald, Cambridge Somerville Independent Arts Editor Michael Gutierrez and Cambridge Community Television President Matt Landry.
Media and businesses can have a “symbiotic” relationship, Labrie said. The panelists will also “talk about how we encourage young people to really look at what local media and journalism mean as opposed to news creators and influencers” who may be paid to share their opinion, she added.
After the first panel, Cambridge City Councilor E. Denise Simmons will discuss how local businesses can collaborate with The Cambridge Museum of History & Culture.
During the second panel, Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem will moderate as the panelists, which include a representative from the restaurant management platform Toast, provide approaches to streamlining business practices with AI during the second panel, AI on Main Street.
AI “is very challenging, but [small businesses] also know that they need to find a way to use it to stay competitive,” said Labrie. As AI continues to change rapidly, “it’s important to contextualize it for our small business owners and also our community, even consumers in general.”
The final panel, The Amazon Alternative, will explore how businesses can compete with Amazon and other ecommerce giants. Bill Calfee, the founder of the Vermont-based ecommerce site Myti.com, will share how his company connects consumers with Vermont’s local businesses online and recently launched a browser extension that suggests local products when users shop on ecommerce giant sites.
“We wanted to explore some alternatives, like startups looking to disrupt the Amazon model,” especially after Massachusetts joined the antitrust lawsuit against Amazon in 2023, Labrie said.
“We really wanted to focus on the fact that we are not just victims to these ecommerce giants, but the technology is there, the interest is there,” to utilize alternative online shopping platforms to support small businesses, she continued.
Cambridge Local First will end the summit by recognizing the 20 businesses who completed the organization’s first-ever Small Business Bootcamp training earlier this year.
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