The second annual 617 Day small business summit took an optimistic tone, with panels directed at helping local business owners succeed in the age of AI and Amazon.
617 Day is a small business holiday created by Cambridge Local First, a network of more than 400 businesses. It plays off both the traditional area code for Greater Boston and its date, June 17.
Approximately 60 people attended the event Wednesday at the USQ building in Union Square. They saw panelists discuss how business can interact with AI, local media, and alternatives to ecommerce giants.
Local AI
The first panel was about AI on Main Street, and was moderated by Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem, who focused the discussion on how business owners can make AI work for them by automating processes and innovating.
“Just dive in” to AI, said Tim Valicenti, a lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Valicenti said as little as an evening spent working with AI engines was enough to gain useful knowledge. Valicenti also recommended business owners treat AI like an intern: check for mistakes and train them further to avoid future mistakes.
While many are afraid or confused by AI, the technology is giving people “more time back” to do more of what they love and the ability to spend less time on paperwork or scheduling, said Conor Henrie, the director of product at the restaurant management platform Toast. He acknowledged that it can take 20 to 25 years for “technology to really percolate,” but now is the time for business owners to start using AI and stay technologically literate.
Panelists suggested having AI send you a daily email with statistics used in your work — the weather, interest rates, etc. — or set reminders of routine tasks or bills you may otherwise forget.
Find a business area “where a mistake is not going to be life threatening,” said Stephanie Woerner, the director of the MIT Center for Information Systems Research. She also recommended “I think that we’re missing a real opportunity if we don’t think about how we can use AI to do things that we don’t know how to do,” Woerner said. Plugging anonymized data into a search engine and then asking lots of questions to identify customers trends can be a great way to start, she added.
And, while there are fears that AI will replace workers, Woerner said businesses should be able to figure out how to use the technology “to get the most out of your people.”
Local media and local business
AI was also a topic of the second panel, The Power of Local Media. While AI is being used to produce articles in some newsrooms, it has real potential “for doing things that we don’t have the bodies to do,” such as covering the 60 political meetings in Cambridge each month, said Michael Fitzgerald, Editor-in-Chief of Cambridge Day.
However, panelists said AI is not journalism’s main threat; rather, declining audiences, the business model and a lack of media literacy.
“Our biggest challenge is getting people to appreciate and value what it takes to actually be reporting,” Fitzgerald said.
For Cambridge Community Television President Matt Landry, the challenge is knowing there is no funding to replace the loss of revenue from declining cable subscriptions.
Despite falling engagement, CCTV and other community access stations can help businesses “tell their story and elevate their brand” through media literacy education, Landry said. “Media literacy, to me, is not just being able to understand the media messages that you see, but also being able to communicate and put messages out into the world.”
While the internet is bombarded with misinformation, people naturally have an intuition for truth which can be reinforced by “acquiring news from trustworthy, credible sources,” said Michael Gutierrez, the arts editor at the Cambridge Somerville Independent.
For businesses looking to collaborate or connect with local media outlets, Gutierrez noted the media’s goal is “to find the real human beings” behind the businesses and artistic events in the community.
Local as Amazon alternative
The final panel, The Amazon Alternative, explored reasons why consumers should shop local and how small businesses can compete with ecommerce giants like Amazon.
By not supporting local businesses, “we’re slowly funding the vacancy of our own main streets and the isolation of our own neighborhoods” and trading connection with a business owner “for a cardboard box dropped on a porch,” said Barbara Thomas, the owner of Artifact Soapworks.
M.J. Pullins, owner of the adult entertainment store Hubba Hubba, which closed in December, said her wholesaler was selling products on Amazon for the wholesale price. Overall, it’s important to shop at small businesses whenever you can or they’ll be gone when you need them, Pullins said.
Shopping locally means 60 cents for every dollar spent will be reinvested in the community, versus 30 cents from big business sales and only one penny from Amazon, said panel moderator Theodora Skeadas, the head of AI Red Teaming and former executive director of Cambridge Local First.
Supporting local businesses is “as easy as supporting Amazon,” said Thomas.
And shopping locally doesn’t always have to be done in person. The Vermont-based ecommerce site Myti.com created a browser extension that shows online shoppers local options for whatever they’re searching for on Target, Walmart or other ecommerce sites.
Myti helps connect the consumer with businesses who are knowledgeable and passionate about their product, said its founder, Bill Calfee.
While consumers may be used to the convenience of next-day shipping, the benefit of shopping locally is “buying something of high-quality, integrity, and longevity that … actually outlives the fast-shipping alternative,” Thomas said.
There were also opportunities for networking at the festival. The point was to create a summit with “something for everybody who is engaged and who is interested in a thriving local economy,” said Katie Labrie, executive director of Cambridge Local First.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.