Dave Kronberg is the new director of entrepreneurial outreach and services with Innovate Marquette SmartZone. He works with SmartZone as well as Invent@NMU, a student-driven group. (Photo courtesy of Innovate Marquette SmartZone)

MARQUETTE — “Robust” is a word that Innovate Marquette SmartZone likes to use, and so does its new director of entrepreneurial outreach and services.

Dave Kronberg came on board in mid-September with the main roles of directing the operations of Invent@NMU and supporting Innovate Marquette SmartZone by working with high-tech business entities.

“SmartZone and Invent@NMU’s stated mission is to cultivate a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem here,” Kronberg said.

One of his roles, he said, is provide leadership to Invent@NMU, a student-driven organization with professional adult mentors, including himself, providing guidance.

“We’ve got these super-talented students that are interested in what we do here,” Kronberg said. “They fill out a variety of roles in working with customers.”

He called it “a neat concept.”

“I would have loved something like this 25, 30 years ago when I was an undergraduate,” Kronberg said.

His top goal with Invent@NMU is to ensure students have good learning experiences and allow them to eventually become better employers.

“This experience here should augment their professional goals,” Kronberg said.

The students, he noted, could come from any major, and fulfilling project manager roles are some of their duties.

“It’s to be front-facing with customers,” Kronberg said. “It’s to be a subject-matter expert really fast on whatever the customer brings to the table, and then being an interface between the customer and the organization services.”

He comes from a varied background. According to Innovate Marquette SmartZone, Kronberg over the last 20 years has designed interpretive environments, including the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum, the Olympic Village at the Superior Dome and the Pictured Rocks Interpretive Center.

Kronberg earned bachelor of fine arts and master of arts degrees from Northern Michigan University in product design and education. Shortly after learning his BFA, Kronberg received an invitation to design architecture for an entrepreneur in the Tahitian Islands who bought property from singer/songwriter Julio Iglesias. The entrepreneur planned to build an island resort and wanted Kronberg’s help with the design and construction. So, he took part in the project.

Thus, Kronberg has a good idea of a project manager’s role, and wants to instill that in students.

“The project managers are always the smartest people, the quickest to learn new material and be flexible to pivot from one customer to the next to the next,” Kronberg said.

Somebody with an idea for an invention or a business comes to Invent@NMU for assistance, he said, and the project manager learns more about that idea.

Kronberg acknowledged the Marquette area does have challenges when it comes to the business environment.

“What makes Invent@NMU even more crucial is that there’s not a lot of industry to choose from to connect students with, but at the same time, SmartZone has the job of cultivating the landscape so that more business can come in,” Kronberg said. “Ideally we could work with a student for a couple of years at Invent@NMU and then send them right in to a new business that SmartZone has helped developed.”

Invent@NMU and Innovate Marquette SmartZone, he said, have complementary missions.

“Invent@NMU is working with people that come in with any kind of idea, or any kind of business venture, and they’re very often first-time inventors or first-time businesspeople, or they want to learn about that landscape,” Kronberg said. “SmartZone will work with the technology companies that are already on their feet. They already have a lot of work done, but they need specific help to take their business to the next level, or they’re located elsewhere and they want to the central Upper Peninsula to grow their business.”

The biggest success that he sees is SmartZone drawing together area economic development organizations so they can collaborate and build the economic landscape.

There’s a regular weekly conversation among the EDOs, he noted, plus there’s a possibility of them sharing office space in downtown Marquette.

“Collaboration is key to the success of EDOs,” Kronberg said.

The area that interests SmartZone the most, he said, is connected networks and leveraging the “incredible” natural environment for outdoor equipment testing and development — and even accessibility as it pertains to people with limited abilities.

“What technologies can we develop to help with limited technologies get out and enjoy nature?” Kronberg said.

For more information on Innovate Marquette SmartZone, visit innovatemarquette.org, email info@innovatemarquette.org or call 906-227-6261.

“I’m excited to be here,” Kronberg said. “It’s a really cool organization. There’s a visionary leadership, and the potential to collaborate with all the EDOs in the area is very, very exciting.”