26-05-2025
Storytelling shapes innovation, but leaders say it needs to be built on standards to succeed
Storytelling isn't just a tool to describe an ecosystem — it is part of the ecosystem itself.
That was the central theme at the 'Ecosystem Storytelling: Establishing Standards for a Community of Practice' panel during the 2025 Builders Conference. The session brought together media professionals and ecosystem builders from across the country to discuss how narrative not only reflects but actively shapes regional innovation cultures.
'A good story is something that connects with the listener,' said Anika Horn of Social Venturers. 'It's something that takes them on that journey and makes them think differently, or feel a certain way.'
Horn was joined onstage by Stef Monge, editor-in-chief of Silicon Prairie News (SPN), and Anand Macherla, a reporter and ecosystem builder with The panel was moderated by editorial director, Danya Henninger.
Together, the group examined what it means to tell community-rooted stories — ones that go beyond press releases and highlight the people and relationships driving change.
'Power within ecosystems is in the relationships, not in the institutions, not in the nodes alone,' Macherla said, 'it's in the connections between them.'
Building a practice of community-rooted storytelling
Monge, who took the helm at SPN two years ago, described how her editorial strategy evolved once she began attending events and meeting the region's founders in person.
'When I stepped into the role and started going to events,' she said, 'my mind was blown by how diverse the community of entrepreneurs, investors, resource providers was. So from the beginning, I knew we had to tell more diverse stories to actually represent what's happening.'
Macherla shared a similar realization from his early days in Baltimore, where his interactions with local spaces like Impact Hub and BLocal fundamentally changed how he understood innovation ecosystems.
'The cultural makeup of a city very much informs what the resources of that ecosystem can be,' he said.
From amplification to democratization
Horn, who hosts the Ecosystems for Change podcast and authors a biweekly newsletter for ecosystem builders, emphasized that a storyteller's role is more than content creation.
'Maybe our job isn't to produce 15 podcasts about entrepreneurs,' she said, 'but to help other people do it while they're out and about contributing to that big picture.'
But Horn warned of the risk of blending ecosystem storytelling too closely with PR or marketing. Without standards, she said, the practice can lose its power and be dismissed as nonessential.
'Ecosystem storytelling is not a nice-to-have,' she said. '[It's] worth funding, and the only way we get funding is to make sure we have certain standards so readers understand.'
Panelists agreed that the real work happens off the page, in the community.
What's next for ecosystem storytelling
As the ecosystem storytelling field grows, the need for shared standards and ethical frameworks is becoming increasingly urgent, panelists said.
And while no clear consensus emerged, all agreed on one point; if storytelling is to remain a trusted tool for change, it needs to be treated with the same care and rigor as any other part of ecosystem building.
The session closed with a discussion on continued collaboration, inviting attendees to share resources, build together and return to the work of defining a community of practice.
'You've got to be in community,' Horn said. 'You can't only glean from emails or official channels. You have to be at events, listening, in the relationships.'
