Webinar Recap: Kansas’ Host City Game Plan – Building Ecosystem Readiness & Momentum for 2026
- Joyce Arias
- Posted on
- Blog
Taylor Eubanks, Director of the Kansas Small Business Office
This article answers:
- How are cities helping small businesses get ready for global events, like the 2026 World Cup?
- What tools can ecosystems use to centralize business resources and bid opportunities?
- How are states using events like the World Cup to strengthen their small business ecosystems?
The countdown is on. Kansas City will host six matches in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, bringing global attention and millions of visitors to the region. For Kansas, it is a chance to build the systems that support not just a single event, but an entire ecosystem.
In the latest Ecosystem Talks webinar, Taylor Eubanks, Director of the Kansas Small Business Office, shared how her office is approaching readiness as a long-term investment. That includes listening directly to entrepreneurs, building shared infrastructure with partners, and using this moment to accelerate what the state wants its small business ecosystem to become.
“We started with the end in mind,” Eubanks said. “We asked businesses what they were hoping for and built our plans from there.”
Capital came up early. Not just access, but what Eubanks called capital absorption, making sure businesses are actually prepared to take on and use the funding that becomes available. Her office partnered with Cipher to roll out the Loan Ready tool, helping business owners translate their operations into lender-ready terms. The goal is not just to win contracts, but to build capacity that stays with them.
It wasn’t just small businesses that needed support. The state created a maturity model to assess entrepreneurial support organizations across twelve dimensions. The results are used to guide capacity-building investments, whether that means strategic planning, data systems, or board development.
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If we’re going to ask these organizations to deliver, we need to be clear about what that looks like,” she said. “We need to make sure they have the support to do it.”
That focus on readiness is being supported by EcoMap’s Ecosystem Relationship Management (ERM) platform, which Kansas has adapted into a centralized bid board. Businesses can view and apply to solicitations, and even post their own. This allows for more visibility into procurement, strengthens relationships between firms, and keeps more dollars circulating locally.
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We’ve been able to use this platform to activate entrepreneurs,” she said. “And those practices won’t go away when the games are over.”
Eubanks said the idea started with a simple shift in perspective, asking, “What if a bid solicitation was treated like a job posting?” That small change opened the door to using EcoMap in a new way, one that makes the procurement process more accessible, especially for businesses that are new to government contracting.
Kansas is also looking to other cities for ideas. Eubanks credited places like Seattle and Philadelphia for their consistent outreach, clear posting practices, and focus on legacy. She pointed to Seattle’s 500-day countdown and playbook strategy, and Atlanta’s accelerator program for businesses along the BeltLine, as examples that helped shape Kansas’ own approach.
At the same time, she noted that each ecosystem must adapt those models to fit local conditions. Kansas City’s location straddles two states, which adds complexity to stakeholder coordination. Organizing committees, workforce boards, higher education institutions, and regional planning groups all need a shared source of truth.
That’s where centralization matters. Kansas has combined bid opportunities, business resources, ESOs, events, and capital access tools into one platform. Beginning this fall, businesses will also be able to assess their loan readiness directly through the site. The goal is to reduce friction, remove silos, and make sure every player in the ecosystem has access to the same information.
That kind of coordination takes time, but Eubanks was clear that urgency doesn’t have to come at the expense of long-term thinking.
“None of this is a one-off,” she said. “We’re using the World Cup to build systems that should’ve existed already, and that will keep making a difference after it’s gone.”
That includes clearer policies, stronger partnerships, and better tools for tracking the work. Kansas was introduced to EcoMap by the team at the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, which had warned about the risk of “digital dust” or data that exists but never gets used. For Eubanks, the solution had to be something durable. She worked with her team to build a system that could power not just the World Cup response, but their entire ecosystem infrastructure going forward.
That mindset is shaping how Kansas approaches everything from small business outreach to statewide procurement. It’s also influencing how the state collaborates with other host cities. Instead of competing for attention, Eubanks sees the opportunity for shared learning.
“There’s a lot of value in just asking what’s working somewhere else,” she said. “Not every answer will fit. But we don’t have to solve these problems alone.”
Her advice to other cities preparing for major events, “Don’t forget the stakeholders.”
Entrepreneurs need guidance, but so do tourism boards, chambers of commerce, and economic development organizations. Kansas is developing tailored playbooks for each group, backed by predictive analytics that help forecast travel patterns and visitor volumes.
Kansas City may be the host, but the opportunity stretches statewide. Small businesses and support organizations across Kansas are preparing to meet the moment and to carry that momentum forward.
Eubanks’s final reflections were personal. She grew up in Kansas, raised by two entrepreneurs. Today, her son goes to the same Montessori school she once did.
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This isn’t just policy work,” she said. “It’s about shifting the story for small businesses. It’s about making sure that the next generation has a different experience.”
Watch the full webinar on YouTube.