While some students may be looking to leave Binghamton after college, others see the area as a possible beginning for their careers.

On Thursday morning, SUNY BEST (Business and Education Cooperative of the Southern Tier) hosted a talk featuring speakers from the surrounding area who are involved in helping small companies get started. Binghamton University faculty and members of the community attended the talk held at the University Downtown Center.

Brad Treat from the Southern Tier Startup Alliance, Mike Driscoll from the Small Business Development Center, Laura Holmes from BU’s Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Partnership and Alan Rae, a director of local incubators, talked about the different ways in which small startups can get help developing their companies.

The speakers stressed the importance of small companies sticking around and staying local to the area. Treat said that the most important factor when evaluating new companies was their ability to succeed.

“Our focus is not on small businesses but businesses with high-growth potential,” Treat said. “Our focus is identifying companies with high-growth potential and helping them get from being small to big.”

However, getting these companies on their feet is not just about specifically helping the small business owners. The state government has always supported larger businesses, but according to Treat, their money will be better spent supporting smaller companies as a whole, and helping them get going.

“This is the most efficient way for the government to invest and to create jobs,” Treat said. “There’s a public model of ‘let’s backstop jobs of existing companies,’ but it turns out that money can be more efficiently put to use in creating new jobs and new companies.”

Rae stressed the importance of incubators in the development of small businesses. Incubators are large office and resource spaces that are made available to entrepreneurs for low-rent rates.

Entrepreneurs need these incubators to start their businesses, according to Rae. However, there is a lack of them, and he said that people need to be more aware of their importance.

“There’s often a shortage of the right kinds of spaces, and particularly in the Southern Tier it is difficult for startups to find a safe place to go,” Rae said. “This is a place where they can go for three years or whatever time is appropriate and then move on.”

The Southern Tier High Technology Incubator is set to open right here in Binghamton in the fall of 2016, according to Holmes.

The 43,000 square-foot building located at 120 Hawley Street Downtown will offer offices to entrepreneurs for $250 to $300 per month. They are already working with 30 startup companies who have expressed interest, many of which are run by BU alumni.

Another important part of starting up small companies is to advise them on business tactics. Driscoll said he focuses on making sure young entrepreneurs know the do’s and don’ts of the business world.

According to him, the people he sees succeed are those who have the most passion for what they do.

“I find common amongst all entrepreneurs that whether it’s somebody starting an ice cream truck or whether it’s somebody launching satellites, that their spirit is really really strong, that passion and desire, that is really exciting to see,” Driscoll said.

Also in attendance for the talks was Lisa Altman, the industrial outreach assistant for the Watson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at BU. She said she was encouraged by what she heard.

“We have lots of great students who have talents that can be utilized at all of these startup companies,” Altman said. “I found it very interesting to see that there were so many organizations working with entrepreneurs and all the places that are starting up in the Southern Tier.”