Friday, October 2, 2026 puts Broward and Palm Beach operators in a real calendar fork — not a polite “two good options” shrug. On the same morning you can either badge into the 13th Annual Broward Entrepreneur Summit at the Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation in Davie — free, public Eventbrite registration, doors opening for breakfast and networking — or drive south for FIU Business’s AI 305 at the Graham Center, where Eventbrite’s public AggregateOffer still sits in a paid $136.12–$524.74 range on the Gazette’s already-live owner-prep map.
This package is an operator edge map: who should take the free Summit, who should pay for AI 305, which Summit blocks matter for owners who actually run shops in Broward and Palm Beach County, and how to use one day to grow. It is not a calendar recap. It does not invent session titles beyond Hispanic Unity of Florida’s published agenda PDF, and it does not rewrite the FIU day — that map is already live; cross-link only.
Primary sources for this pull (Sept. 14, 2026): the official Broward Entrepreneur Summit page, the live Eventbrite free registration (`isFree: true` / `on_sale` / AggregateOffer $0.0–$0.0 / `InStock`), HUF’s published Actionable Agenda PDF, and the Meet the Speakers PDF. Same-day paid intensifier (do not rewrite): FIU Business AI 305 — Owner Prep Map Before Oct 2, 2026. Re-check registration the week you go — inventory and doors move.
The same-day fork — free Davie vs paid Miami
South Florida’s owner stack does not care that two strong rooms land on one Friday. Your payroll does.
Verified Summit clock (as published):
- Date: Friday, October 2, 2026
- Venue: Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation, 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr Blvd, 5th floor, Davie, FL 33314
- Organizer framing: 13th Annual Broward Entrepreneur Summit — Hispanic Unity of Florida (HUF)
- HUF page clock: 7:30 a.m.–3:30 p.m.
- Agenda PDF + Eventbrite schema: doors / start 7:45 a.m. Eastern; end 3:30 p.m.
- Admission: Eventbrite title and schema treat the ticket as FREE — AggregateOffer low/high 0.0 USD, `availability: InStock`, `salesStatus: on_sale` on this pull
- Language note (HUF Spanish calendar card): English and Spanish listed for the Summit day
Soft-flag on doors: believe day-of signage and your Eventbrite confirmation if 7:30 (marketing page) and 7:45 (agenda PDF / Eventbrite `startDate`) disagree. Plan to arrive for the earlier window so you do not miss breakfast networking.
What the free day publishes as pillars: keynotes / plenary insight, panels on real-world business challenges, interactive workshops, intentional networking, plus new-this-year El Mercadito, a pitch competition, and a live-streaming experience. HUF is explicit that El Mercadito and the Pitch Competition are invitation-only for participants of the Level Up Center of Entrepreneurship — public Summit guests can watch and network; they should not invent an invite.
What AI 305 is on the same calendar (cross-link only): a denser, paid Graham Center day — named tool workshops (Claude automation, Meta AI for business), economy and sector panels, vendor hours, and a late Sip and Sync reception — aimed at operators who already climbed free literacy rungs and need a hands-on intensifier. Full owner schedule, price soft-flags, and room conflicts live here: FIU Business AI 305 owner-prep. Do not treat that rewrite as optional reading if you are honestly choosing Miami.
You cannot be in Davie’s fifth floor and FIU’s Graham Center at the same minute. Pick the room that matches the bottleneck you will still have on Monday.
Who should take the FREE Summit — and who should pay for AI 305
Strong fits for the free Broward Summit (Levan / Davie):
- Owners and operators whose next growth lever is customers, relationships, pricing, or local peer density — not another tool demo.
- Broward and near-north Palm Beach shops that want a full day without a ticket line item in the multi-hundred-dollar range.
- Founders still early on capital readiness who want to watch a live pitch room and learn the bar without pretending they are on the invite list.
- Operators who need English/Spanish-capable community rooms and HUF’s entrepreneurship network as a relationship, not a one-off badge.
- Anyone who has not yet written down a retention problem, a pricing problem, or a networking follow-up problem — the Summit agenda is built around those owner pains.
Strong fits for paid FIU AI 305 (Graham Center / Miami) instead:
- Shops that already did free AI literacy hours and still need named hands-on workshops (Claude / Meta) with a notebook of their workflows — see the live AI 305 map.
- Operators whose Monday bottleneck is automation, data rules, and tool ROI, not customer loyalty or pricing confidence.
- Teams willing to budget Eventbrite’s published AggregateOffer range ($136.12–$524.74 on the Sept. 14 AI 305 pull) plus drive and parking from Broward or Palm Beach.
- Healthcare-adjacent or policy-context owners who specifically need the FIU speaker/panel density called out in that Gazette twin — not a substitute for HUF’s free Summit.
Split the bench when you can: if two decision-makers exist, send the relationship/pricing owner to Levan and the automation owner to Graham Center. If you are one person, choose the bottleneck you will measure for 30 days — loyalty and cash, or tool-and-process. Do not “half-attend” both from the Turnpike.
Skip tourism seats: interns collecting tote bags, teams hunting only capital intros with no capability one-pager, and anyone expecting El Mercadito vendor status or a pitch slot without a Level Up invitation. Those tracks are published as invite-only.
What the Summit is — and what it is not
HUF frames the day as your next move for bold thinkers, business leaders, and rising entrepreneurs — starting out or scaling up. The Level Up Center of Entrepreneurship (Launch Track for aspiring founders; Up Track for operators with at least two years managing a business) sits behind the invite-only Mercadito and pitch lanes. Stand-alone workshops, coaching, loan-readiness guidance, and networking also live on HUF’s Level Up page for people who are not in a full track — useful follow-up after Oct. 2, not a substitute for registering for the Summit itself.
What this day is not: a free twin of FIU’s paid AI conference, a guaranteed buyer matchmaker, an automatic capital raise, or a promise that every session will name every speaker on a postcard. It is a community entrepreneur summit with a published actionable agenda, a speakers PDF that is still filling some slots, live streaming on select blocks, and sponsor logos on the public page (Trailblazer: Health Foundation of South Florida; Friend-level names published include Cloud Nine Nonprofit Advisors and TD Bank on this pull). Treat sponsor IDs as factual page labels, not product endorsements.
Soft-flag — agenda PDF header: the Actionable Agenda file still carries a visual header that reads “SUMMIT 2024” while the body date is Friday, October 2, 2026. Trust the 2026 date line and session grid; treat the year bug in the header as stale template art, not a different event.
Owner schedule: sessions that earn a free Friday
Build your day around one morning growth problem, one midday skill block, and one afternoon money conversation — then protect lunch and exhibit-hall time for people with names, not slides. Times below are from HUF’s Actionable Agenda PDF (doors 7:45 a.m. on that file).
1) Breakfast networking + El Mercadito window (7:45–9:00 a.m.)
Registration, breakfast, networking, exhibit hall, and Mercadito share the open. El Mercadito is published as a live marketplace for Level Up entrepreneurs — invitation-only for participants of that center. Public guests: walk the hall with three written asks (referral partner, service vendor, peer in your revenue band). Do not invent a booth for yourself.
Owner rule: arrive early enough to meet two people before welcome remarks. A free Summit wasted in the parking garage is still a wasted Friday.
2) Plenary — The Loyalty Advantage (9:30–10:30 a.m.)
Published framing: Customer Experience as a Growth Strategy. Agenda “Perfect For You If” lines target owners winning customers but struggling to keep them, wanting referrals as the best marketing channel, and ready to compete on experience — not only price.
Published speakers PDF: Lucia Rodriguez (moderator, 7Circles Marketing); Louis Feuer (Dynamic Seminars & Consulting).
Owner rule: walk in with your churn or silent-customer number on paper. Leave with one retention experiment and one referral ask you can run in seven days. If your shop’s pain is already “too many tools, no data rule,” this hour may still be the free alternative to paying for AI 305 — loyalty is often cheaper than automation theater.
3) Hard conflict at 10:45–11:45 a.m. — Networking workshop vs Pitch Competition
Same hour, two published tracks:
- Workshop 1: Networking With Intention — Build Relationships That Fuel Your Business (interactive; live streaming). Perfect-for lines: you collect cards and never hear back; you want authentic relationships; you are ready to turn connections into contracts. Speakers PDF: Scott Garvis (Dale Carnegie Training); Alexandra Labarr (TPN Community).
- Inaugural Pitch Competition — Level Up Center of Entrepreneurship; ~50 minutes; HUF’s first-ever pitch competition for Level Up entrepreneurs presenting to a panel of business leaders and experts, competing for prizes before a live Summit audience. Invitation-only for Level Up participants as competitors; audience learning is the public value.
Owner rule: If your pipeline dies in follow-up, take Networking With Intention with three names you will email before you leave the building. If you are capital-curious or mentor-curious, watch the pitch room to learn the bar — then follow Level Up paths separately. Do not try to “half-hear” both from the hallway.
4) Prompt to Profit — AI without a Miami ticket (11:45 a.m.–12:45 p.m.)
Published workshop: Prompt to Profit — A Practical Method for Turning AI Into Business Results (live streaming). Perfect-for lines: you know AI matters but do not know where to start; you spend too many hours on marketing tasks that could be automated; you want an edge competitors have not found yet. Speakers PDF: Vicente Pimienta.
This is the Summit’s clearest same-day substitute for operators who cannot justify AI 305’s paid range but still need a practical AI hour in Broward. It is not a rewrite of FIU’s Claude or Meta workshops — different campus, different depth, free badge.
Owner rule: bring one marketing or admin workflow you would test this quarter and one you will not automate this year. Write a one-line data rule (what customer data never leaves the building). If this hour confirms you need denser tool labs, put Delray Chamber Chasing AI (Oct. 16 owner-prep already live) or a later paid intensifier on the calendar — do not guilt-buy AI 305 for the same afternoon you already spent in Davie.
5) Lunch as work (12:45–1:30 p.m.)
Buffet, networking, exhibit hall, Mercadito. Eat with a purpose: one peer, one resource table, one follow-up scheduled on your phone before awards.
6) Awards ceremony — builders, pitch awards, American Dream panel (1:30–2:45 p.m.)
Published block: Awards Ceremony: Celebrating the Builders Behind the Dream — Maria Sanjuan Leadership Award; Pitch Competition Awards; American Dream Awards Ceremony and Panel Discussion; live streaming. Use this for community signal and for meeting people whose businesses look like the one you want in three years. Do not treat an awards stage as a procurement desk.
7) Pricing & Profit close (2:45–3:30 p.m.)
Workshop 3: Pricing & Profit — Financial Skills Every Small Business Entrepreneur Needs to Know. Perfect-for lines: busy but not profitable; never fully confident about pricing; want the business to fund your life, not consume it.
Soft-flag: on this pull, the Meet the Speakers PDF names the Loyalty, Networking, and Prompt to Profit rooms clearly; the Pricing & Profit page in that PDF shows sponsor branding without a speaker name in the text extract. Confirm day-of program or an updated speakers file before you attribute a person. The workshop title and timing are still published on the agenda PDF.
Owner rule: bring your real price list or package tiers. Leave with one price test and one cost you will stop absorbing “as a favor.” For many Broward shops, this hour is worth more than another AI keynote.
How to use the day to grow — three owner paths
Path A — Retention & referral operator (default for service shops): Early networking → Loyalty Advantage plenary → Networking With Intention → lunch with two named peers → awards for community map → Pricing & Profit. Monday artifact: one retention experiment + one referral script.
Path B — AI-curious on a $0 badge: Early networking → Loyalty or light welcome → Pitch Competition as audience or Networking workshop (pick one) → Prompt to Profit with a written workflow → lunch → awards → Pricing & Profit. Monday artifact: one AI pilot with a kill metric + a data rule. If Prompt to Profit proves you need denser labs, schedule the free/low-friction stack already mapped in-house — Broward AI literacy ladder, Delray Chasing AI Session 1 — before you reopen the AI 305 ticket page.
Path C — Capital-curious / Level Up adjacent: Confirm whether you are in Level Up before assuming Mercadito or pitch-competitor access. If you are invited, treat those lanes as the day’s center of gravity. If you are not, watch the pitch, take Networking With Intention or Prompt to Profit, then open Level Up Center of Entrepreneurship for Launch vs Up Track fit after the Summit — do not invent an invite at the door.
Palm Beach operators: Davie is still a shorter, free play than Miami for relationship and pricing work. If your Oct. 2 pain is buyer matchmaking rather than entrepreneurship community, the Gazette already mapped a separate Palm Beach Partners Matchmaker owner-prep for the same date — different building, different job. Do not conflate that expo with HUF’s Summit.
Prep kit — what to bring on paper or phone
- One growth bottleneck sentence — loyalty, networking follow-up, pricing confidence, or AI for marketing hours.
- Three names you hope to meet (peer, mentor-type, resource).
- One workflow for Prompt to Profit if you take that room — plus a data rule draft.
- Price list or package sketch for Pricing & Profit.
- Level Up status honesty — invited to Mercadito/pitch lanes, or public guest only.
- Follow-up block on your calendar for Monday 9:00 a.m. — Summit notes die without it.
- Conflict decision written down — Summit vs AI 305 — so you do not renegotiate with yourself at 6:30 a.m. in traffic.
Where this sits on the South Florida owner stack
Treat the free Levan Summit as a relationship + cash + practical AI hour rung on the Broward side of the ladder. Treat FIU AI 305 as the paid intensifier when tool workshops and Graham Center density are the actual need — already mapped here: AI 305 owner-prep.
Light-link only (HTTP 200 on this pull; do not rewrite):
- Levan / NSU Broward Founder’s Journey map — same innovation campus ecosystem, longer founder path
- FAU Runway venture apply map — when you need structured venture programming, not a one-day summit badge
- Delray Chamber Chasing AI Session 1 — next AI literacy/accountability rung after Prompt to Profit
- Broward AI literacy ladder — free baseline before any paid intensifier
After Oct. 2 — what “done” looks like on Monday
A useful free Summit ends with four artifacts, not a tote bag:
- Two named follow-ups sent before lunch Monday.
- One retention, pricing, or networking experiment with a 30-day metric.
- One AI decision — pilot from Prompt to Profit, or a scheduled literacy hour, or a deliberate “not now.”
- One pathway ask — Level Up track interest, coaching, or a peer mastermind — drafted while the day is still warm.
If you cannot write those four lines in the car on I-595, the badge was tourism — free tourism, but still tourism.
Registration checklist (print this)
- Open hispanicunity.org/services/browardsummit/
- Register on Eventbrite: 2026 FREE Entrepreneur Summit — HUF — confirm still `on_sale` / free / InStock
- Screenshot confirmation PDF
- Download the Actionable Agenda PDF and Meet the Speakers PDF the week of the event — slates move
- Map 3100 Ray Ferrero Jr Blvd, 5th floor, Davie; plan for 7:30–7:45 a.m. arrival soft-flag
- Circle one 10:45 track (Networking vs Pitch audience) and protect Prompt to Profit or Pricing & Profit based on your bottleneck
- Do not assume Mercadito vendor or pitch-competitor access without a Level Up invitation
- If you were leaning Miami instead, re-read AI 305 owner-prep once — then pick
- Optional organizer path (soft-flag / clarification only): Hispanic Unity of Florida · 5840 Johnson St, Hollywood, FL 33021 · 954-964-8884 · info pathway on the HUF site
Pages move. This map reports what HUF’s Summit page, Eventbrite schema, Actionable Agenda PDF, and Speakers PDF showed on a Sept. 14, 2026 pull. Verify before you go — especially doors time, speaker names on Pricing & Profit, and any Level Up invite language that affects your plan.
