Updated Oct. 6, 2026
The 13th Annual Broward Entrepreneur Summit took place on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, and on Oct. 4 its Eventbrite page showed “Event ended” and “Sales ended.” The owner map below is kept as a record, written before the day; it does not report what happened at the Summit. For upcoming owner sessions, see AI Events for South Florida Owners, Fall 2026. Hispanic Unity of Florida’s Center of Entrepreneurship page is the organizer’s page for ongoing entrepreneur services.
Friday, October 2, 2026 put Broward and Palm Beach operators in a real calendar fork. On the same morning you could badge into the 13th Annual Broward Entrepreneur Summit at the Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation in Davie, which was free with public Eventbrite registration and breakfast and networking at the start, or drive south for FIU Business’s AI 305 at the Graham Center, where Eventbrite’s public AggregateOffer sat in a paid $136.12 to $524.74 range on the Gazette’s owner-prep map.
The map began as an operator map written before the day: who should take the free Summit, who should pay for AI 305, which Summit blocks mattered for owners who run shops in Broward and Palm Beach County, and how to use one day to grow. It is not a recap of the day. 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 linked for reference.
Primary sources (checked Sept. 14, 2026): the official Broward Entrepreneur Summit page, the Eventbrite free registration (listed as free, on sale and in stock, with an AggregateOffer of $0.0 to $0.0, on Sept. 14), HUF’s published Actionable Agenda PDF, and the Meet the Speakers PDF. The same-day paid option was covered in FIU Business AI 305 Conference 2026: Owner Prep Map. On Oct. 4 the Eventbrite page showed “Event ended” and “Sales ended.”
The same-day fork: free Davie vs paid Miami
Two strong owner rooms landed on the same Friday, so owners had to choose one.
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. to 3:30 p.m.
- Agenda PDF + Eventbrite schema: doors / start 7:45 a.m. Eastern; end 3:30 p.m.
- Admission: Eventbrite listed the ticket as FREE (price $0, in stock and on sale on Sept. 14)
- Language note (HUF Spanish calendar card): English and Spanish listed for the Summit day
Doors: HUF’s marketing page listed 7:30, while the agenda PDF and Eventbrite data listed 7:45.
What the free day published 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 was explicit that El Mercadito and the Pitch Competition were invitation-only for participants of the Level Up Center of Entrepreneurship; public Summit guests could watch and network.
What AI 305 was on the same calendar: a denser, paid Graham Center day with 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 had already climbed free literacy rungs and needed a hands-on intensifier. The full owner schedule is in FIU Business AI 305 owner-prep.
No one could be on Davie’s fifth floor and in FIU’s Graham Center at the same minute, so the choice came down to the bottleneck each owner would still have the following week.
Who the free Summit fit, and who AI 305 fit
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 price range ($136.12 to $524.74 on the AI 305 page on Sept. 14) 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 the Gazette’s FIU AI 305 guide; it is not a substitute for HUF’s free Summit.
What the Summit was, and what it was not
HUF framed 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, which makes it the natural follow-up now that the Summit has passed.
What this day was not: a free version 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 was a community entrepreneur summit with a published actionable agenda, a speakers PDF that was still filling some slots on Sept. 14, 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 Sept. 14). Treat sponsor IDs as factual page labels, not product endorsements.
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: the sessions as mapped before the day
The map below was written before the day. Its advice: build the 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 to 9:00 a.m.)
Registration, breakfast, networking, exhibit hall, and Mercadito shared the open. El Mercadito was 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 to 10:30 a.m.)
Published framing: Customer Experience as a Growth Strategy. Agenda “Perfect For You If” lines targeted 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 to 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. to 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 was 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 was not a copy 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 to 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 to 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 office.
7) Pricing & Profit close (2:45 to 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.
Note: in the Sept. 14 version, 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. No speaker is attributed to that room here. The workshop title and timing were published on the agenda PDF.
Owner rule: bring your real price list or service 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.
Three owner paths, as mapped before the day
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 was a shorter, free play than Miami for relationship and pricing work. If your Oct. 2 pain was 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.
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.
Related guides:
Next steps after Oct. 2:
- Free AI Workshops for Owners: Oct. 6 to 21, 2026
- FIU AI Fundamentals Webinar: Oct. 6, 1 to 2 p.m. ET
- 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
A useful free Summit ends with four artifacts, not a tote bag:
- Two named follow-ups sent within the first week.
- 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.
This map reports what HUF’s Summit page, Eventbrite schema, Actionable Agenda PDF, and Speakers PDF showed on Sept. 14, 2026, with the Oct. 4 Eventbrite status noted above. For the next edition, check HUF’s Summit page.
Related hub: AI Events for South Florida Owners, Fall 2026
Key Facts for Owners and Search
Is the Broward Entrepreneur Summit over, and is a 2027 date posted?
Yes, it is over, and no 2027 date is posted. Hispanic Unity of Florida held its 13th Annual Broward Entrepreneur Summit on Friday, Oct. 2, 2026, at the Alan B. Levan NSU Broward Center of Innovation in Davie. As checked Oct. 9, the Eventbrite page reads “Event ended” and “Sales ended,” and the Summit page still shows the 2026 details.
Who received the 2026 Maria Sanjuan award?
Hyram Montero. Hispanic Unity of Florida’s Summit page names him as the honoree of the 2026 Maria Sanjuan Hispanic Heritage Leadership Award and ties the honor to Hispanic Heritage Month. The award was part of the Summit’s afternoon awards block, which the published agenda also lists with the Pitch Competition awards and the American Dream Awards.
Was the Summit free, and what did the day include?
Yes. Eventbrite listed the “2026 FREE Entrepreneur Summit” from 7:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., while Hispanic Unity’s page listed 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The agenda covered customer loyalty, networking, a practical AI workshop and pricing, plus El Mercadito and an inaugural pitch competition, both reserved for Level Up participants.
What is the Level Up Center of Entrepreneurship?
It is Hispanic Unity of Florida’s small business program. Its page lists a Launch Track for aspiring entrepreneurs and an Up Track for owners with at least two years managing a business. Owners outside a track can still use stand-alone workshops, one-on-one coaching and technical assistance, loan readiness guidance and networking activities by filling out the contact form.
How should owners follow up after Oct. 2?
Contact Hispanic Unity of Florida, 5840 Johnson St., Hollywood, or 954-964-8884, about coaching and Level Up tracks. For AI skills, the free rungs in the Broward AI literacy ladder and the Delray Chamber’s Chasing AI session on Oct. 16 come before any paid conference. The same day’s paid option, FIU AI 305, has also passed.
