3 Summer Events Not to Miss
Summer is finally on the horizon and St. Louis is ready to shed its winter blues. The startup event calendars are filling up (see our events section!) but make sure to get your highlighter out for these three summer events that you do not want to miss.
Build for STL (May 30 to June 1)
The tech scene will celebrate the National Day of Civic Hacking with its annual Build4STL weekend hosted by OpenDataSTL. OpenDataSTL will host a hackathon at T-REX, complimented by smaller events throughout the city and county that focus on community improvement with 50 to 60 training events at various locations. “The experience will differ pretty dramatically depending on what parts of it people attend, but our goal is to make Saint Louis a better place and empower participants to do the same,” says founder Jonathan Leek. Follow updates for Build4STL on their website and Twitter.
Capital Innovators’ Demo Day (May 20)
Demo Day annually marks the culmination of Capital Innovators’ bi-annual accelerator program. The event features the past 10 tech startup graduates of the Capital Innovators program pitching to an audience of hundreds at The Pageant in the Loop. The third annual Demo Day takes place on May 20th, 2014 from 1 to 4pm and it’s free to attend. The lineup will feature 8 minute pitches from the following companies: Pixel Press, Rovertown, KingdomScene, Symvato, HealthyMe, BetterWeekdays, OurVinyl.TV, MedSocket, Cellaride and Space Sculpt.
This year’s keynote speaker is Secretary of State of Missouri Jason Kander. Kander, a fifth generation Missourian and former Army Captain with a tour of duty in Afghanistan, was elected to the Missouri House of Representatives in 2008 and was then elected Secretary of State of Missouri in 2012. Kander and his wife, Diana, a successful entrepreneur and Senior Fellow at Kauffman Foundation, have long supported entrepreneurship as a method of fostering home grown economic development and job creation in the state of Missouri. Kander graciously accepted the opportunity to collaborate with Capital Innovators, the 6th best startup accelerator in the country according to a recent national study conducted by an MIT professor, as a way to increase his participation in Missouri’s burgeoning tech community.
RSVP here.
Arch Grants Finalists (June 1)
One of the biggest days for the St. Louis startup community is upon us. Arch Grants’ bi-annual Global Business Plan Competition will dub its winners by June 1st. New entrepreneurs have the opportunity to win a $50,000 non-dilutive grant toward their company as long as they are willing to relocate to St. Louis. The winners of the $50,000 will be announced by June 1st, 2014 and invited to begin the program by July 1st. Two winning companies will receive an additional $100,000 in follow-on grants from Arch Grants.
Here are the finalists!
Bio/Medical:
Benecure (IL), BenMedica (MO), CoMo Medical (MO), Epi Squared (MO), HealthyMe Mobile Solutions (MO), Nanopore Diagnostics (MO), The Mint Group (MO)
Consumer Product:
Artifox (MO), deliber (IL), greetabl (MO), Hyde (WI), Jolt (MD), LIFEPACK (Colombia), Made for Freedom (MO), Show Me Solar Power (MO), The Human Canvas (MO), Totus Power (CA), Zymplr (IL)
Education:
BetaVersity (MO), Dabble (CA), glishen (Canada)
Technology:
AdvancePolicy (MO), aSuiteStay (PA), Blueline Security Solutions (MO), Car Pursuit (MO), Evibe (MA), CollaborateCloud (TX), CTY (MO), DCAF (NY), Ephecom (MA), Fed Playbook (MA), FreightGrid (MO), Have You Seen the Ring (MO), Huddler (MO), Less Annoying CRM (CA), MartMobi Technologies (IL), MeterGenius (IL), ModaVoche (MO), Sage (MO), Space Sculpt (MO), Tallyfy (UK), ThreadMeUp (IL), Tuloko (CA), WishBooklet (CA), Wondermento (UK), Yougy (MO)