Greater Cincinnati Venture Association remakes itself to refocus on entrepreneurship
Founded in 1985 to link entrepreneurs and investors, the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association has undergone a 21st century makeover to return to its roots. The New GCVA has a renewed focus on entrepreneurs and start-up opportunities and has revived its purpose of sustaining the entrepreneurial culture in the region. The group has reduced the cost of membership, made it easier to register and attend events, and made the content of its monthly get-togethers more relevant to attract more entrepreneurs.The group has brought back the feature of having at least two startup companies make presentations at the monthly networking meetings. A team of coaches will screen the presentations, helping to make them interesting and effective, and the entrepreneuers will deliver a 10-minute pitch to the audience. Membership in the New GCVA now brings free admission to the nine events of its season."We want to target the programs to entrepreneurs and significantly increase participation by entrepreneurs," says Bill Cunninghamn, a GCVA officer and exec-in-residence at CincyTech. The October session will be held at the 20th Century Theater in Oakley and will feature a rock band led by Tim Schigel, founder of Cincinnati-based ShareThis. The New and Improved GCVA goes public on Sept. 22 at the Cincinnati Museum Center with presentations from two startups, Meltworks, a new high-end, quick-service restaurant brand, and MediaQuake, the company behind PimpMyNews.com, which uses a high-quality, text-to-voice system to read Internet-based publications and blogs via mobile phones and computers. Stephen Boord of Neyer Holdings will give a keynote presentation about InOneWeekend, the recent three-day Cincinnati entrepreneurship experience that gave birth to a new company, LifeSpoke. Registration and membership is available through its new Web site or at the event.
