Next Lives Here Innovation Summit is a new entrepreneurship event hosted by the University of Cincinnati that will take place on Thursday. It's organized with help from
UC Innovate, a student group that encourages the development of campus leaders.
The event will kick off at noon with a networking lunch on McMicken Commons. It will then move inside to the Tangeman University Center where 12 teams of UC students will test out their ideas with representatives from big business and the Cincinnati startup scene.
Spark UC, now in its second year, is partnering with
MORTAR to match interdisciplinary student teams with the entrepreneurs and businesses that are part of MORTAR, an organization that works with underserved, non-traditional entrepreneurs in communities experiencing redevelopment. The collaboration launched on Oct. 3 at the
Social Enterprise Cincy Summit, and was followed by two weeks of workshops and project development.
At the Innovation Summit, the top three teams will make their final pitches.
Alternating with the pitch sessions will be speakers from the local startup scene, as well as leaders from the creative and engineering sectors. The first panel will discuss encouraging innovation and partnerships between the academic sector and industry, and the second panel will focus on disruption and the types of people and projects that challenge the status quo.
There will be a number of speakers from local, regional and national startup and bigco organizations, including Austin Allison, co-founder and CEO of
dotloop, Wendy Lea, CEO of
Cintrifuse and Rodney Williams, CEO and co-founder of
LISNR, as well as a handful of representatives from UC. A full list of speakers and the day's agenda can be found
here.
Throughout the day, the Innovation Showcase will feature displays that explore the resources and research activities taking place at UC. The exhibits will be organized around themes of social innovation, consumer engagement, local impacts, expectant futurology/fresh tech, student entrepreneurship, inspiring design, and health and wellness. The event will wrap up at 7 p.m.
Registration is required to attend the free conference, and spaces are still available.
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