Emerging Technology

Senator Kearney upset over lack of Third Frontier funds for Cincinnati startups

By Newsroom

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June 8, 2010

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Latest in Emerging Technology

2010 Cincinnati Innovates offers more $$, entrepreneur training, categories

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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May 11, 2010

Cincinnati Innovates 2010 is offering Greater Cincinnati entrepreneurs, creatives and inventors more chances at start-up prize money this year, with more than $80,000 in awards.Cincinnati Innovates evolved from InOneWeekend, which challenged - and equipped - aspiring entrepreneurs to create a viable start-up business in three days.The second annual competition is open to anyone now or originally from a 15-county area of Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky and Southeast Indiana. It has a broad reach and can include innovative products, devices, business processes and more. The top prize is $20,000.This year's competition ups the stakes and opportunities for innovators. There are several new prize categories including a $5,000 web development award sponsored by CoStrategix, a $10,000 award in branding and design services from LPK, and a $10,000 commercialization award to a Kentucky-based company sponsored by The Northern Kentucky eZone, Tri-Ed, Vision 2015, and Biologic."There is so much happening in Northern Kentucky," said Cincinnati Innovates founder and organizer Elizabeth Edwards. "But last year we only had 16 entries from Northern Kentucky. This year with the Northern Kentucky Prize we are hoping for a couple hundred."To enter the contest or get more info, go to the contest's website. There you'll enter a short description of your idea and upload pictures, video, or sketches to help explain and showcase it. The earlier you enter the better, because you can enter more than one idea and update and improve on entered ideas after submission, Edwards said.Cincinnati Innovates more than doubled its sponsorships over last year, up to 23. They include representatives from the region's legal, economic development, health, investor and media communities (including Soapbox).Need a little help in fleshing out or presenting your idea? This year Cincinnati Innovates is offering more group workshops throughout the competition, based on feedback from last year's event, Edwards said.Among scheduled workshops are "How to Finance a Startup," and "Cincinnati Innovates Video Workshop.""We'll have 14 cameras there for people to help them craft an elevator pitch, and we'll have some angel investors there to help," Edwards said of the video workshop. "Many of the proposals that won last year had good video explanations. Some were 30 seconds; some were four minutes. They weren't professionally done, just well put together."There are no age restrictions to entering. The contest is open now through Sept. 1. Winners of a total of 10 prizes - including a community choice award picked by online voters - will be announced September 22 at the Cincinnati National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Entries will be judged by investors and other industry experts from a wide variety of backgrounds.Writer: Feoshia HendersonSource: Elizabeth Edwards, founder Cincinnati InnovatesYou can follow Feoshia on twitter here.

Xavier’s MedCon Brings Global Medical Device Ideas Here

By Rick Bird

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Higher Education

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May 3, 2010

Medical device makers from all over the world are coming to an all-star event this month at Xavier University. "MedCon 2010: A Global Conference for Medical Device Makers" will host over 70 companies who will get a rare chance to meet face-to-face with U.S. and international officials who regulate and approve their products for market. The first time gathering of these innovative thinkers and the government regulators who keep them in business puts Xavier University on the biotech resource map.

Cincinnati native BoingBoing.net founder returns to hometown for Bold Fusion YP conference

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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April 27, 2010

Native Cincinnatian David Pescovitz left the Queen City in the early 1990s, when he no longer could resist the pull of San Francisco."It was basically a very vibrant time when people where empowering themselves with digital technology to create art, media, communication tools and music. It was inspired partly by the birth of personal computers, and the region being near Silicon Valley. There were remnants of 1960s and psychedelic mindsets," Pescovitz said.More than 15 years later, Pescovitz is the research director of The Institute for the Future, a non-profit think tank that helps organizations think about long-term future trends, and co-editor of BoingBoing.net, a 10-year-old technology, art and culture blog hailed by Time Magazine as one of the "50 Best Web Sites" of 2009.Pescovitz, who returns to Cincinnati periodically to visit family, will bring some insight into the DIY, or "maker," culture sweeping the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds as the keynote speaker at the annual Bold Fusion YP summit set for April 29.In addition to the keynote, vice president and group creative director for LPK Trends, Valerie Jacobs, will review personal, professional and cultural trends over the past 15 years.Bold Fusion, sponsored by Cincinnati USA's Regional Chamber, is a half-day long summit and networking event. This year's theme is "Press Pause and Realign: Using Trends and innovation to tinker and tweak your way to a better future." More than 400 YPs from Greater Cincinnati and beyond are expected to attend this year's event. Pescovitz offered Soapbox Cincinnati a little preview of his talk."There's a sort of reemergence of a Do-It-Yourself culture and a maker culture. These are people who are learning how to alter the products that they buy, or to make things from scratch to connect with other people. They roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty. I think this kind of movement has been amplified by the Internet. There are many lessons organizations can learn about innovation, about creativity and open access to ideas and knowledge though this," he said.This innovative sharing culture, spurred by web 2.0 concepts of social networking and relationship building can be used by individuals, and small and large companies alike, he said. "For a large organization there are opportunities to connect with people who are lead users of a product. They're a product's biggest fan, and they're spending time changing or altering a product until it suits their needs. Many companies, when information gets out about change to a products, will get very upset about that. They say 'That's not the way we intended it to be used, or in a worst case will send a cease and desist letter," he said.But for those who don't embrace the future, the consequences could be dire Pescovitz warns."If they don't do it they are doomed, and I mean that seriously. People and companies who embrace this shift are going to innovate much faster and create better relationship with people who buy their products," he said.Bold Fusion is April 29 at the The Westin Cincinnati Downtown. It's from 1 to 5 p.m., followed by happy hour from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The cost is $45 for non-profits and companies sending two or more, $60 for members and $85 for non-members. Register online at here or call 513-579-3111.Catch more David Pescovitz in this week's Soapblogs!Writer: Feoshia HendersonSource: David Pescovitz, research The Institute for the Future and and co-editor of BoingBoing.netYou can follow Feoshia on twitter here.

Sparking Innovation Cincinnati Style

By Jonathan DeHart

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Entrepreneurship

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April 20, 2010

Starting May 1, Cincinnati's diverse innovators have a chance to enter their original creations, ideas or inventions in round two of Cincinnati Innovates. With more and bigger prizes, and the bar set uber-high last year, the second installment of this showcase promises to be even bigger than last year's inaugural event. But before this year's contest begins, Soapbox's Jonathan DeHart offers a glimpse at some of last year's winners and their fabulous inventions to get your ideas flowing.

Sunrock Solar: harvesting sustainable power across Southwest Ohio

By Newsroom

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Entrepreneurship

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April 20, 2010

Sunrock Solar is a general contractor that designs and installs solar power systems. The Blue Ash-based business consults with home and business owners all over southwest Ohio on energy efficiency solutions. They're most known for the solar panels seen with increasing frequency around the Tri-State, and for solar thermal systems for hot water heating.Carl Adams founded Sunrock Solar in 2008. With a background in computer engineering, he worked for another renewable energy company before striking out on his own. Quality installation makes all the difference in how much solar energy is harvested by photovoltaic (PV) systems and Adams is certified by the North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners. Sunrock Solar uses a solar pathfinder device to find the best placement for solar panels. The pathfinder allows technicians to see the path of the sun and shading patterns on a property over several years. They then transfer that information into a computer program. In most U.S. climates, a PV system with 10 percent efficiency generates about 180 kilowatt-hours per square meter of solar panels. Nathan Young, Project Manager at Sunrock Solar, sees a great opportunity for growth in Cincinnati as the city goes greener. "This area is behind Portland, Boulder, and other green-type communities. But once [solar power] makes sense money-wise, people are more apt to do it."Currently, Sunrock employs three regular staff, and adds temporary help as needed. Adams and his staff are working on promoting their commercial business, and hope to hire more full-time staff once contracts are lined up. Young, who worked in construction before joining Sunrock, enjoys work that allows him to catch rays - in more ways than one. "I enjoy that I’m helping people reduce their carbon footprint." Writer: Elena StevensonSource: Nathan Young, Sunrock Solar project manager

St. Elizabeth Healthcare makes transition to electronic medical record system

By Newsroom

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Cincy In The News

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April 13, 2010

Northern Kentucky-based St. Elizabeth Healthcare made a huge announcement when they said they would transition from a paper-based medical record system to an electronic system intended to improve efficiencies and reduce waste. With the transition to the new system called Epic, St. Elizabeth becomes the first network in the Cincinnati area to standardize their electronic records in multiple physician offices, off-site locations and the network's hospitals. Read full article here.

Cincinnati makes ‘unofficial’ short list for new Google Fiber network

By Newsroom

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Cincy In The News

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April 13, 2010

Cincinnati has been selected by Google as one of the cities on the short list to receive the new Google Fiber network that will create a test fiber optics network in one city with speeds 100 times faster than any existing internet connection. The cities that made the short list are now options in a national voting competition to see which city is most deserving, or most excited about the prospects of the super-fast network in their community. Cincinnati currently stands in the middle of the pack, but votes can be cast daily on Google Fiber's web page. Read full article, and vote online daily here.

Ubiquitous City Comes to Northern Kentucky

By Alyce Vilines

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Architecture + Design

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April 13, 2010

A regional community development firm has big plans for a sleepy river town right across from Cincinnati. C&M Investment Group hopes to transform Dayton, Kentucky into the nation's first 'Ubiquitous City' - a city in which all of the information systems including residential, school, medical, business, and governmental - would be interconnected. Soapbox writer Alyce Vilines takes a look into this technological 'future world' and finds we're closer than you might think.

Cincinnati Police Department testing new camera technology

By Newsroom

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Cincy In The News

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April 6, 2010

The Cincinnati Police Department is one of a select group of police departments around the country currently testing a new camera technology that is mounted on the police officer that some believe is the "wave of the future." The new technology is seen as a positive for law enforcement as it allows the camera to tell the story from the officer's perspective without the need for observers or subjective analysis of a particular scenario. Read full article here.