Array of pro sports teams kickoff youth benefit initiative in KC
October 18, 2016 | Meghan LeVota
Kansas City is serving as a hub for a national sports initiative that will host a handful of professional teams hoping to help young people around the U.S.
Kicking off Friday, Play for Tomorrow — the brainchild of Kauffman Fellow Pankaj Sood — will feature seven professional sports teams from North America, including the Kansas City Royals.
Expecting to draw hundreds of people from Kansas City, Toronto and Palo Alto, the event will offer local attendees a chance to network with representatives from the Kansas City Royals. Other locations’ participants will interact with those from Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, San Francisco 49ers, San Francisco Giants, San Jose Sharks, Canadian Football League and Toronto Argonauts.
Sood, now director of Toronto-based iBoost, synced up with the Kauffman Foundation and the Palo Alto-based nonprofit StartX to create a multi-city initiative that and aims to leverage the power of sports to create social change in communities. Spanning from Oct. 21 to 23, the event will showcase industry speakers, sport and community panelists with the goal to reshape youth development via emerging technology.
The panels will be located at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City will be simulcast to the Toronto and Palo Alto locations, but each city will host their own hackathon.
“Like our foundation’s founder, Ewing Kauffman, we believe that real change happens when everyone is working together to solve a problem,” Kauffman Foundation CEO Wendy Guillies said in a release. “This unique event is designed to bring together entrepreneurs, community members and our youth to create innovative solutions.”
Here are some of the Kansas City events:
- Sports as an Effective Vehicle for Change Panel — Mark Donovan, president of the Kansas City Chiefs, speaks, will be one of many to speak on the importance of sports and education.
- Overview of Community & Youth Development Initiatives including Potential Opportunities — a panel focused on Kansas City specific problems.
- Intro to Design Thinking — a workshop session hosted by the Stanford Centre for Design research.
- Hackathon — participants will be assigned into teams and tackle problems related to urban youth and sports. With prize money on the line, each team will pitch their solution on Sunday.
Featured Business
2016 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Kansas City is a top 10 locale for women-owned businesses
The Kansas City area is a top destination for women to own a business, according to a new report. A study released Monday by personal finance website WalletHub placed Kansas City in the top 10 U.S. cities for women-owned businesses. WalletHub ranked the 100 most-populated metropolitan areas, doling out points for new business friendliness, female…
Local, artificial intelligence firms enter the Sprint Accelerator
There’s a bit of local flavor in the latest class of startups to enter the Techstars-led Sprint Accelerator. Now hosting its third batch of startup companies, the accelerator welcomed ten new companies to its three-month program, including one from Kansas City and another from Lawrence. Super Dispatch, based in Kansas City, and Mycroft, based in…
Locally-made drone designed to save servicemen, civilians’ lives
An injured soldier is miles away from medical help, holed up in a countryside village. Reaching him by medevac helicopter isn’t an option and ground Humvee ambulance will take hours. The soldier doesn’t have hours. Usually, it’s a scenario that unfortunately results in death. But Pulse Aerospace, based in Lawrence, Kan., is working to change…
Fighting the Silicon Valley monster and why startups leave the Midwest
Here’s this week’s dish on the booming ed tech sector, how other communities can contend with Silicon Valley and the realities of startup relocation. Check out more in this series here. Biz News: How the rest of America can compete with Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is the “center of the new-business universe,” according to Dileep…