Events Preview: KC Design Week, Lean Lab Innovation Workshop

There are a plethora of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend these upcoming events for you.

Are you hosting a relevant community event? Feel free to add it to the FWD/KC calendar for increased exposure. Once your event is submitted, it will quickly get reviewed and then published to the calendar. 

TechHire KC – Tech Sector Meetup at Think Big
When: April 5, 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: Think Big Partners
RSVP: www.techhirekc.eventbrite.com
Find out how the TechHire initiative can impact your organization, how you can participate with subsidized placements, and discover how you can influence programming, training and curriculum to better meet your workforce needs. During these meetups, we will explore those topics and dive deeper into the region’s 5-year outlook, sector best practices, labor trends, and curriculum/instructional design in I.T. in Kansas City.
April 5, 2017
May 10, 2017
This meetup is for tech-sector employers looking to hire or shape the workforce pipeline. All events take place from 12-1:30 (lunch provided) at Think Big Partners, 1712 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Meeting Rooms B-C-D.
Think Big Partners serves as the Tech Sector Intermediary on behalf of FEC and the TechHire initiative in Kansas City.
About TechHire
TechHire is recoding the American economy by helping employers find outstanding tech talent, and overlooked job seekers get the training and connections they need to start successful technical careers.
TechHire Kansas City
In one of the original communities to join the President’s TechHire initiative, the Full Employment Council’s Greater Kansas City Technology Career Collaboration (GKCTCC) will help train 2,000 participants, including young adults facing barriers to employment such as disabilities and criminal records and workers currently in low-wage jobs. Training will focus on four high-growth industries: (1) IT, (2) healthcare, (3) advanced manufacturing, and (4) financial services. Working with Think Big, Full Employment Council, the National Machining and Tooling Association, and Missouri/Kansas Hospital Association, GKCTCC will identify the skills to succeed in each industry and work with training providers to customize curricula to help prepare participants for well-paying jobs.

First Wednesdays, Annie Hurlbut Zander
When: April 5, 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Where: Bloch Executive Hall
Join us for A Conversation with Annie Hurlbut Zander. Hear first-hand how co-founder and CEO of Tonganoxie-based Peruvian Connection, was inspired halfway across the world and founded a luxury artisan apparel company, which releases five internationally renowned collections per year and that has retail locations throughout the U.S. and the U.K.

KC Design Week
When: April 6-13
Where: Kansas City
An 8-day wake-up call to the eye-opening presence of design in all our lives. Parties, talks, workshops, exhibits, etc. celebrating design in KC. See link for tickets & join us April 6-13, 2017!

The Sales Series: Setting and Managing Sales Goals with Elizabeth Usovicz, White Space Consulting
When: April 6, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Enterprise Center in Johnson County
The Sales Series teaches entrepreneurs the basics of building scalable sales systems, attracting and compensating top-performing sales staff and customer retention.

The Sales Series: Setting and Managing Sales Goals with Elizabeth Usovicz, White Space Consulting
When: April 6, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Enterprise Center in Johnson County
The Sales Series teaches entrepreneurs the basics of building scalable sales systems, attracting and compensating top-performing sales staff and customer retention.

Northwest’s 2017 New Venture Pitch Competition
When: April 7, 7:45 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Where: Northwest Missouri State University’s Kansas City campus
Northwest’s 2017 New Venture Pitch Competition continues to grow and evolve to provide a unique learning experience for participants, as well as an opportunity to advance entrepreneurship in the surrounding community.
The competitors will consist of Northwest Missouri State University students, other university students and community college teams as well. Participants will begin with a one-minute ‘elevator pitch’ to generate interest among the judges. After these pitches, participants will set up displays to present their ideas and judges will have the opportunity to visit these displays for more detailed conversations with the teams that most interested them. Based on these interactions, the judges will select teams to participate in the finals and present more details on their new venture.
Kevin Fullerton, Founder of Springboard Creative in Mission Kansas will be our Kick-Off Speaker. Prizes for the winning teams include funding and services to assist in the pursuit of their new venture. Total purse of cash and in-kind $80,000.

Innovation Workshop
When: April 7, 5:00 p.m. – April 8, 4:00 p.m.
Where: Crossroads Academy
Are you experiencing a problem in education that you want to solve? Do you have a solution in mind, but you’re not sure how or where to begin? Join The Lean Lab for a 1.5 day deep-dive into human-centered design, design thinking, lean methodology, and innovation!
– When: Friday, April 7 from 5-8PM – Saturday, April 8, 2017 from 9AM-4PM
– Where: Crossroads Academy (1015 Central Street, KCMO 64105)
– Cost: $50/person – This will cover the cost of food and materials during the weekend. For a limited time only, use promo code EARLYBIRD17 to save 50%!
– What you’ll need: A problem written in the form of a statement: “The problem is [x] and it impacts [y].”
– Who is this event for?: Aspiring education innovators who want to build a solution to impart transformational change! You don’t need any prior entrepreneurship experience to attend and be successful in this workshop.
You’ll leave the workshop with the tools of human-centered design and design thinking to continue working on your solution, as well as a succint problem statement, a clear understanding of who your target user is, and a prototype ready to test!
Let’s build a brighter tomorrow together and ensure that all children have equitable access to innovative and effective learning opportunities in Kansas City education.

Ongoing events

Don’t miss out on the events that happen every week at the same time, in the same place.

Code for KC Hack Night
Mondays from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Sprint Accelerator

Hammerspace Open House
Thursdays from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at Hammerspace

1 Million Cups
Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. at Kauffman Foundation, Lawrence and KC Live Stream

Looking ahead

Veteran LDRSHIP Network Vet-repreneur Event
When: April 12, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Where: The Grid Collaborative Workspaces
Veteran and KC area Entrepreneur Leaders,
You and your teams are cordially invited to the next VLN event at the Grid April 12, 6-9 pm!
RSVP here today: https://vln-vre.splashthat.com/
Fox 4 will be doing a segment on the event, StreetShares will be headlining & LinkedIN & Microsoft will be giving away premium memberships and access to valuable startup programs like Biz Spark!!!
*EDUCATION: Find out how to get your bachelors/masters with Park University, pay for housing and navigate the post 9/11 GI Education process with the director of the Global Warrior Center!
*CAREERS: Learn how to Rock Your LinkedIN profile, checkout valuable certifications with LinkedIN Learning and the new resource pipeline straight from the Amber Lujan and the LinkedIN TEAM!!!
*VETREPRENEURS: Show off your products and services to investors, Veteran Resource Firms and promote through FOX 4! Microsoft offers access to the Biz Spark program to get your startup to the next level! Got a purchase order? Find out how StreetShares can assist you and your business at the event!
And so much more…
***Invite all the Soldiers/Veterans/Vetrepreneurs you know! If they have products and services, we want to show them off at the event!***
RSVP today with Jesse Beaudin (jbeaudin@t1performance.com) or contact him directly for free booth space!!! See you there!!!
Thank you for supporting VETERAN INNOVATORS at our event!!!

KC Roundtable
When: April 13, 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Where: Eggtc
KC Roundtable is in existence to provide 20 and 30-something Kansas City entrepreneurs with a group of peers to support and collaborate on each others’ businesses. Our mission is to: – Focus on relationship building; not lead generating – Facilitate collaboration, openness, transparency, learning and teaching – Establish an entrepreneurial network – Fill the void of not having the water cooler.
We meet for breakfast and various locations around the city. In addition to our morning meetings, KC Roundtable provides additional opportunities to network with young entrepreneurs such as events like small group Mastermind sessions & After Hour events.
Prospective members are self-motivated, curious, open to learning and currently starting a new business. Thanks for checking us out. We look forward to meeting you soon!

2017 Midwest Bioinformatics Conference
When: April 13, 10:00 a.m. –1:00 p.m.
Where: UMKC: Student Union
Join us at the Second Annual Midwest Bioinformatics Conference on April 13 – 14. This conference showcases practical approaches to collecting, organizing, and preparing data for a broad range of analyses applied in human and animal health.
This conference will:
(1) bring together bioinformatics-minded researchers from academia and industry to discover capabilities, share tactical approaches to problem-solving, explore synergies, and launch potential collaborations
(2) provide an opportunity for bioinformatics students to learn about employment opportunities within the region and employers to meet prospective candidates.

The Capital Series: Closing the Deal: Negotiating Your Term Sheet with Rick Vaughn, Mid-America Angels
When: April 13, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Enterprise Center in Johnson County
The Capital Series is offered for investors and entrepreneurs, allowing for detailed discussions of the due diligence process, term sheets, valuations and investor pitches during the equity investment process, as well as discussion of possible sources of debt financing. Lunch provided

Second Fridays
When: April 14, 4:30 – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Village Square Coworking Studio
Come to Second Fridays at Village Square Coworking Studio!
Second Fridays is a casual, fun gathering for the startup community to connect on a monthly basis with no agenda except good times.
We’ll provide games & cards (bags if it’s nice). This event is BYOB with a twist – bring a 6-pack of your favorite beer to share and we’re going to have a “beer potluck” cooler. We’ll ice down everyone’s beer and have quite the selection to choose from!get to know someone over a brew!
We’d also encourage you to bring an instrument if you play. What better way to end your week than with a jam session?!
Feel free to stop by anytime after 4:30pm. We’ll hang out until everyone leaves (unless it gets ridiculous).
No RSVP necessary, just come on by!