Collaboration Awaits: Blacktech Weekend aims to connect black innovators with a lasting network
October 31, 2019 | Anna Turnbull
The most important aspect of Blacktech Weekend’s return to Kansas City Friday: connecting individuals from different segments of the entrepreneur cityscape, said Denayja Reese.
“Across industries, we want them to collaborate with each other and continue to build community as well as bring in folks who are outside of the community into the fold,” said Reese, founder of Miami-based GWTLP, which organizes the one-day Blacktech Weekend in KC. “I hope that the people who attend the event learn things that they didn’t know before. Whether it be a funding resource or if they learn from someone else’s’ ideas.”
Blacktech Weekend 2018
Blacktech Weekend is entering its second annual Kansas City offering this week, having debuted during 2018’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. The program targets black entrepreneurs, innovators and “techies.”
Click here to read about the 2018 Blacktech Weekend conversation on tearing down walls built by exclusive startup lingo.
“Most of the time, [Blacktech Weekend’s] out of town [speakers] are dealing with many of the same issues as those [in Kansas City]. They are able to have conversations about how they are balancing it given their different circumstances,” Reese said, explaining the event. “It really gives the attendees an opportunity to learn from the people even if they are coming from different sides [of the issue].”
The Kansas City event is also set to feature a number of local voices, including Philip Gaskin, senior director of entrepreneurship at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation; April Boyd-Noronha, chief engagement strategist for The STEM Broker; Bryan Shannon, founder and CEO of TicketRX; Dan Smith, co-founder of The Porter House KC; and Dell Gines, senior community development advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Click here for more information on Blacktech Weekend, which begins 10 a.m. Friday at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
Activities from a fireside chat and panel conversations to masterclass breakout sessions, Reese said.
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
Featured Business
2019 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Roasterie founder Danny O’Neill takes historical look on Midwest coffee culture
Editor’s note: In partnership with the KC Greats podcast, hosted by Scott Parman, Startland News hopes to offer its audience more avenues to learn about entrepreneurs in Kansas City. Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. In this episode, Roasterie founder and CEO Danny O’Neill answers the question: Why coffee? In the early…
Jeff Shackelford: Here’s how to land Digital Sandbox funding
When it comes to pitching their startups, most Kansas Citians err on the side of selling themselves short. At least that’s what the Digital Sandbox KC’s Jeff Shackelford told a crowd Tuesday at an event helping community members who are interested in pitching to the incubator-style program. Launched in 2013, Digital Sandbox has supported a…
The education system is broken — these Kansas Citians want to fix it
As you may remember or have experienced with your own child, there seems to come a point in one’s educational journey where kids ask themselves — what’s the point? The answer has always been, so that you can get good grades, to get into a good college to then get a good job. The problem with…
What’s Kansas City doing at SXSW 2017 this year?
March is about to get weird. Startland News is once again returning to the weirdness of Austin, Texas, for the annual insanity that is the SXSW Conference. Like last year, we’ll be venturing to the Lone Star State to report on the Kansas City contingent at arguably the nation’s top conference for innovative ideas: South-by-Southwest…