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
RFP360 doubles in size since December; team back under one roof with move to new space
RFP360 is coming full circle, said Stuart Ludlow, as the software company he co-founded with David Hulsen in the Kansas City Startup Village once again levels up to accommodate a swelling team and increasing market demand. “We’re moving into a place — scale and scope — that Dave and I envisioned,” said Ludlow, who also…
Super Dispatch expands reach into auto transport, launches car shipping platform
The “Amazon experience” is coming to the world of car shipping as Super Dispatch launches a new platform to bring the auto transportation industry up to the speed companies are demanding: now, said Bek Abdullayev. “We are creating a better way to transport cars with new technology that solves major problems for shippers and carriers,”…
‘Queer Eye’ hero paints an ‘inner circle’ for young Latino artists craving a creative outlet
Deanna Munoz’s childhood dream to become an artist — once faded and long forgotten — was revived years later by her 6-year-old daughter, said Munoz, founder of the Latino Arts Foundation. “I wanted to be a graphic designer, but I kind of got caught up in a lot of different things when I was young…
Two Missouri biology students just wanted an ‘A’ — ultimately they devised a treatment for Crohn’s Disease
Launching a biotech company based on a class project took the quest for an ‘A’ to a whole new level for two Missouri University of Science and Technology students — founders of Bionic Bowell. Prompted by professors to find a use for a special ion-interacting glass compound, Vanessa Mahan and Catherine Pollman devised an ingestible…