Spring is in the air and that means that it is once again time for the ATDC Entrepreneurs Showcase. It takes place on April 29th at 2:00pm at The Biltmore. The theme of this years Showcase is Start Strong.
Since it was first announced on Peachseedz last Wednesday over 200 people have registered to attend. When it is all said and done there will be over 500 entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders from across the Southeast attending this premier Atlanta event.
At the Showcase you will be able to see demos from ATDC and VentureLab companies, hear updates on the programming ATDC and VentureLab offer, and network with Georgia's technology leaders. All of this brought to you by a great group of sponsors including DLA Piper, Noro-Moseley Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Bennett Thrasher, Habif, Arogeti & Wynne, Imlay Investments, Microsoft BizSpark, Morris, Manning, & Martin, RBC Bank, TechCFO, StartupLounge, TechDrawl, and TechLinks (hey anybody want to sponsor FoG?)
There is no cost to attend the Entrepreneurs Showcase, so register.
After the Entrepreneurs Showcase wraps up Georgia Tech cranks up its Digital Media Demo Day starting at 4:00 pm.
Tonight on 60 Minutes Lesley Stahl will be reporting on computer viruses and botntets that propagate on the Internet and infect PCs, which enable their creators to do all types of evil things via remote command and control. The show airs tonight, should get some good
ratings - it's right after the NCAAs. And if information security alone is not your thing Lebron James is featured on another
segment in the show. Leslie Stahl previews her report below.
mobicamp is a new, annual
unconference in Atlanta centered around mobile technology and its
impact on the day to day life of average users. It is aimed mainly at
software developers and students, but is open to anyone with interests
in the mobile/wireless space.
Somehow or the other I convinced Amro that it might not be a bad idea to have some more business focused discussions as well and he has partnered with the Wireless Technology Forum in an effort to broaden the scope a bit.
mobicamp is based on the wildly popular unconference design of BarCamp. We've had two very successful BarCamps at ATDC the past two years and the first CloudCamp back in January. There (hopefully) will be no cost to attend, but those that do so must agree to actively participate either as speakers, active audience members, or volunteers. The premise is simple. Come together. Meet new people. Think big thoughts. Say what you are thinking. Leave energized.
2009 is in full swing with a slate of events and competition that any startup entrepreneur in the Southeast should consider.
CapitalLounge
The next rev of the StartupLounge's entrepreneur/investor mixer takes place on February 25. CapitalLounge's primary goals are to provide an environment where early stage entrepreneurs can make connections with other like-minded entrepreneurs and provide the opportunity for early-stage investors to meet and mingle with early-stage entrepreneurs. Bring and expect a lot of energy.
GRA/TAG Business Launch Competition
The kickoff meeting for the GRA/TAG Business Launch competition took place last week. You can read a bit about that and pick up some tips over on PeachSeedz. This is big.
The Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) and the Technology Association of Georgia
(TAG) joined forces to support the creation and growth of new startups
in Georgia via a competition. The contest winner will receive a
$100,000 cash award courtesy of the GRA and a diverse array of services
valued at an additional $200,000. This comprehensive $300,000+ prize is
one of the largest in the country.
Once again the competition is focused on Internet technologies. This includes companies that are developing
products, online services, or backend technologies that are using or
extending the reach, flexibility and ease of the internet; with a
particular interest in companies within the fields of digital
media/technology, cleantech, mobility and information security.
I have the honor of coordinating the effort to pick the semi-finalists. Preliminary applications must be received electronically by February 10. Final entries are due April 7.
Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition
Great business plan competition for entrepreneurs that are students or alumni of Georgia Tech. Real companies have emerged. Lots of learning via workshops. Some cash awarded. Indications of interest were due Friday. I would reach out to Alan Flury pronto to make your case.
TAG Top 40 Innovative Technology Awards
Every year in conjunction with the Georgia Technology Summit,
TAG showcases Georgia’s Top 40 innovative technology companies. The
first slot in the 2009 TAG Top 40 was captured by Simatra, an ATDC member and VentureLab graduate, that won the special Startup
Gauntlet competition in December. TAG is now looking for 39 more
companies to honor on March 3rd.
The competitive selection process
will focus on the companies' products, services and technologies. The
Top 40 companies will participate in a showcase at the Summit, expected
to draw over 1,000 leaders from the state's technology community. Ten
particularly outstanding companies from the Top 40 will also make short
presentations to the Summit attendees, including venture capitalists,
angel investors, potential customers and partners. The application deadline is February 1.
SEVC
TechJournal South is bringing the 2009 Southeast Venture Conference to Atlanta on March 11 and 12. This is a venture capital conference and it caters to that audience. The startup company focus is decidedly later stage. Growth stage. The deadline for presenting companies applications has come and gone. But if you got it going on and are looking for venture captial I suggest you reach out to Eric Gregg or me.
Startup Riot
After its winning inaugural last year Startup Riot is back for more. It takes place on February 18. Price to attend
ranges from free to $50 for this bash featuring 3 minute presentations
from more than 50 early stage companies. Presenting is free and the application is pretty straightforward. Read the rules. Sanjay Parekh may reject you for not following them.
Problem one. A lot of people that I don't know want to meet with me for various reasons. And with the economy in recession and people looking for new things to do the various reasons are increasing. I want to be helpful. Networking with the startup community is actually part of my job. I am always looking for good companies to join ATDC. I seldom say no to a cold or networking intro. But it takes time. Lots of time. The meeting time aside it takes me a good 20 minutes a day to just coordinate via email whom I am meeting when and where.
Problem two. I need to spend more time working with the companies in ATDC. I am supposed to be spending the same amount of time working with these companies as I am with applicants. That ain't working at the moment. I tend to get assigned a lot of project and program work because according to my leader "you are so good at getting it done." May be true. But it's not really what they hired me to do.
So I am going to try something new this year and see how it works. Officially Georgia Tech classifies me as a "professional with faculty status." Georgia Tech requires that all faculty have office hours. So I am going to set some up. They are:
Tuesday from 3 - 5 pm for ATDC member companies.
Thursday from 2 - 4 pm for ATDC member companies and applicants in suite 202 of the Centergy Building.
Let's see how this works. Hopefully it will foster more efficient and effective dialog. All I ask of you if you show up is to have a very specific purpose, be prepared to discuss it, and be considerate of others who may be waiting to chat.
And if no one shows up I can just work on those pesky programs and projects.
Update: Received a lot of comments online and offline about this being very difficult to manage the people that just show up. You can now schedule a 20 minute appointment via Genbook.
You may have heard of the TAG/GRA Business Launch Competition. That little thing where the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA) and the Technology Association of Georgia
(TAG) join forces (along with the help of ATDC) to support the creation and growth of new startups
in Georgia via a competition. Where the contest winner receives a
$100,000 cash award courtesy of the GRA and a diverse array of services
valued at an additional $200,000.
It's back.
Tell ya another secret.
That little snippet on where the judging process is explained that says "preliminary judges led by ATDC and supplemented with
industry, investment and entrepreneurial representatives will complete
the first step in the judging and select a group of semi-finalists." I coordinate all that. Makes me feel real powerful. A master of the universe.
Not.
But what it does do is put me the center of things during the early stages of the contest and that is pretty fun and exciting. Last year I got a peek into about 80 startups. This year I expect to see an exciting new crop of companies. I also get to recruit those "industry, investment and entrepreneurial representatives" so if you have an interest in lending a hand I am all ears.
Things kick off this year on January 8 at 7:30 am at the TAG/ATDC Entrepreneurs Society monthly gathering. Past winners REACH Call, IVOX, and Acculynk will give brief presentations. Then we are going to do a little Q&A and explain the details of the 2009 competition. I get to moderate which should be fun as well.
If you are an entrepreneur looking to enter the competition for a shot at the $100k in cash I would show up. $100k in cash is going to be very dear to an early stage startup in 2009.
On January 20th from 4:00 to 9:30 ATDC is proud to be the host sponsor of CloudCamp Atlanta.
CloudCamp is an unconference where attendees can exchange ideas,
knowledge and information in a creative and supporting environment,
advancing the current state of cloud computing and related
technologies. The big driver behind CloudCamp Atlanta is John Willis aka Botchagalupe.
Like any unconference, CloudCamp is an informal member-supported gathering that relies
entirely on volunteers (and you can count me as one of those) to help with meeting content, speakers, meeting
locations, equipment and membership recruitment. CloudCamp is also looking for a few corporate
sponsors to provide financial assistance if anyone is feeling generous this holiday season.
You can register for CloudCamp Atlanta on Eventbrite.
I recently sat down and spoke with Rob Hassett of InternetLegal and Business to Business Magazine. If you have 15 minutes to spare and what a good overview of ATDC it is worth the listen.
As reported over on PeachSeedz, SoloHealth made it to the semi-final round of the Forbes Business Launch competition. I am exceited to tell you Solohealth has made it to the finals. Over 1,600 companies entered and SoloHealth is in now in the final five. Part of the reason they got there was the help of the FoG faithful voting for them in the contest.
A few weeks ago Forbes flew SoloHealth CEO Bart Foster up to NYC. After presenting to a panel of judges Bart tooled around the city on the Forbes yacht. You can see Bart's presentation to the finalists panel here (video auto-roll warning).
Once agian Bart needs your help. Online voting counts for 50% of the formula Forbes will be using to pick the winner. He needs you to vote for SoloHealth so he can take home the $100,000 grand prize.
Here is what you can do:
1. Go to the Forbes Business Launch voting site. 2. Vote for SoloHealth and enter your first name and email address 3. Go to your inbox and click on the "validate your vote" link. Note: You may need to check your spam/junk folder.
Voting
ends Saturday, November 29th and the winner will be announced in early
December.
ATDC is the host sponsor of BarCamp Atlanta 2, which essentially means I am spending the better part of the weekend with about 95 geeks and 5 geekettes.
Those that follow me on Twitter know that I used the service to crowdsource my presentation. I got the concept from a presentation that Chris Winfield created for SES Toronto back in June. I had a few requests to distribute the presentation and you will find it below. While the presentation was fine in the room you may need to view in full screen on SlideShare.
Thanks again for all those that participated in the making of a fun presentation.
The opinions expressed here are mine and mine alone (with the exception of comments by others of course). They do not represent the opinion or position of any other person on entity. All postings adhere to my personal values.
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