Innovators Peak
Month
Earlier this month, Café Cultura held their 10th Anniversary Showcase and Fundraiser in Denver to promote unity among Indigenous peoples through the innovative power of creative expression. Using spoken word, poets and performers emphasized the importance of community, support, and tradition as elements of empowering Indigenous youth and strengthening Café Cultura’s mission. Café Cultura also consistently facilitates spoken word workshops in schools and conduct a summer youth leadership program. All to strengthen this sense of community and tradition.
Last Thursday, Ryan Alexander Creative hosted Local Lounge at Industry in the River North neighborhood to promote local fashion. Along with local designers and vendors displaying their products, Local Lounge was the launching pad for the unveiling the cover of the first issue of Denver Style Magazine.
Whether you’re walking around your neighborhood, running in City Park, or if you’ve hit the trails around Table Mountain or Chautauqua recently, you probably saw a bundle of fur joyfully running around at top speed. As they continue to be man’s best friend, dogs are everywhere. In Colorado it feels like they’re especially popular due to the numerous outdoor activities dogs and their human companions can enjoy together. But what if that relationship between dogs and owners could somehow be enhanced? Local startup WÜF, is about to change the way you interact with your dog with the worlds smartest dog collar. Innovators Peak writer, Matthew Hartman recently met with WÜF co-founders Sean Kelly and Lizelle Van Vuuren at their Denver offices at Galvanize and got to see the “WÜF Pack” in action.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. So if we want more innovators coming out of our school systems, isn’t it time for some education innovation?
On op of being tech savvy, Bruce Douglas, owner and operator of BetaMax Bandits takes great pride in the personal touches he provides each and every customer. Every order he sends out comes personalized correspondence letting the customer know that if there are specific titles the customer is looking for, BetaMax Bandits will find it. Bruce even gives a phone number and email address where customers can reach him. “Everybody is making a collection, everyone has movies that they like, and we sell things that maybe aren’t everywhere, and I like that.”
TheBigWonderful effectively lives up to its name by incorporating the most important elements of a farmers market, music festival and tiki bar in a single location. Held every Saturday, the event has successfully established an independent space in which new and established food entrepreneurs can inexpensively test out their ideas. With admission being free, attendees can get a taste of Denver’s newest eats, enjoy a locally-brewed beer from the bar and even play lawn games–all while enjoying live music.
Mid-afternoon autumn rain poured down on the North High School. I grabbed my bag and ran for the door while trailing students running from the football field to escape the rain. I haven’t stepped foot in a High School since my own graduation eight years ago. Feeling a little out of place, I checked in and followed the directions that a friend of mine had texted me. Located in the Denver Highlands neighborhood, North High School is home to a Mi Casa Neighborhood Center.
Congratulations! You’ve just graduated and are ready to kick start your long and successful career! Or maybe you’re just ready to try something different because your current job is leaving you feeling like you’ve hit a dead end. Oh… or maybe you’ve just been laid off (sorry to bring up a touchy subject).
With the death of Hollywood Video and Blockbuster Video stores, a void has been left in the home video marketplace. Online streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix, in addition to a smattering of Mom & Pop operations, have sought to fill this cinematic gap, but they really only succeed at offering new releases. Where do people go to find that new gem of a movie they’ve only heard of but can’t find anywhere?
What do you see as essential to developing a trendy, up and coming neighborhood?
The answer is millennials- at least that what principal of Zocalo Community Development David Zucker says. That’s why he recently sat down with over 200 of them, along with local business leaders, at CollaborEAT, an urban dining event hosted by CityBuild to discuss with them how a vibrant downtown could eventually emerge from Arapahoe Square, the most underdeveloped area of downtown Denver. An area in need of a revamping.
How does the cable industry achieve 10 times its capacity with the same environmental footprint as today?
That’s the question John Schanz — Chief Network Operator and EVP of Comcast — sought to answer last Wednesday when he unveiled a bold new plan to change the way the cable industry consumes energy by the year 2020. The initiative, a collaborative effort developed by the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) and led by Schanz, is meant to “provide cable systems operators with the new standards, technology, innovation, organizational solutions” in order to ensure continued “growth, availability and reliability.”
Although Denver’s Regional Transportation District services nearly 2.8 million people, mile-high commuters often get stopped up in frustrating traffic jams on roads like I-25 and Colorado Boulevard. Such an issue speaks to the fact that people aren’t taking full advantage of the light rail and bus connections webbing throughout the city. To solve this problem, My Way To Go uses mapping and scheduling technology to provide residents with reliable, environmentally friendly ways to get around.
Joining Denver in the path to innovation is Comcast, an organization that employs thousands of local citizens. With the second largest Comcast workforce, Denver has a lot of unique individuals working on innovative technology, platforms and new media formats. One of these progressive teams is the unique unit known as VIPER.