Innovators Peak
Month
One of the biggest hits at last year’s COIN Summit was without a doubt the Xfinity Innovation Think Tank.
Photo via @jowyang
For those who don’t remember, COIN 2014 is where Innovators Peak got its start and it was largely thanks to the Think Tank’s primary theme of “Future Forward, Faster” that provided the inspiration for this project.
The Think Tank gathered six Colorado thought leaders within a glass box and dropped it on a slab of concrete at the center of the event with one goal: frame a meaningful dialogue around the future of innovation in Colorado.
Think of it as a hotbox for innovation and collaboration.
The result: the “Colorado Innovation Manifesto.” Check it out:
Your future colleagues and close personal lifelong friends are waiting for you.
This is it, folks. Summer is often referred to as the “hottest, sexiest, spiciest season for networking” (Innovators Peak), so that means August is your last chance. You never know who you might meet: a sultry CEO, an enigmatic entrepreneur, even a mischievous multimedia maverick. “This was the best summer ever,” you and your new, mysterious business colleagues will say to one another over fabulous cocktails in a tropical location, but that’s only if you come out. Here your best bets for networking events in Denver this month.
Ultrapreneur Success Groups is for all aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners to learn the ropes in creating a successful business. This event will walk through steps needed to take you to get to where you want to be in your career path. // Thu., Aug. 6, 10 a.m., Nigel’s Office, 4900 W. 29th Avenue, Suite #9. (This event takes place every Thursday of the month.)
Alright people let’s get this over with, we have weekends to plan. It’s Thursday, we’re tired, we’re hungry, and we’ve just about had enough of all this work stuff.
We at The Denver Lowdown and EveryBlock know you don’t always have the time to search around the vast, expansive internet for your weekend activities. So, we’ve done this clever little thing and rounded up a bunch of totally sweet things to do.
Why don’t you sit back and check out what’s going down at the Lowdown.
Got an idea for an app? Do you need an app built for your business? Do you like all apps all the time? Well, Mobile App Hackathon, an event produced by the AT&T Developer Program, is designed for attendees to build apps, compete for prizes across different categories, network with other app developers, and most importantly, get fed. Be sure to bring your laptop, skills, and ideas and be ready to collaborate with some smart cookies. (photo) // Day One 6 p.m., Day Two 10 a.m., Free, Galvanize Boulder, 1035 Pearl St., 5th Floor.
Rick Griffith is one of Denver’s most iconic creatives. Not only is he a tour de force as the owner and design director of graphic design studio Matter, he also serves as a Commissioner of Arts and Culture, a position which he has held for over three years. Because of his signature style, Griffith brings a captivating presence to just about any event or project he is involved with in Denver.
A native of the United Kingdom, Griffith moved to the United States in the 1980s as a kid. His family settled in suburban Washington, D.C. (Fairfax County). And at the time, D.C. was the epicenter of the punk movement, which prized individuality and was a sort of precursor to the modern DIY movement. Being in the midst of this scene was a big influence in his creative development from a young age, Griffith says. People were rejecting the establishment, but Griffith says the message that stuck with him was “pro-me, not anti-you,” which has imbued him with an originality matched by few.
While working in and around the music scene in D.C.’s record stores and admiring the art on album covers, he says, he knew at a young age he wanted to be a designer.
You smell that, Denver? That’s the smell of innovation in the air. There are so many cool and creative projects on Kickstarter that are based right in Denver. Here are just a couple of the great ideas from some clever Denverites with eyes set on success. These projects are all on Kickstarter and with your funding, you can help some fellow Coloradans bring their ideas to life.
Food trucks are home to some of the Denver’s tastiest cuisine and for a decently low price. As delicious as this grub is, it’s not typically the healthiest thing you could eat. Thus, the idea for a healthy food truck is born. Lunch Box offers healthier options whether you’re vegan, gluten free, a health nut or just hungry for food that makes you feel better or, at least, not terrible afterward. For healthy eats on the streets, look for the Lunch Box food truck.
How many times has your son, daughter, little sister, little brother — anyone you may know of within grade school age — come home from school moaning and whining about how nothing they’re studying is even the least bit relevant or useful?
Now think back to your own grade school years. How many times did you have the same exact feeling? Probably a lot more than once. Because the harsh reality is that it’s true. A lot of the crap schools teach in traditional education is irrelevant. My grade school never taught me how to get a job, do my taxes, balance a budget or otherwise participate in constructive community discourse. But hey — at least I learned how to determine the area of an isosceles triangle! And I wouldn’t know what to do if I never learned to memorize the periodic table! /sarcasm
Sure, improvements to the education system are in progress, but we cannot afford to wait for it. We need something that will effectively educate our children to be productive, participatory members of society right now.
That what the Young Americans Center for Financial Education is all about: providing kids with the disruptive, immersive learning style that will help them become successful, engaged citizens in adulthood.
The startup and entrepreneurial mentality drenching the city of Denver is now entering into the realm of public school administration. Denver Public Schools Innovation Lab hosted the second Imaginarium, a program designed to get solutions to vexing education questions from the people on the front line. The challenge gives 4 winners $20,000 each to develop a concept for education. All you need is an idea for a tech focused solution to education, and if you win you will be paired with professional developers to make the idea a reality.
Past winners have included a tech app like Uber for school children needing a ride to school and an app that connects young black youth with mentors in the community. Participants were eagerly preparing their minute-long pitch when we got a chance to speak with participants about their ideas, as well as people who just came out to support the event.
Participants: Courtney, Cal and Shannon
“We work with student services and ability to connect Colorado. We are trying to develop an app for youth with disabilities to figure out the services that we offer, and connect them to underutilized programs. Special Ed teachers are overwhelmed, especially since schools care more about test scores. We want to give students the ability to connect to opportunities so that they take ownership and the engagement is equitable and inclusive.”
In November 2013, two vessels of liquid yeast sat in a bathtub belonging to John Giarratano, a bioengineer then working at a biofuel company in the Denver area.
Along with colleague, business partner and home-brewing buddy Matthew Peetz, the two had propagated the strains as the unofficial beginning of Inland Island, a lab that would provide yeast to 20 local breweries, six brewery shops and countless home-brewers all over Colorado just a little over a year later. Today, their customer roster includes Black Shirt Brewing, Our Mutual Friend, Mockery, Zephyr, Prost and more; the two also provided the base for Joyride Brewing’s first ever IPA.
Inland Island has the hard-earned luxury of calling themselves the only brewer’s yeast lab in the area, and being local in this industry has some serious perks for both buyer and supplier alike.
“The main thing that separates them from the other guys is service,” says Joyride’s Grant Babb.
Maritza Alarcon is possibly the happiest Millennial Train rider ever. Currently focused on writing, Alarcon’s MTP project was all about developing her book, I Am Happiest, a field guide to happiness.
Alarcon has been featured on BuzzFeed as one of “21 Amazing Role Models for Ambitious Twentysomethings” and was honored at Carnegie Hall for Glamour Magazine’s “20 Amazing Young Women” ceremony.
Former soldier and Bronze Star Veteran Maceo Keeling boarded the Millennial Train as a means to collaborate with his peers and learn their collective needs.
Keeling founded Citizens of Culture, a media platform that seeks to inspire young people to take an active role in shaping the future and changing the world. The site encourages contributions from poetry to social commentary, and there is a non-fiction book club offshoot that culminates in real-time Twitter chats in which users can critically analyze and discuss the reads.
Maceo believes we all have an obligation to better ourselves and society through art and entrepreneurship. His overall goal is to determine, by any means necessary, how to engage millennials in a nationwide dialogue with one another.
Kalimah Priforce is Headmaster and CEO of Qeyno Labs, which seeks to harness the interests of high-potential, low-opportunity youth in areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).
Priforce’s Qeyno Labs is a leading provider in youth hackathons and seeks to empower youth of low-opportunity environments by providing access to technology and education. His Millennial Trains project was to launching a new form of Hackathon—The Gathering of Nations Hackathon that focuses on Native youth on and off reservation communities.
Priforce has been recognized by the White House as a Champion of Change and started the “My Brother’s Keeper” Hackathon that strongly aligned with President Obama’s call-to-action for organizations and communities to work together to improve the lives of men of color.
After eight years in the Marine Corps, Lydia Davey is taking a hard look at post traumatic growth and finding a way to build resilience in U.S. Veterans.
With more than 10 years of experience in strategic communications, Davey founded Clear PR as a means to connect small businesses with PR and marketing talent across the nation. Lydia’s Millennial Trains project focused on collecting data from trauma-affected communities to create a course on resilience at the University of California. Lydia has a B.A. in Communications from Indiana University, and seeks to take what she’s learned on the Millennial Train to benefit military and Veteran communities.
Raised in the United States as an undocumented immigrant, Marzena Zukowska noticed how few opportunities she was afforded. NBCUniversal’s Open Possibilities program invested in her, knowing she would be a powerful voice for social change within the immigration sector.
Zukowska’s Millennial Trains project focused on the first ever Opportunity Pipeline Fellowship that will support the next generation of social innovators who stand to solve the major immigration challenges facing the U.S. Zukowska currently works as the Media Manager for Ashoka’s Changemakers, a program that utilizes Ashoka’s network of social entrepreneurs to bring accelerated change to social issues around the world.
When a couple of hard-charging, entrepreneurial stay-at-home dads call you and say, “We’ve met some guys that have an interesting idea, but they need you,” it sounds like they’re up to no good at best, and the end of a sad Bruce Springsteen song at worst. Luckily, the context here is within an energetic and enthusiastic rise in the tech community.
Chris Onan, founder of Galvanize, answered the call from Jim Deters and Lawrence Mandes. A glass (or two) of wine later, the idea for a “container” was constructed. A container to harvest the enthusiasm and growth of Denver’s tech and startup industry.
Their mission is strong, but concise:
“We believe in making education and growth accessible to anyone, especially underrepresented groups in the tech industry. Whether you’re a founder, student, or just someone who wants to level up their career, we want Galvanize to be a welcoming, inclusive place where you can take the next step in your journey.”
In other words: If your startup is Super Mario, Galvanize is your mushroom power up.
All behold the glory of the weekend! That window of opportunity when you can kick off your heavy work boots and slip on your relaxation, exploration, Sunday Funday party shoes.
So, what hot things are happening over this beautiful weekend? Well, thanks to the lovely people at EveryBlock and the wonderful author of The Denver Lowdown (that’s me, btw), we’ve got your weekend activities covered.
Check it out:
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We all love the ‘80s, so why not enjoy this iconic Michael J. Fox flick with your friends and family. The movie screen along with various vendors will be at the west side of Huston Lake Park from 5 p.m. up until showtime at 8:30. So bring your chairs, blankets, picnic baskets, a couple of beers, snacks, and whatever else you need to have a great evening watching Marty McFly get hit on by his mom. // 5 p.m., Free, Huston Lake Park, 850 S. Bryant St.
Saja Al-Quzweeni is a recent U.S. Department of State Fulbright Foreign Student graduate who studied at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. She is originally from Iraq and hopes to take her Master’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy, and put it to good use back home in Baghdad.
Al-Quzweeni left Iraq and came to America to go to school and eventually board the Millennial Train because she needed a change and she wanted to learn about her generation and what motivates them. Her Millennial Trains project was an examination of best practices in agriculture which will culminate in a model of urban farming that could be utilized in several different settings.
Adorable! Image.
This week, Tip of the Peak is checking back in with some basics on how to efficiently navigate the legalities of copyright as a business owner. If you happened to miss last week’s Tip of the Peak, be sure to read about what to look for in an investor here.
Copyright is essentially the legal protection of a piece of content. Image, text, logo, whatever. If it’s yours, someone else can’t take it and use it without your permission and vice versa. We all know that. Plagiarism. We learned about it in grade school.
Actually playing by the rules, however, isn’t always as simple as it might seem. Copyright law can be a tricky thing. If you’re not careful, you could suddenly get slapped with a cease and desist letter and a lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement. Even if it’s done unknowingly or by simple mistake, guess what? Doesn’t matter.
What do you get when you mix a Paul Simon classic and an out-of-the-box, Denver indie math-dance band? Survey says: one hell of a cover.
Confluence is made up of four dudes from Denver. After a 10-month hiatus and a new guitarist, they’ve come out of hiding with a tasty cover of Paul Simon’s classic, “Graceland”. Confluence’s modern progressive sound and finger-tapping guitar riffs give their cover of the American classic a hint of technicality and psychedelia. This song was recorded for an ‘80s covers compilation by Act So Big Forest, an artist’s collective based out of Fort Collins.
Katlyn Grasso is a recent graduate from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Fresh out of undergrad, she’s already kicking butt, taking names, and empowering young women nationwide.
Grasso, who grew up a Girl Scout in Hamburg, New York, received a lot of support from her father and was raised to believe she could do anything, regardless of gender. When she started at Penn and realized so many young women felt restricted by gender roles, she founded GenHERation, a female empowerment network for high school girls.
We’re kicking off our Millennial Trains Project (MTP) spotlights with a millennial who makes being a woman in tech look cool and effortless.
Pichleap Sok is one of 25 millennials who participated in this year’s MTP. Sok is a U.S. Department of State Fulbright Foreign Student from Cambodia and one of the next great women in technology. She is currently completing a Master’s in Software Engineering at Loyola University Chicago and believes that women can add serious value to the tech industry.
As a child, you heard your parents talk about how your generation would take over one day, or that “our children are our future.” It couldn’t be more true that each passing generation contributes more to humanity than the last. With all of the innovations in technology, medicine, and culture in the last 20 years, imagine what the next 20 will be like. That’s where millennials come in.
The Millennial Trains Project (MTP) is a non-profit organization that brings together tomorrow’s thought leaders in a rolling think tank to further their ideas and think about the legacy they want to leave behind. With a little help from the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Program and Comcast/NBCUniversal, participants are taken on a journey of discovery led by mentors and local leaders in culture and business.
Biennial of the Americas is an abstract festival of ideas, art and culture. Its mission: connecting participants to the broader Latino culture and community across the Americas, in addition to promoting Denver as an arts and cultural capital.
Because the goals of the biennial are so lofty and abstract, the concept can be confusing to the general masses. One thing’s for sure: the arts community is engaged in this festival and the discussions it is trying to generate toward arts and culture in Denver and the rest of the Americas.
The centerpiece of the festival is the Pavilion located in one of the newly-constructed buildings down near Union Station at 1550 Wewatta. The empty space, which appears to be unfinished, has been temporarily transformed into an art zone. Large Styrofoam blocks have been cleverly used to provide seating and at the cafe you can order a poem along with your coffee. Keeping in line with the arts festival atmosphere, the pavilion features several art installations and intersperses panel discussions, with karaoke and poetry readings, from the official festival scribe Molina Speaks.
Addaero partners on a mountain bike trip.
The health and wellness market exploded in the past few years, and Denver is producing some solid contenders in the market. Denver startups are leading the way when it comes to thinking of new ways to make it easier to get healthy and stay healthy. Check out these startups that are addressing previously-unmet needs you didn’t even know you had!
Addaero: This online platform connects coaches, groups and individuals to design, track and analyze health and fitness. Basically, it’s an online platform and a personal trainer designed to help anyone on the fitness spectrum to get the support they need to meet their health and wellness goals.
“There was, and I still believe there is, a lot of need for education,” says Joshua Ross, Addero’s Vice President of Business Development.
“In terms of coach-based apps where the user can interact with a coach and they can be guided through physical activity – that’s still a new concept,” he says. “Training tips have been around the longest, but there’s much more data and analytics in terms of athletes. We don’t dive as deep.”
Ah, Boulder.
A city famous for its colorful Western U.S. history. Home of the main campus of the University of Colorado. A city that, time and time again, acquires top rankings in health, well-being, quality of life, education, art and being totally rad. From the awe-inspiring Flatirons to the many, many craft beer breweries, there are a million and one ways to have a great damn time in Boulder.
But how are we going to know what and where these joints are, unless we select a handful and rank them according to how rad they are? Well, that’s exactly what we did. So, here are the top 10 sweetest spots in Boulder.
This charming restaurant is a gift from Boulder’s sister city, Dushanbe, Tajikistan (north of Afghanistan. It’s west of China, for those of you who should look at a map once in a while). Boulder Teahouse offers some insanely unique dishes: Indian samosas, Greek meatballs, Korean pan fried noodles, Spanish shrimp, homemade oatmeal, spicy Indonesian peanut noodles, etc. etc. so on and so forth yada yada yada. Following in the farm-to-table trend, Boulder Teahouse is super fun for groups, brunch or a nice cup of tea (naturally). // 1770 13th St.
Good morning, cats and kittens! Are you all so insatiably hungry for the weekend you could just take a bite out of Friday right this very minute? Could you leap from behind your desk, flip off your workplace, and just go HAM on the world like Monday is a federal holiday? All you need is some good stuff to get into to make it all worthwhile.
Well thank the lord baby Jesus that The Denver Lowdown and EveryBlock are here to plan your weekend for you. Because let’s face it, without us you’d have the most boring weekends ever.
You may think that just because this is America, you can just have a beer any old time you’d like. Well think again! At Boot Camp and Beer, you have to earn your beer! This boot camp will take place in Ash Grove Park (or the gym in case you sissies can’t handle a little rain). Afterward, you’ll get your well-deserved beer at Esters right down the street. Get ready to earn that beer, buttercup. // 6 p.m., $25, Ash Grove Park/Esters, 1950 S. Holly St.
Have you ever seen a TED Talk and thought to yourself, “I could do that”?
There’s one organization in Denver where you just might be able to get on stage with your big idea. Ignite Denver hosts three events every year, bringing members of the community on stage to share important ideas in front of a live audience. The catch? You only have five minutes to convey your idea. Last month, Ignite hosted its twentieth event in Denver, and over the course of the last six years, it has given a platform to over 100 speakers in the Denver area.
The five-minute presentation is called a “spark,” and is accompanied by 20 PowerPoint slides that are projected onto a large screen for 15 seconds each. If you have an idea, you can sign up to give a spark on the Ignite Denver website. Ideas are voted on, and once chosen, the speakers are coached on how to present a compelling presentation by Daniel Stones, a volunteer with Ignite Denver.
Last time we gave you some advice from the peak, we talked about how to get out there and meet people. For entrepreneurs, it’s important to know that you’re meeting the right people to help your business.
If you want to start growing, what’s one thing you’re always going to need? That’s right — money. When an investor comes your way and starts throwing cash around, it’s not so easy to turn down. This is where a lot of startup founders make their first big mistake: taking the wrong money from the wrong people.
Investors do their due diligence when choosing what companies to invest in — it’s up to you to do the same to them. Here’s what to look for in investors and why:
If your idea is that good, getting your hands on money won’t be all that hard, but you need to be careful with what you take. As Biggie once said, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” The more you take, chances are, the more control you’re going to give up. Ask what else they can offer you.
On July 9, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, the Urban League of Middle Tennessee, the PENCIL Foundation and Teach for America of Greater Nashville attended a VIP advance screening of Comcast NBC Universal’s Minions amid over 150 special guests from Comcast’s non-profit and community partners. The organizations received free concessions, Minions T-shirts, tons of free giveaways, and more as part of the exclusive event.
The Nashville, Tennessee based non-profits were the first ones to view the hilarity of the Minions before the movie’s official release on July 10th. Since then, children and adults across the board have given the evil-villain assistants two yellow thumbs up.
Denver Union Station is one of the most iconic buildings in the entire city. Its luminescent orange letters shine brightly over 17th and Wynkoop, inviting locals and tourists alike to walk its grand hall and visit the many local shops and restaurants that make it one of the more popular gathering spots in the entire LoDo area.
But Union Station hasn’t always been this exciting little hub of community activity; the latter half of the twentieth century saw a sharp decline in service. By 1958, Stapleton International Airport had more passenger traffic than that of Union Station. Less and less people traveled by train, so less and less people visited the historic landmark turning it into a mostly vacant space, a ghost of its glorious beginnings.
Fortunately, a few years ago, Denver Union Station was lovingly restored to its original design and feel, while also adding to its relevance by including many local retailers and restaurants to make Union Station not just a transportation hub, but a community gathering space bustling with activity. This transformative work has now led to Denver Union Station to be nominated for the Global Award for Excellence, an international award given by the Urban Land Institute.
Last time we gave you some advice from the peak, we talked about networking—an important form to master when it comes to getting yourself out there and meeting people. Now we’re on to the next step.
You’ve got the network and you know the right people to talk to; now it’s time to pitch your business idea. It sounds a lot easier than it really is, but there is actually a lot that you need to consider when it comes to persuading investors to get on board with your big idea. Integrate these five tips into your pitch and you’ll be off to a great start:
First of all, ditch your 45-minute PowerPoint slideshow. It isn’t going to impress anyone and you can wow investors in a lot quicker and simpler ways than that. You know what everyone always says they prefer: short, sweet, and to the point. If you can’t sell your startup to potential investors quickly, you’re never going to sell it to consumers.
Don’t hypothesize—that’s why I say facts, fast. Nothing inspires anyone more than the truth. Keep it real. You’re not doing yourself any favors by trying to sell something that you don’t actually have.
Today is a wonderful day for geeks. Today is the day to play Dungeons and Dragons out in the open with no apology. Today is the day to hold the never-ending Picard versus Kirk debate (hint: Picard totally kicks ass). Today is the day to dress up as Sailor Moon, binge Doctor Who, speak Klingon to your mom and play Quidditch to your heart’s content! Today is Embrace Your Geekness Day.
Yes, today is the day where the geeks come out of their dungeons and let their geek flags fly. And what better place to celebrate your geekness than in Colorado (aka the fifth nerdiest state in America)? Colorado is just the right kind of environment for the geek community to flourish, but it’s not always easy to find other geeks so ya’ll can get your geek on like the Fallout 4 gameplay trailer is premiering.
That’s why, on this very special day, we’ve put together a guide to expose you to Colorado’s finest geek gatherings. So, without further delay, I present to you: The Geek’s Guide to Colorado: Embrace Your Geekness.
Yesterday marked the grand opening of a new concept store in Chicago called Studio Xfinity, the first retail store of its kind in the nation. The idea? To merge “great content, great interaction, and a place where people can gather,” explained John Crowley, Comcast’s Senior Vice President of Greater Chicago, at a ribbon cutting ceremony in the Clybourn Corridor this morning.
The store will focus on customer experience—an ode to the past—and Xfinity will use the store as a sort of playground for innovation. Most notably, they’ve launched an app, which will contain every customer’s history. The idea is that customer service will be more intuitive and keep subscribers more “plugged-in” and less focused on the rigmarole that sometimes keeps customers from entering big box stores.
Denver is a boom town for innovation and still sticks to its eco/bike/young-people-friendly roots. If you’re new to Denver, you’ll quickly learn that networking isn’t just for corporate happy hours, most people have a passion job and a job-to-pay-the-bills, and the Mile High City is fertile for collaboration and innovation.
We spoke with James Clark, a video producer at online craft education platform Craftsy by day, and member of Governor Jack improv and sketch comedy group the rest of the time, which was named Denver’s Best Improv Troupe 2014 by Westward Magazine. Clark has lived in Denver for eight and a half years, watching it flourish as he’s pursued his own successes. Here’s what he told us about living in the Mile High City, working at a start-up and chasing a bigger dream to do what he really loves.
Goooooooooood morning, Denver! It’s a beautiful Thursday morning filled with sunshine and endless possibilities. It may only be Thursday, but you’re so close to the weekend you can practically taste it! Tastes real nice.
However, we at Innovators Peak know that sometimes you may have no idea what’s going on this weekend. But don’t you worry; The Denver Lowdown and EveryBlock are here to lend a helping hand to you wonderful weekenders.
So get up, get out, and get planning on the weekend!
What better way to start the weekend than with people stripping for your entertainment? No, I’m not talking about strippers. I’m talking, of course, about burlesque, stripping’s weird, fun, artsy sister. The Colorado Burlesque Festival is entering its sixth year and is hoping to be “bigger and better than ever,” according to Denver local burlesque royalty Honey Touché. Special guests include Gail Winns (“The Original Twister”), Tiffany Carter (Miss Nude Universe 1975), Russell Bruner (2012 King of Burlesque) from Portland, and local Colorado favorite Midnite Martini (2014’s Miss Exotic World and the current Burlesque Hall of Fame Queen of Burlesque). Festival starts today and goes through the entire weekend. // 7:30 p.m., ticket prices vary, Lannie’s Clocktower Cabaret, 1601 Arapahoe St.
Young adults, fresh out of high school, have the opportunity to create a start up in 10 weeks. It’s part of the University of Denver’s Gateway to Business course, and in the span of the course, freshman and sophomores design, develop, test and market apps.
What do these kids know about business? Plenty, according to Dr. Stephen Haag, who has seen the creativity and performance of a generation that Time magazine famously called the “Me Me Me Generation.” Haag is a Professor in Residence in the Department of Business Information and Analytics at the university’s Daniels College of Business. Haag says his students are the “smartest group of kids I’ve ever seen – an unbelievable group of problem solvers.”
Last month, Gov John Hickenlooper, in a remarkable show of innovation and faith in good science, signed HB 1129, a bill that would fund the implementation of, what Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp calls, “a revolutionary” early-warning system. This system is capable of predicting the direction and scope of wildfires 12 to 18 hours in advance. (whaaaaaaat?!) Yeah, talk about innovative technology.
The system, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (the kind of guys you think would know a thing or two about this subject), uses data from weather patterns, surrounding land, etc., analyzes it, and is able to predict with relative accuracy whether a blaze will shift in its course. The data received from this system would then be transferred to Colorado’s aerial firefighting fleet and would be fully implemented by 2016. This system is also capable of predicting floods, but that’s probably something to look at further down the road.
Fires? Floods? What else is this ambiguously named “system” capable of? Could it predict sudden storms? Landslides? Avalanches? Where does it stop? How many hundred of thousands of lives can we save with a little analysis of weather patterns and landscapes? This is simple science people! (okay, probably not that simple, but it makes for good rhetoric).
The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world. With a federal imprisonment rate that’s jumped 15 percent in 10 years, our criminal justice system has proven to be costly and ineffectual.
Illinois is inspiring change on a federal level with their prison-diversion program and paving the way for a bill that could potentially reduce crime and taxpayer costs. This program connects low-level and drug offenders with community-based treatment and works to reform offenders, rather than punish them. On a federal level, this practice could revolutionize the justice system, as well as public safety.
Visit The Idea Forge to read more about this new innovation in criminal justice.
The creation of Rework America, a jobs-based program marshaled by a number of heavy hitters here in Colorado, feels like a script stolen out of House of Cards’ America Works episode. And while Frank Underwood’s fictitious universal employment program pushed aside bipartisan support—as he is wont to do—Rework America relies almost solely on collaboration at this juncture.
A star-studded panel at the Commons on Champa, which included LinkedIn co-founder Allen Blue, Markle Foundation CEO Zoe Baird, a guest appearance by our own Gov. Hickenlooper, and a host of other for profit and nonprofit leaders in Colorado and around the U.S. were here to unveil this program that seeks to train and employ middle-skill workers.
“In the next couple of decades, it’s going to be all about talent and how to get people trained properly,” Hickenlooper said. “We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here, but we are going to have something that works better than the wheel, that rolls faster, has less friction, is more nimble and can evolve much more rapidly.”
A co-working space with slick cubicles, shared desk spaces, and small private offices. Some of you have seen the scene. Apple laptops are ubiquitous. A coffee bar is present. The aesthetic is modern, at times, minimalistic. Yet, Green Spaces, a co-working space on 26th and Larimer, is the black sheep, the outlier that doesn’t play by conventions or aesthetic accord. In a word, it’s eclectic and that’s just how founder/owner Jennie Nivens intended it to be.
“I like the desk areas, because each individual or company can decorate their own space,” says Nivens, as she walks through old furniture warehouse. This serves a dual purpose, providing the member its own personal identity and keeping furniture and resource costs low for Niven.
How cool would it be to be able to watch a ball game from the dugout? I’m not talking about your kid’s little league game. I’m talking about watching a legitimate baseball game. Imagine being in the Rockies’ dugout, sitting on the right-hand side of manager Walt Weiss, seeing the game how he sees it, keeping up with every statistic you need like you’re part of the team.
Imagine being able to trump every one of your buddies when it comes to a sports debate. Sure, they can tell you it’s time to trade Jorge De La Rosa—but can they tell you he’s got 60 strikeouts in eight games this year with a 4.59 era? Can they tell you how that might play out going into the next series? Can they keep up with all of the stats they need for their fantasy baseball matchups for the night at once?
Not as well as you can. That’s because you have X1 and they’re like Rob Lowe and they’ve got DirecTV or some other piece of tacky satellite junk on their roof. Good for them.
The other day, my boss came to me and told me to write something for Innovators Peak on Independence Day. So, of course, I went through the typical brainstorm and came up with some ideas:
-10 Things to Do in Denver this Fourth of July
-7 Innovative Ideas for Your Fourth of July Barbecue
-Best Spots to Watch Fireworks in Colorado this Weekend
-Top 10 Ways You Might Blow Your Head Off with Fireworks this Saturday
What are we, BuzzFeed? Actually, that last one probably could have been pretty cool—but sometimes, just sometimes, I like to think that we can be a little bit better than listicles every holiday. So what’s something that we never really think about on Independence Day that we probably should? Let’s go back to the basics and see what we can find.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
That’s what the men who signed that document were declaring. It was a victorious day—and now every Fourth of July we celebrate it with barbecues, fireworks, those Budweiser cans with the American flags on them, picnics, and family reunions.
Let freedom ring, amirite? For many, I suppose. But what about for those who were not created equal by the old white guys who wrote that declaration? What about the Africans that they brought over involuntarily as slaves? Better yet—what about those that were native to this land and had it pulled out from under them by these guys?
The Fourth of July is all about fireworks, barbecuing and block parties, but it didn’t begin this way. As a country we have advanced from rodeos, to parades with floats, to hot dog eating contests and everything in between. With the hundreds of technological advances happening every year, who knows what the future of 4th of July holds?
We’ve got some bold, yet (maybe) realistic predictions.
We’ve all sat down in a field gazing at the stars and fireworks on the Fourth of July. It’s #classic. Imagine a field of people wearing virtual reality, Oculus Rift-like devices watching their own display of fireworks. Fireworks are often cancelled or postponed due to inclement weather. With a virtual firework display, you can watch fireworks in any weather, at any time of day, anywhere. You could be in someone’s yard in Georgia watching virtual fireworks that replicate an extravagant Japanese display. Sounds a little ridiculous and awkward but hey, that’s the future for you.
America, now is the time to come together as a nation. Now is the time to reach across the aisle, at our countrymen of all genders, races, religious backgrounds, sexual orientations, and throw the biggest, red, white, and blue, patriot-cheering, terrorist-stomping, gay-marriage-legalizing, hot-dog-contest-eating, American birthday bash to really stick it to the freedom haters.
Imagine Mr. T’s head on a bald eagle’s body (#TrueDetectiveSeason2) … and fireworks. And, like, a cheeseburger or something.
This weekend, it’s America’s weekend, baby.
It isn’t America if there isn’t any beer. This Friday, check out the Blake Street Tavern for some Red, White, & Beer Olympics. Naturally, there’s Beer Pong, Ladder Golf, Cornhole, Flip Pong, Flip Cup, and Beer Pong Basketball. You know. The classics. So assemble your most patriotic beer-loving friends, set up a team of four or small group of two or three, and show just how American you can get with beer. (photo) // 1 p.m., $25 per person, $80 per team, Blake Street Tavern, 2301 Blake St. Ste 200
Eight months pregnant and nearing the launch of a keystone initiative for her four-year old company, Jen Durkin, the founder of Project Travel, lacks no energy. She’s glowing, even, and waxing on matters from being a female founder to larger plans on how to integrate airlines into her SaaS platform called Via (Vee-a not Vie-a). The Boulder-based company came to Colorado via Chicago (Wilco-song-pun unintended) where Durkin, along with her co-founder Samantha Martin, laid the foundation for their travel-based company that initially used a crowdsource funding model to finance students studying abroad.
“Sam was traveling around the U.S. taking a break from her international education career. She found me on a site that no longer exists. It was couchsurfing for entrepreneurs, called Startup Stay. And over wine and hookah, she basically helped me understand what I always knew – there was something beyond fundraising,” says Durkin.
About six months later, Martin had moved out to Chicago and the duo entered CoolHouse Labs, an accelerator located in Ann Arbor, MI. After graduating from the 12-week program in Summer of 2013 and a refreshed vision, they took stock of the startup cities.
The Home Tour, founded by singer-songwriter Mary McBride, reveals how experiencing music can relieve those in pain. These interactive performances featuring local and nationally recognized musicians help engage a lost audience into an art form created from authentic and genuine design. A panel discussion, “Rock ‘n Roll That Heals” was held at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven’s Yale Art Gallery to discuss the impact the foundation has made globally.
The tour, founded four years ago, isn’t hastily assembled. A 10-phase process ensures objectives are met and positive outcomes are reached. The band serves to audiences in the U.S. living in “non-traditional” housing, which shelters the homeless, prisoners and veterans, while focusing on healthcare communities caring for patients with HIV/AIDS and mental illness.