Innovators Peak

Food, Games, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: A Taste of Colorado Kicks Off Today

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 12:06:28 -0400

Labor Day weekend marks the end of another beautiful, sunny summer and one of the last three-day weekends for a while. So, it’s only appropriate that you go out with a bang – which you can do by checking out a Taste of Colorado 2015. It’s four days of stuffing your face with incredible food, listening to live music by award-winning musicians and being in the presence of half a million other people looking to close out the season right.

A Taste of Colorado kicks off on Friday, September 4, at 11:30 a.m. at the Civic Center Park in Downtown Denver. We’ll definitely be heading down, mostly because we don’t want to miss:

The food – More than 50 local restaurants will be serving up fresh, flavorful food throughout the festival. We’re talking Wild Game Gourmet Burgers that contain buffalo, wild boar, camel and alligator meat (among others), white chocolate raspberry cupcakes, Chicago-style hot dogs and cinnamon sugar popcorn, just to name a few items on the menu. Another bonus: lots of drinks to choose from – beers, soft drinks, teas, wines and vodka and gin. Check out the menu; you’re bound to see something that strikes your fancy.

The shopping – Great for the singletons, couples and families? That’s a hard thing to balance, but Taste of Colorado does it. Original art and hand-made jewelry booths create an opportunity to grab something that you won’t find in a mall, and the Arts & Crafts Marketplace offers face painting, temporary tattoos, henna, clothing and accessory booths and lots more.

The music – It’s kind of a big deal. Incredible acts like multi-gold and platinum album-producing Kansas and Grammy-nominee and “Same Love” singer Mary Lambert are scheduled to rock out on the Taste of Colorado stages. Oh, and don’t forget about Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, who just released a new album last year and currently tour the world to continue delivering great music to their fans, decades into their career.

Come on, admit it: at least one of those options sounded like something you’d want to do with your time this Labor Day weekend. So, get a group text going and get your friends and family together to close out the summer.

Innovative Colorado Companies Take a Stand for Change

Fri, 04 Sep 2015 09:28:21 -0400

By Dani Shae Thompson

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

At the Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) Summit 2015, four Colorado change-makers proved that they exemplify what Alexander Hamilton, Peter Marshall, or a whole host of other notable folks (quote origin is under heavy debate) encouraged in this quote.

These four driven individuals were panelists for the COIN session, “Taking a stand for change”, during which, they explained what they are doing to encourage positive social change. Their organizations are reaching people all around the world—but they were proud to say they all got their start right here in Colorado.

Let’s get to know them a bit more…

Jack Barker: President, Innovative Water Technologies

Stands for: Access to clean water.

Rocky Ford, Colorado is well known for its cantaloupe and watermelon farms, beautiful southern-Colorado landscape, and its innovative water filtration systems…?

The Sunspring is a self-contained, solar powered, microbiological water purifier invented by Jack Barker. Each unit is capable of filtering 5000 gallons of water per day for 10 years. The large metal tubes are built in Rocky Ford, and shipped to locations around the world to provide safe drinking water to communities in need.

The first Sunspring was installed in Haiti in 2009, just before the massive 7.0 earthquake devastated the country in January 2010. After the quake, Sunspring and their partners at GE installed more units that now serve over 200,000 people each day.

“Over a billion people in the world don’t have access to safe drinking water….we take our drinking water for granted, but their choices are no water or dirty water…in the 6 years since we started Innovative Water Technologies, our systems have treated over 10 billions of now clean water around the world.”

“Social entrepreneurship is the hardest job you will ever love.” Well put, Jack Barker! #COIN2015 pic.twitter.com/VpupkJJSEA
— Kaakpema (@kyelpaala) August 28, 2015

Daniela Ibarra-Howell: CEO, Savory Institute

Stands for: Empowering people to help mitigate climate change.

Grasslands cover 1/3 of our land on Earth, but they’ve been disappearing at a rapid rate. What is causing so many grassland ecosystems to become deserts?

In the 1960’s, Allan Savory, a Zimbabwean wildlife biologist, found an answer to that question—poorly managed livestock farms. He also figured out a way to fix the problem with a style of holistic management that mimics the way large herds would naturally graze on the land.

“Grasslands are very ignored by agriculture agendas, but their potential for addressing some of the biggest global issues that we face today from climate change, food and water insecurity, and poverty is tremendous,” Ibarra-Howell said.

The Savory Institute was founded in Boulder, Colorado in 2009 by Savory and other land management experts to educate farmers about holistic planned grazing (Learn more about it in the Savory Institute’s explanatory video.

To do this, “Savory Hubs” are established to provide training and support for farmers, ranchers, and land managers who want to redevelop their grasslands. Currently, 30 Hubs exist ranging from North and Central America to Africa and the Middle East. By 2025, the Savory Institute will have 100 Savory Hubs around the world—they estimate these hubs will affect 1 billion hectares of land, or ⅕ of the grasslands of the world.

@SavoryInstitute “30% of world is made up of grasslands. 70% is degraded.” Save the grasslands, people. #COIN2015
— Daniel Webster (@dan_webster_jr) August 26, 2015

Jeff Macco: Founder and CEO, SeedPaths

Stands for: Helping young adults find success through tech education.

Could you learn to develop software applications using JavaScript, CSS3, or HTML5 in 8 weeks? That’s exactly what Jeff Macco expects students can achieve during their 2 months with SeedPaths.

SeedPaths is a Denver-based software boot camp whose goal is to teach local low-income youth basic programming skills that can land them a job as a professional technologist within 90 days of graduating.

Macco got the idea for SeedPaths while running a software company. He was having trouble finding a replacement for one of his developers, and realized that there are plenty of young people out there who could learn the in-demand, skilled workers he and many other tech companies needed. The tech boot camp trend has been on the rise for a few years now, and for good reason—it’s working.

“[One of our first graduates] had one thing I’ve never had in my life—and I have an MBA—he had 3 job offers at one time to be a software developer,” Macco said.

In fact, of SeedPaths first 76 program graduates in 2014, 91% found a job within 90 days, and their average salary is $35,000—a 200% increase compared with their salaries before the program.

SeedPaths has completed 3 of their boot camps this year, and is working to expand their program in length and scope in the near future.

.@SeedPaths founder @JeffMacco reminds us: “It’s poverty, not stupid.” Experience is more important than education. #COIN2015
— Laura (@50by25) August 26, 2015

Kaakpema (“KP”)Yelpaala: Founder and CEO, Access.Mobile

Stands for: More accessible healthcare using mobile technology.

Founded by Yelpaala in late 2011, Access.Mobile is a digital health business that focuses on developing improved access to healthcare through technology.

Although they are based in Colorado, most of this organization’s work is being carried our in East Africa, Uganda, and Kenya.

Access.Mobile’s main platform, ClinicCommunicator, is a mobile service that connects doctors and patients and healthcare providers through text messaging.

In Kenya, cell phone ownership is at an all-time high of 82%–not far behind the U.S., which is at 89%. Other African countries are seeing similar spikes in mobile ownership, and 80% of Africans with cell phones use their device for texting (Statistics from Pew Global).

When using ClinicConnect, Doctors can send reminders to patients about appointments or when to take their prescriptions. Healthcare providers can also send messages to larger groups of patients to spread health education. Patients can schedule and manage their appointments.

So far, the service has been a success.

“Patients are going to their doctors and saying, ‘hey doc! I got the message from you.”—They’re excited about it because it’s creating a new bond with their doctors,” Yelpaala said.

60% + people in Africa get Healthcare thru private companies. Even rural poor seek private hospitals #COIN2015 @JHockenberry @kyelpaala
— InnovatioNews (@innov_news) August 26, 2015

For more information about the Colorado Innovation Network Summit visit them online and check out some of our other coverage from the two-day event!

Governor Hickenlooper: “We’re all leaders from time to time.”
Gov. Hickenlooper says “Colorado is the #1 destination for young entrepreneurs.”
The Next Giant Leap for Mankind
Colorado, What Revolution Will You Lead?
The Robots Are Coming!

How Microlending is Bringing Humanity Back to Business

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 11:58:38 -0400

By Daniel Webster Jr.

Julie Hanna, the Executive Chair of the Board of Kiva, opens with a salient statement during her presentation at The COIN Summit:

“I’m an Egyptian immigrant, and until I arrived in Silicon Valley, my journey to the front lines of the technology revolution began at the front lines of war. And my life had been defined by a different kind of access. A lack of access and that shaped the way I came to view the world.”

She went on to explain that her family fled to America during Black September, a year long civil war between Jordanians and Palestinians. Here they faced a lack of resources for immigrants, her mother and father taking on 2-3 jobs to clothe, feed, and provide an education for their kids.

Her philosophy is not bitterness over this childhood, but a quote attributed to Rye Barcott: “Talent is universal, but opportunity is not.”

On Women’s Equality Day, Hanna is a paradigm speaker. Graduating from University of Alabama Birmingham with a Computer Science degree, she packed her bags and went to Silicon Valley at age 22, and over the course of her career she helped start five tech and software companies, and later contributing funds to startups like Lyft and and Lending Club.

Nevertheless, her passion is now wrapped up into Kiva, a peer-to-peer microlending website that has provided over $700 million in crowdsourced loans all over the world. Moreover, 80% of Kiva’s loans go to women entrepreneurs.

She points to the godmother of Kiva, Elisabeth Omalla, who was the first entrepreneur provided a loan of $500.

“Her business plan consisted of taking a bus ride to Lake Victoria, and her dream was to buy fish directly from the fisherman to cut out the middlemen and buy a fridge for larger volumes of fish. One bus, one refrigerator, she scaled her business and profits.”

In case you’re wondering about repayment of Kiva’s loans, the success rate is 98%. Kiva’s social and environmental conscious platform is cut from the same cloth as the Grameen Bank, the microfinance organization in Bangladesh founded by the Nobel Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus. 1,400 crowdfunding marketplaces have cropped up since Kiva, Hanna’s presentation showing a cross-section of those companies.

She says little about what’s next for Kiva, but believes that enabling ways for the 6.7 billion global phone subscribers to access loans is still a ripe area for microlending and crowdfunding, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“If we can access people [by cell phone] without indoor plumbing much less indoor banking, where there’s no ATM, no loan officers, no computers, there’s no reason we can’t reach billions of entrepreneurs around the world,” she says.

The panacea she says isn’t in one organization, but a shift of cultural and socioeconomic activity – a balance she suggests:

“There’s a middle way to harness the power of technology and the principles of the business of the marketplaces and align them for humanity’s greater good.”

And while that may seem like some stereotypical-entrepreneurial-speak, perhaps a previous statement she quoted is the one to remember if the globe is truly bring humanity to business and business to humanity.

“Talent is universal. Opportunity is not.”

The Denver Lowdown: A Very Special Taylor Swift Edition

Thu, 03 Sep 2015 09:28:23 -0400

This is the weekend, my friends. This is what we’ve all been waiting for. This Sunday, Denver will be graced by the presence of none other than the pop of country music, the slayer of Yeezy, the princess of nice, and the girl we all wish we could be. The haters may hate-hate-hate, but we love-love-love Taylor Swift.

Yes, my fellow Swifities. Our favorite pop star will be performing her 1989 World Tour right here in Denver for TWO NIGHTS. This news has got us like:

I know, I know. I can barely contain my fangirl, it’s ridiculous. But while T-Swizzle making her much-awaited appearance is THE event of the weekend (Month? Year? Ever?!?!), there are other pretty awesome events (brought to you by EveryBlock) going down that you should totally check out. It’s okay, Tay Tay approves.

Friday / Taylor Swift Day Eve

Nan Desu Kan

For all you Anime fans of the Rockies, Nan Desu Kan is THE premier Anime event to be at. There’s so much to do, between AMV contests where editors flex their creative muscles, game rooms with intense head-to-head matches, cosplay and costume contests where beginners and masters show off their skills, concerts where you can listen to different artists from all over Japan, dance parties, panels, and so much more in the extensive world that is Anime. This is a three-day event, including Taylor Swift’s shows, so you have quite the decision to make…

// 7 a.m., $30 at door, or $50 for weekend, Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, 1550 Court Plaza.

First Friday

Yes, folks, it’s the first Friday of September, so you know what that means right? Right? Of course you do, it’s another aptly named First Friday! Everyone will meet at The Village Cork for wine and snacks before everyone heads out for the art walk. The Sand Dollar Gallery and Bell Studio Gallery will be featured this First Friday, so be sure to check it out! // 5:30 p.m., Free, The Village Cork, 1300 S. Pearl St.

Saturday / Taylor Swift Day I

Denver Art Museum Free Saturday

Between First Friday, Taylor Swift, and this, it’s quite the art filled weekend! The First Saturday of every month is Free Day at the Denver Art Museum. I mean, it’s free, why NOT go? Right, Tay Tay?

// 9:30 a.m., FREE, Denver Art Museum, 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway.

Arabic Conversation and Practice

It’s always good to learn a new language, but everyone learns Spanish, French, and German in school, so why not something a little more challenging? Join a bunch of folks and take a swing at learning Arabic. Work on the alphabet, basic vocabulary, learn how to ask where the library is, etc. It’s important to broaden your horizons, so try tackling a new language! // 11 a.m., Free, Café Europa, 76 S. Pennsylvania St.

Guys, relax, we’ll get to our girl Taylor soon!

I said, RELAX.

Don’t you sass me! Anyway.

Evolutionary Astrology 101

When we need some guidance in our life, where do we look? Our friends? Our religious leaders? Yahoo forums? No, we look to the stars. Using concrete examples, Evolutionary Astrologer Duncan McCollum will describe how Evolutionary Astrology helps us manage life and how that relates to the path our soul travels down. No previous experience is necessary. // Noon, $5, First Spiritual Science Church, 3375 S. Dahlia St.

Sunday / Taylor Swift Day II

A Taste of Colorado

Where my foodies at? It’s time for everyone’s favorite annual food event, “A Taste of Colorado,” featuring over 50 food venues, free samples, free concerts, and free admission. Everyone’s going to meet at 13th and Broadway where you’ll then seek out your favorite foods and stuff your face to your heart’s content. There’s even a special guest, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts!

This will be a huge event, so be sure to get there early before all the good snacks disappear. // 6 p.m., Free, Civic Center Park, 14th & Broadway.

TAYLOR SWIFT

This. This is the weekend, my fellow Swifties. Two days. Two shows. Two GREAT shows. Finally, we will get to see the single most talented, goofiest, naturally stunning, tall, blonde, gorgeous princess of pop music.

So ya’ll better be there, or T-Swizzle herself will have to personally revoke your Swifty card.

I’m just playing, she’d never do that.

Are you all completely out of your heads excited?! Are you?! I’ll see you there. // 7:30 p.m., $35.50 starting price, Pepsi Center, 1000 Chopper Circle.

Looks Like Grandma is About to Join Tumblr

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 12:04:48 -0400

Think about your mom or grandma. She might be part of the “Greatest Generation,” or a Baby Boomer, so she sure as hell has seen a lot in her life. She’s seen multiple wars, the Civil Rights Movement and the birth of rock music. And now, she’s getting Internet access and she’ll be able to join in on all the Facebooking, Googling and Netflixing that’s second nature to Millennials.

From the looks of it, Comcast is on a mission to:

Make sure any low income senior citizen in San Francisco who wants access to the Internet can have it at the extremely affordable $9.95 per month, plus tax

Teach said senior citizens how to use the Internet so they’re not intimidated once they gain access to it

Comcast made the big announcement about their new Internet Essentials pilot program last week at the Lady Shaw Senior Center in San Francisco. Around 60 seniors were there for the occasion and I can tell you first hand that they were thrilled with the news.

If you’re like me, you may take for granted having access or the ability to pay for Internet service. I spend hours scrolling through the abyss that is the World Wide Web and never give another thought to what life might be like without it. I can video chat with my family members across the country, order groceries and have them delivered and yes, even sign up for a dating site or two.

And now thousands of senior citizens in San Francisco will be able to do the same. This is a big deal; it’s going to make the lives of senior citizens easier, because they deserve it. But be prepared: Grandpa may ask you for dating advice very shortly. Tell him to go with the black dress pants because they’re very slimming.

Comcast rolled out their Internet Essentials program back in 2011. Initially it was intended to provide online access to children of low income families. Since then, the program has connected more than 280,000 low income Californians to Internet access at home, more than 90,000 of which live in the Greater Bay Area. Eligible seniors will not only have affordable Internet service, but will also be provided with a free router. My question is: When will they have this program for 30-something reporters? I promise I’ll Skype with my mom and dad more!

Comcast Senior Executive Vice President, David Cohen, flew to San Francisco specifically to unveil Comcast’s new endeavor and he told me that “San Francisco, because of the leadership of Mayor Ed Lee, the leadership of his Department of Aging and his focus on broadband adoption among seniors made this city the ideal candidate.”

It was clear that this wasn’t only a business announcement for Mr. Cohen; it was something that he took pride in. He told me he was touched when he spoke with a woman who participated in the Palm Beach Internet Essentials program, which was rolled out earlier. She was an immigrant from Jamaica who rarely spoke with the family she left behind simply because she couldn’t afford the costs for long distance phone calls or broadband service. Since becoming a part of the Internet Essentials program, she now Skypes with friends and family every day.

The Internet Essentials program isn’t just providing Internet access; it’s also providing education. One of the biggest obstacles between senior citizens and broadband use is intimidation. The web can seem like a foreign, alien world if you’ve never been exposed to it before. If all goes well, the Internet will make life much easier for these senior citizens.

At the launch in San Francisco, the excitement in the crowd was palpable. Executive Director of the Department of Aging and Adult Services, Anne Hinton, was ecstatic during the announcement. It’s something she knows the community has been wanting for a long time. She said, “If you bring technology to people and you understand what it is that they are wanting, to visit their families, to see their grandchildren on Facebook or to explore genealogy, whatever it might be, people will jump at it.”

And jump they did. Many in the room were smiling ear-to-ear and applauding the fact they would all soon be a part of the information highway. One senior citizen who recently received Internet access told the crowd that she’s no longer afraid to use the Internet and has even found some great crocheting tips online. Expect her quilting game to rise to a whole new level. And, expect the other senior citizens that are part of this program to also discover a whole new world that they can be a part of on the Internet.

As Comcast continues to learn from these pilot programs Mr. Cohen hopes we’ll be seeing this type of Internet access spread across the country overtime. And if that’s the case we can gleefully expect more YouTube videos just like this:

The White House Asks: Are You Up to the Challenge?

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 12:02:20 -0400

By Daniel Webster Jr.

Resiliency Post Hurricane Sandy. Robocall elimination. Maximizing parts of space shuttles. Revamping Personal Protective Suits. All have been challenges issued by the federal government for the general public to solve. And all have been answered by individuals and organizations, not just in the U.S., but all around the world. For the winning solver, money is granted based on the size of the impact challenge. A win-win for all who are involved.

“Do you know what the Orteig Prize is,” asks Jenn Gustetic, the Assistant Director for Open Innovation at the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, of the COIN Summit’s audience sitting in the Seawell Grand Ballroom.

A smattering of hands raise up.

“Do you know who Charles Lindbergh is?”

Most of the hands in the room shoot up.

“We remember Lindbergh, but not the prize, but the prize is why we know about Lindbergh,” referring to the $25,000 the pilot won for his non-stop flight from New York to London.

While impact challenges are nothing new to governments or despots, going all the way back to Napoleon Bonaparte who incentivized canning technologies to keep his troops fed while they moved across the continent, the charge for innovating in highly bureaucratic systems is difficult.

Impact challenges, however, had been stalled for quite some time in the U.S. until President Obama made a commitment in 2009 stating:

“The federal government should use high risk, high reward policy tools such as prizes and challenges to solve tough problems.”

In 2010, challenge.gov was created, a platform for 75 agencies across the federal government that seeks solutions for technical, creative, and scientific problems from the public.

“This platform levels the playing field. So when you’re playing in a prize competition, where everybody’s got the same deadline, everybody’s got the same performance criteria, new players feel like they can enter our market and enter that competition in a way that they wouldn’t feel comfortable in an RFP environment,” says Gustetic.

For example, The Department of Veteran Affairs put a call out to adapt gaming controllers on the Wii to conform to those with limited ranges of motion and limit multiple button pushing. The prize is $10,000.

For those Denverites worried about sinkholes opening up on their street corner, one previous challenge prize (and currently under review) calls for new technology that can detect sinkholes in all types of soil conditions.

Gustetic seems anxious to let the audience see as many of these examples as possible in her time on the main stage. Her litany of competitive examples include a desalination project, how to protect health workers on the front lines, and how to leverage underutilized IP for breast cancer treatment.

With over 150,000 solvers so far, $120 million in prizes issued, and a coveted Innovations in American Government award granted by Harvard’s Kennedy Center, challenge.gov is challenging the conventional perspective of the feds.

“All sorts of products and innovations can come out of challenges and prizes as a tool, and this is actually a case where the government is a lead experimenter,” says Gustetic.

Top 8 Female Owned Businesses in the Denver Area

Wed, 02 Sep 2015 11:42:07 -0400

With the 2016 U.S. presidential election right around the corner, gender equality issues–from the pay gay to paid maternity leave to reproductive rights–are hot button issues that can’t be ignored by the candidates. Denver, however, is leading the pack, not only being one of the eight best job markets for women, but also touting a 68 percent growth of women-owned businesses from 2007 to 2014, such that the number of women-owned firms is increasing at a rate 1.5 times the national average.

So what are these awesome female-owned businesses? And who are these trailblazing women who are leading the way in their companies as well as their communities?

1. Sylvia Theisen, Founder of She Takes The Lead

From working as a psychotherapist counseling employees of Fortune 500 companies to closing more than $100 million in sales while working in real estate, Sylvia Theisen has had a varied career and shows no signs of stopping. Founder of She Takes The Lead, Theisen provides training and coaching to women in business and speaks to organizations who believe in empowering their female employees. She was also a keynote speaker for the 2015 Colorado SBDC Women’s Small Business Conference.

2. Ivette Dominguez, Owner/President of Alpine Buick

As one of six Hispanic female Buick GMC dealership owners among the 4,000-plus GM dealerships in the U.S., Ivette Dominguez undoubtedly stands out as a self-made woman with a record of excellence in the auto industry. After purchasing the dealership in 2005, she has won numerous awards for being business savvy, including awards from GM, the Denver Business Journal and the Girl Scouts of Colorado.

She also founded The Alpine Difference in 2011, a program that recognizes and funds nonprofits making a difference in the lives of women and families in the Denver area, donating $10,000 each quarter to a worthy charity or charities.

3. Lizelle van Vuuren, Founder and CEO of Effectively, Cofounder of StartupDenver and Women Who Startup

A leader in the Denver startup community, Lizelle van Vuuren is a 10-year veteran of design, strategy, marketing, business growth and innovation for tech companies and startups. After cofounding StartupDenver, a community platform for startups and entrepreneurs, and Women Who Startup, a monthly event series devised to help educate, empower and connect female entrepreneurs, van Vuuren founded Effectively, a marketing services agency that launches ideas and grows startups, companies, nonprofits and organizations. The agency is set to launch this fall.

4. Lisa Schomp, Owner/President of Ralph Schomp Automotive (the group that owns Schomp BMW, Schomp Honda, Schomp MINI, as well as Fay Myers Motorcycle World)

A third-generation owner of a family-owned dealership, Lisa Schomp worked her way from the bottom-up to become owner and president of the number one volume BMW franchise in the region. With a strong commitment to business ethics, Schomp has been honored with numerous business awards from TIME Magazine and Automotive News.

Under her leadership Schomp Automotive has been listed as a Top Woman-Owned Business in Colorado by the Denver Business Journal and the Colorado Business Magazine multiple times. Schomp is well-known for her community efforts and also supports causes including allocating a percentage of their marketing budget for public education, a state safe driving program and the Children’s Hospital Burn Unit, among others.

5. Meredith Vaughan, Owner and CEO of Vladimir Jones

From 1999 as Director of Insight to 2008 as President, Meredith Vaughn not only helped Vladimir Jones, an advertising agency, expand to international client work, but also grew billings by more than 600 percent for the company. Named CEO in 2014, Vaughn has continued to strive for creative excellence and agency growth, having worked with brands such as Sony PlayStation, Nissan Motors and Beringer Vineyards. Having previously worked in account planning at major advertising agencies on the east coast, Vaughn also has contributed articles to Ad Age.

6. Traci Lounsbury, Owner of Workplace ELEMENTS, LLC

As Principal and Owner of Workplace ELEMENTS, one of the top commercial interior products and services dealership in Colorado as well as one of the largest woman-owned businesses in the state, Traci Lounsbury has used her entrepreneurial acumen to help the company grow in size and revenue with annual sales upwards of $50 million. She’s received prestigious awards from Enterprising Women Magazine and Ernst & Young.

Before ELEMENTS, Lounsbury operated one of the nation’s largest manufacturer’s representative organizations before acquiring a small furniture dealership in 2002, which eventually merged with another dealership to become ELEMENTS. As someone who believes in pushing herself in new, uncomfortable directions, Lounsbury also contributes to the Denver community by sitting on the boards of multiple groups, including the Denver Children’s Home and the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the International Interior Design Association (IIDA), where she serves as Vice President of Professional Development.

7. Kathy Hagan Brown, Owner and Co-President of Karsh Hagan

After creating her first agency at age 26 and successfully running it for the next 25 years, Kathy Hagan Brown currently serves as Owner and Co-President of Karsh Hagan, a full service advertising and marketing agency that has consistently ranked among the best in Denver for almost four decades. In addition to fostering leadership and agency growth via creative ideas, Hagan Brown has supported various community initiatives, served as Chairman of the Denver Advertising Federation, been a member of the Women’s Foundation of Colorado Marketing Committee and currently serves on the advisory board for Smashburger.

8. Celeste Ford, Founder and CEO of Stellar Solutions, Inc.

A respected member of the aerospace engineering industry, Celeste Ford worked for multiple major aerospace businesses including Scitor Corporation and Aerospace Corporation (where her work with NASA led to her Woman of the Year Award in 1984) before founding Stellar Solutions in 1995. A global provider of aerospace engineering expertise and a leader in government and commercial programs related to aerospace, Stellar Solutions includes not only a foundation for community-based organizations and charities, but also a humanitarian research and development division known as QuakeFinder, the world’s leading private earthquake forecasting research organization committed to finding methods for warning communities of impending disasters. Ford has earned multiple awards from Ernst & Young and Fortune and has also served on congressional commissions and panels focused on entrepreneurship and women in business.

These female business leaders in Denver demonstrate that one part of being successful is giving back to your community. As they build their businesses, they also build their communities: a lesson that every leader can apply.

Tip of the Peak: Hiring

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 15:45:56 -0400

(You can tell they all work together because they’re looking the same direction. Image.)

It’s that time of the month again where we check back in with some advice on how to run your startup. Last time, we talked about the exciting world of feline dating websites and how to navigate copyright in creating said sites.

This time, we’re talking about one of the most important factors in building a successful business: who you hire. Sure—the common perception may be that there are qualified people all over the place who need a job and will fall right into your lap, making it typically easier on the employer than the job seeker. I’m here to tell you that is not necessarily true—especially for startups.

Finding a good fit for what you’re doing can be tough, here are some things you should look for/keep in mind:

1. A culture fit

What kind of culture does your company have? Do you have an open office space with puppies walking around? Do you regularly go out for team happy hours because you genuinely enjoy each other’s presence? Or are you more of a reserved, quiet, and hard working office space? There’s no problem with any of these approaches, as long as you have the right people to carry it out. Keep in mind that you’re going to be spending just as much time with these people as you do with your family and best friends, so make sure you love them.

2. Inquisitive

Are they asking you as many questions in the interview as you’re asking them? A qualified candidate for a startup as hip and cool and respected as yours should make you want them as much as they want you. A jobseeker that is desperate enough to take the first job that makes them an offer probably isn’t all-that.

Hooray! James Franco’s brother showed up! Image.

3. Potential > record

Of course you want a hire to have a nice résumé and record of experience, but that isn’t all that matters. A lot of college grads have incredible amounts of potential but no incredible amount of experience. It’s your job to find this potential and mold it into the type of employee you want and need. You’re also likely to save a whole lot of money going with the potential over the fancy résumé that is probably looking for a much fatter salary.

4. A learner

What did your candidate learn from their last job? That’s important. Again—potentially more important than a résumé. A résumé is basically just words on a piece of paper. What someone can tell you about those words in an actual conversation speaks more to experience.

5. Versatility

The most helpful hires will be capable of taking on more than one role. They will, if necessary, put the company before themselves and do what needs to be done to help it move forward. If they learned things at their last job they should be more than willing to continue learning at this one. You want your new hires to grow with your company. You want the to continue moving up the ladder to build a strong core as you move forward. Versatility is a key factor in this.

Image.

Your hard work hiring will prove it’s importance when you have the right people you need to begin building your company. Hire it up!

Governor Hickenlooper: “We’re all leaders from time to time.”

Tue, 01 Sep 2015 12:19:22 -0400

During last week’s Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) summit, we had to opportunity to witness numerous sharp minds share their thoughts, ideas and visions for the future. One of those sharp minds was Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper, who sat down with us to discuss Colorado’s entrepreneurial spirit and its place as a leader among the nation in all things cutting edge.

In part two of our interview with Gov. Hickenlooper, we get conceptual, dissecting the very meaning of innovation, the future of COIN and Colorado—plus, the governor gives some very good advice to those looking to think differently.

Innovators Peak: Do you find that, when talking about things like COIN, that the word “innovation” is hard to define?

Governor Hickenlooper: Innovation is doing anything different. It’s the same way that people talk all the time about leadership. What is leadership? I think we just keep distilling it and leadership is any time you persuade someone to do something they weren’t originally planning to do; to believe something they didn’t believe before.

The beauty of that is everybody can be a leader because we all persuade people from time to time and we all are leaders from time to time. That’s one of the things we’re looking on how to infuse that into COIN, because COIN is basically leadership.

When I ran for mayor in 2003, I had never even ran for student council. I saved all of my money and did TV ads and they told me, “You can’t go up on TV until you have enough money to stay up the whole six weeks or the whole five weeks, whatever the last remaining time of the campaign was, because then you get in there for a couple of weeks, stop, then someone might do an attack ad and you’re not ready to respond.”

We went up three weeks before any of my opponents did and everyone thought I was crazy. The ad was funny and successful and all of sudden people started giving me money who I hadn’t been fundraising from before. And all of a sudden I had money to do more TV ads. It was the smartest thing I ever did.

It was risky too, right?

It was innovation! It was risky but I’m not sure how risky it was. I guess it was off the beaten path of established politics in Colorado.

Where do you see COIN progressing in the future?

We really have to build stronger links to people in the rest of the year; use COIN is a kind of framework. Exactly a year ago, we did a program in Fort Collins, where Colorado State University is. We held a CSU Agriculture Innovation Summit and it was hugely attended, people loved it. They coined the phrase, “Fort Collins is going to be the Silicon Valley for agriculture,” which is becoming prophetic. There’s all these tech companies in Fort Collins now. They’re starting up around agriculture.

If we never had COIN we would have never have done that. Down the road, hopefully COIN will be able to build more platforms to become self-sustaining. Kind of based around innovation but do more than just what COIN was doing by itself.

If you were to give one piece of advice to a leader — a mayor, a governor, or even a business — that wants to push the envelope around innovation and thinking differently, what advice would you give?

To me, the best innovations come out of relationships. It’s very rare that people will have ideas in a vacuum. It’s a eureka moment. There’s some part of a relationship that led them to say, “Alright, what if we did it this way?” That foundation is very powerful. My advice would be: don’t neglect relationships.

We were hearing that in the Think Tank earlier. Collaboration is the best way.

I had this idea. I worked for six months on it and I’d think about every unintentional consequence, look at it from every angle. Then the moment I sit down with one of my senior staff people and just read it to them, within five minutes it was a better idea.

The other person almost always thinks of something you didn’t. The great thing about innovation is that there really are two types: disruptive, this kind of revolutionary, transformational innovation; and incremental innovation, which is by far the way the world really improves.

People have been working on the same thing for 20 years and they’re just always improving and getting a little bit better. That’s kind of cool. It’s like swinging for home runs whether you’re trying to get on base.

Gov. Hickenlooper says "Colorado is the #1 destination for young entrepreneurs."

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 17:00:08 -0400

The Colorado Innovation Network (COIN) summit featured a slew of successful, wise, encouraging leaders from all over Colorado and the country, including none other than John Hickenlooper, the Governor of Colorado.

Serving since 2011, this visionary Democrat wants nothing more than to see the people in his state innovate, succeed and excel. We had the chance to sit down with him at the Capitol and talk about the state of Colorado, its authenticity, clean ethics and how he plans on attracting and keeping America’s entrepreneurs.

Innovators Peak: The whole point of this event — and the whole point of your governance — is to bring an entrepreneurial spirit to Colorado. What’s your plan to further this?

Governor Hickenlooper: We’re making Colorado the number one destination for young entrepreneurs. This goes back to when I was mayor of Denver, when it was apparent how much our community, and those young entrepreneurs, really care about music. So we have Red Rocks here — at 9,500 person capacity, it is without question the most beautiful natural amphitheater in the world. We used to use it three times a year and now we use it 110 times a year. We now have more live music venues in Denver than in Austin or Nashville.

We have a thousand miles of bike paths in metropolitan Denver now, 20 miles of which are completely finished, not on the shoulders of roads. And they’re tied into countless mountain bike trails.

So those kinds of things, these authentic experiences. We’ve been trying to push ourselves and at the same time reduce the barriers to entry. Getting rid of the red tape, making one-stop shops where you can start a business and fill out the forms of incorporation, know how much insurance you need to get; everything you need to do, do it in one place and get off and running. Make sure that this state is perceived as pro-business but with high standards, clean air, clean water and clean ethics.

Do you think there’s a correlation between healthy startup businesses and healthy lifestyles?

I think that the people that start businesses generally are optimistic; they are indefatigable. They’re determined, they don’t quit. They also have a kind of sense that they want to live their life the way they want to and I think a lot of that is about quality of life. The Kauffman Foundation, the number one foundation on business out of Kansas City, did a study on technology startups on a per capita basis. Out of the 300 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., four out of the top 10 are based in Colorado.

What was the original inspiration for the COIN summit?

I was at the Kellogg Innovation Network and they do a two-day innovation summit. When I got there, I saw that it’s a whole vertically integrated sight, like people who graduated from Kellogg’s business school. There was this loose network about how to use innovation to solve problems, but they don’t network.

I spoke with Mitra Bess, the Chief of Innovation for Price Waterhouse Coopers. I said, “We have 29 federal research laboratories in Colorado and we have Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado, Colorado State University. All of these have big research arms. Instead of doing an innovation network with just one university, why don’t we take all the different research labs and put them into one network that’s state-based, and then try to tie that into capital workforce and then entrepreneurship?”

She looked into it and said that it would be a great idea. I said, “Would you help support it and would you come to talk?” She comes every year. I think one of the reasons that Colorado’s being talked about in such positive ways is that we’ve been able to do things like this. It’s off the normal beaten track and I think they have real application. COIN is cool and people want to be a part of it. I think in 10 to 20 years, that network is going to be big and robust and people that have been part of COIN are going to get involved.

So how can we take that and make it a national initiative? Take what’s worked in Colorado and spread it out?

Once you make something like this work, I guarantee other states will follow. Almost like with urban biking: People see others in the street and want to get out of their cars and join. We’re just taking different kinds of research with some synergy between them by getting them from a bunch of entrepreneurs. My guess is most other states won’t do it because most other governors aren’t that interested in innovation in and of itself.

What lessons or practices have you learned from this startup community in Colorado that you think could be shared?

Well surely, trying to get them connected with government and borrow some of their employees from time to time. We had the flood of the century in September 2013 and needed to create a website that could reach everyone affected. All of the communications were down. So while they were staying with friends, we wanted to make sure that they could figure out what was working, what wasn’t and what they should worry about. We had this company that was galvanized on these little accelerators who created a killer website. It was very powerful and interactive, and people could get pictures of their house and belongings.

I think that’s what you need, an entrepreneur to step up and say, “This is an emergency and I’ll put aside my business right now and I’ll do what’s best for the state.”

Yes. An entrepreneur needs to know who to call. In this case, the entrepreneur called COIN because they were a part of the network. So often, people want to do things that are civic-minded, but they just don’t know who to call.

Check back in later with week with part two of our interview with Gov. Hickenlooper, where we discuss how COIN and an entrepreneurial spirit are shaping the future of Colorado as we know it.

You Are Cordially Invited...

Mon, 31 Aug 2015 09:54:57 -0400

You are cordially invited to Innovators Peak’s top pick for September’s innovation event of the month. It all goes down at The Commons on Champa on Saturday, Sept. 12, so grab your friends and put your thinking caps on because this panel and cocktail hour is sure to have you doing a lot of it.

The nonprofit sector is just beginning to experience a seismic shift, in Denver especially, toward innovation and entrepreneurship.

Harnessing Innovation for Social Good: Women Entrepreneurs Driving Positive Change in the Non-Profit Arena will be discussing and exploring solutions for nonprofits during this time of change as well as why we need to build sustainable non-profits that will continue strengthen our communities in the coming years.

Find out more specifically what types of issues the panel will be taking on in the incredible conversation we had with the panel’s moderator, Elizabeth Suarez, last week HERE.

The Commons has assembled an all-star panel of women leaders in the Denver area to get it done:

-Dr. Jandel Allen-Davis, VP of Government and External Relations for Kaiser Permanente

-Tiffany Payne, Director – Community Investment for Comcast West Division

-Tamra Ryan, CEO of the Women’s Bean Project

-Sonya Ulibarri, President and CEO of Girls Inc. of Metro Denver

Come for the awesome panel but stick around for the cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and incredible networking opportunities.

The best part is that it’s FREE. You can RSVP HERE and it’s not just plus one so be sure to bring your friends, coworkers, moms, and dads! It’s going to be a great time.

Don’t be the one to miss out!

Attention Denver: Put Your Wi-Fi to Good Use to Survive Another Monday

Fri, 28 Aug 2015 15:11:45 -0400

Unfortunately, Mondays are an inevitable price we pay for simply being alive. Because life without Wi-Fi is increasingly rare, however, that first day of the week back at work is a little more bearable, no matter what type of office you use.

Here are some tips for how to put your nearest Wi-Fi hotspot to good use, whether the results are actually helpful or if they just bring a smile to your face.

Find the closest brewery or beer garden to hit after work.

Actually, we’re willing to bet that you’ve already been to the closest one. In that case, go on an adventure and find a new place to check out. You’ll have it in your artillery of happy hour options for many Mondays to come.

Save an episode of your weekend binge-watch to look forward to during your lunch break.

Yes, it might have killed you to go to bed without watching that last episode of Dexter last night, but think about how happy you made today’s version of yourself. Not only do you have some quality entertainment to break up the boring minutiae of your day, but you also got an extra hour of sleep last night. Give yourself a high five.

Learn how to say “coffee” in another language, because why not?

Then get yourself some coffee, because you probably need it.

Challenge yourself to Google every single reference made by a coworker that you don’t understand all day long.

Is someone talking about a weird Star Trek language, or a celebrity meme that popped up over the weekend? The more nerds you’re surrounded by, the more time you’ll kill.

Engage a friend in a Snapchat war.

Compete to take the ugliest selfie or find the most random object in your immediate surroundings, and then quiz each other on the ins and outs of whatever featured live story Snapchat is offering today.

May your coffee be strong and your Monday be bearable.

The Denver Lowdown: The Kitten Kettlebell Riot Fest 2015

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 11:17:31 -0400

There comes a time in everyone’s lives when there must be a decision made. Some of those decisions are big, others are very small, but they are an obstacle that simply must be overcome. What’s the decision you ask? It’s what are you going to do this weekend?

Fear not, you indecisive weekend-goers, the fine folks at EveryBlock have come together with those of us at The Denver Lowdown to help narrow down those very decisions into a nice, neat list.

So, what’s going down this weekend at the Lowdown?

Friday:

Sunrise: Kettlebell Fundamentals

Ah the Kettlebell, that heavy weight thing with one handle that you’re not quite sure how to use. Well, if you’d like to learn how to work on your core, strength, and endurance with one super-heavy weight ball, then the Kettlebell is your jam. All sizes and abilities are welcome, if you’re new you can learn, if you’re intermediate you can improve, if you’re an expert you’re probably teaching the class. //5:45am, Free, Colorado Kettlebell Club Denver, 4697 E. Evans Ave.

Riot Fest Denver 2015

This is the main event this weekend, folks! Yes, it’s another Riot Fest! This year, Hip-Hop acts include Snoop Dogg, Run-DMC, Ice Cube, GZA, De La Soul, Cypress Hill, Yelawolf, and many more. Get ready for this sweet 3-Day music festival that’s one for the memories! //10:00pm, $99.98 for 3 Day Pass, National Western Stock Show, 4655 Humboldt St

Poolside Happy Hour!

The only thing better than happy hour, is happy hour by the pool. Dip a toe and have a drink with happy hour specials available all night long, live music, and a sweet sunset. //6:00pm, $1, Riviera at Breakers Resort, 9099 E Mississippi Ave

Saturday:

A Day with Jennifer Wu

We’re all about that #photoglife, and if you are too, you should totally check out this all-day seminar with professional photographer Jennifer Wu as part of Canon’s Explorers of Light program. Jennifer’s programs consists of three parts: Nature’s Elusive Beauty, Tips and Techniques, and The Amazing Night Sky – Shooting from Dusk to Dawn. Join other photogs as Jennifer takes you on a visual journey filled with tips on how to improve your little shutterbug self. //9:00am, $10, Davis Auditorium, Sturm Hall, University of Denver Campus, 2000 E Asbury

Speed Dating

Too weirded out by internet dates? Awkward about meeting new people? Want to have a nice, pleasant face-to-face meet with other people looking to meet other people? Have up to 20 dates with VIP Speed Dating at Jazz@Jack’s this Saturday! Find the one you may or may not love in just a few minutes. //6:00pm, $25, Jazz@Jack’s, 500 16^th St Ste 320

Pub Trivia Night

Food, drinks, nerds, and trivia. Show off how smart you are in front of your friends, or hilariously embarrass yourself in front of others—it’s all a good time at Darcy’s Restaurant and Pub! Keep your knowledge sharp and add a few drinks to the mix! //7:30pm, Free, Darcy’s Restaurant and Pub, 4955 S Ulster St

Sunday:

Coffee and Kitties

Coffee’s great, but can you improve it? The answer is, of course! By adding cats to the mix! Spend an hour or two on a lazy Sunday afternoon chatting with people while playing with some seriously adorable cats at the Denver Cat Company. Support a great local business and give some sweet animals some loving affection. //1:00pm, $5, Denver Cat Company, 3929 Tennyson St

The Artist’s Way Creativity Course

Are you a creative person, but blocked? Do you want to improve your creativity? Or do you simply want a creative space with other creative folks? Then you better head over to Artists at 802 for a creativity course like no other! //1:00pm, $199, Artists at 802, 802 Santa Fe Drive #1

Open Full Moon Ritual

It’s a full moon, people, things are about to get weird. Get back to our pagan roots this Sunday evening and honor the Sturgeon Full Moon, also known as the Green Corn Moon or the Grain Moon. Travel out to the Living Earth Center and get wild over the moon. //7:00pm, $5 suggested, Living Earth Church and Community Center, 6000 E Evans Ave, Building 3, Suite 009

There! now your weekend decisions have been made for you. You’re welcome. So grab your friends, family, cats, or whoever else you’d like to spend these beautiful few days with. It’s the weekend– enjoy it!

The Next Giant Leap for Mankind

Thu, 27 Aug 2015 10:13:46 -0400

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When I was a kid, the movie Apollo 13 scared the ever-loving bajeezus out of me.

The huge flames shooting out of the rockets. The weightlessness of space. And the thought that if something went wrong, there was nothing, no one there to help you.

Nowadays, those fears are still there, but they are immensely overcome by my wonder about space exploration and what humanity might look like 10, 100, even 1,000 years into the future.

So you can imagine my giddy, childish excitement as I sat down to hear Salvatore Bruno, president and CEO of United Launch Alliance talk about the future of spaceflight that’s emerging right from the heart of Colorado at COIN 2015. He kicked off his presentation quite humbly, I thought, considering the enormous responsibility he and his team are tackling.

“We are America’s ride to space. We are on the cusp of the true commercial potential of space,” Bruno said.

“And Colorado is going to transform it in fundamental ways. We’re getting ready to unleash a new business model that will revolutionize how we transport cargo to space, and allow us to build infrastructure piece by piece in space like never before. In your lifetime, you’re going to see things you haven’t even dreamed of or imagined yet.”

Bruno discussed the tremendous challenges of spaceflight and how to properly motivate a team of engineers who were tasked with achieving this incredible feat.

“It’s all about people,” said Bruno, about how he manages his team at ULA.

“They have such a vast capacity for creativity. And when you want to transform and go after a bright future, you have to paint a picture for your team about what that picture might look like. Then you give them permission to get out of the box and be creative.”

But ultimately, the mission is what kept them together, and allowed them to collaborate even if they were in competing companies.

“I had one of those moments, you know, 5 a.m., in my office thinking about the degree of transformation, and the speed at which we need to accomplish it, was unimaginable,” said Bruno. “But I got to know my team and there was so much pent up energy that I knew they could pull it off.”

Being one year into CEO at ULA, Bruno is still pushing his programs forward, even if he doesn’t receive much help from Washington. But he’s found private partnerships that are helping him and his team to keep innovating. He has spoken with every person in America who’s even sketched a rocket engine on the back of a napkin, and they’re using all that collaborative energy to drive his mission forward.

“It’s all about the mission. That’s what gets me up in the morning. We’re saving lives every day. We’re exploring the universe. We’re pushing the bounds of the human presence.”

It’s a huge mission, and it’s clear that Bruno is the perfect man for the job.

“Coming up with the strategy isn’t the hard part — have a vision, understand the market, that’s easy. The hard part is how to bring your people with you and support the culture change to make that possible.”

“Here on earth today, we toil and struggle in conflict, due to a shortage of resources. Yet right now above our heads, just beyond our grasp, we have resources beyond human imagination,” Bruno said.“It’s all about the mission. That’s what gets me up in the morning. We’re saving lives every day.

“We’re exploring the universe. We’re pushing the boundaries of the human presence.”

Colorado, What Revolution Will You Lead?

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 19:16:34 -0400

Not to be confused with the beer guy (though he did make it once), Mark Sirangelo CIO of Colorado and Corporate VP of Sierra Nevada Corporation, closed out the final panel of COIN 2015 with a discussion about where innovation is headed in Colorado and beyond.

He started by discussing the two big subject areas tackled in the XFINITY Innovation Think Tank, as well as panels throughout the two day summit: healthy lifestyles and advanced communities. Both of these big ideas are going to be tackled in the coming year with an innovative new crowdsourcing platform unique to Colorado.

Normally to solve the big issues at the state or federal level, the government would have come up with an idea and pitched it to the public. But Colorado had a different idea. They’re going to be opening a new platform called Imagine Colorado to ask the community to help them what Colorado could be. The state is ready to invest the money and time into solving problems across communities, why not give the people in the state a chance to voice what they want the government to look at?

“It’s a wonderful time for where we are with COIN and where we’re going,” said Mark about the state of innovation in Colorado. “So many wonderful ideas and so many wonderful people come here. Now let’s try to bring it out further so everyone can see the innovation happening in Denver and take it forward.”

Mark then went on to introduce Governor Hickenlooper, who often likes to throw out quotes in his speeches, with one from George Bernard Shaw.

“You look to the future and some people say why. Other people look into the future and say why not?”

The governor is one of those people who says why not. Why not have something like COIN? Why not reach out to the people of Colorado and ask them how they want to innovate? The governor start to speak about his hopes for COIN, and the collaborations he saw throughout the summit.

“I hope all the ideas that came through today and yesterday are cross-pollinating across all industries,” said Governor Hickenlooper as he closed out COIN 2015. “Government’s primary role is to be the convener. To make sure everyone who should be there, is there. And when good ideas come out of it, we should be implementing it in real time.”

The governor also spoke about how small communities want to invest in their local schools and infrastructure, but are often hindered by state-wide backlash. That’s why advancing communities was such an important topic during the summit, to look for ways to promote growth and innovation starting at the community level, and then growing outward.

The governor closed his interview by exhausting the essence of the people of Colorado, their incredible ability to take risks and their constant need to innovate.

That’s all from this year’s COIN summit, but you know Innovators Peak will continue to highlight the amazing spirit of Colorado and the incredible people that make it such an incredible place to live, work, and innovate.

The Robots Are Coming!

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 14:33:57 -0400

“01110011001011100101011 1001 1011101”

Translation: Robots are embedding themselves into our everyday lives. Better brush up on your binary.

Robotic technologies are going to enable us to do incredible things in the future. And one panel at COIN 2015 spent their time discussing the implications of robotics working their ways into our lives. Will they come in peace? Or do we have to start accepting our new robot overlords?

You’re probably thinking of the Google self-driving car, but we can also include most unmanned aerial vehicles into this category, even though we don’t like to categorize them that way because of their lack of mobility and robotic personalities.

One thing’s for sure, though: The robots are coming.

The bot talk kicked off today at the COIN Summit, led by Session Guide Leah Hunter, a technology writer for Fast Company. Joining her were a panel of experts: Alex Ferworn, Professor of Computer Science at Toronto, Canada’s Ryerson University; Tim Haynie, Founder of Spectrabotics; and Pramila Mullan, Senior Manager Infrastructure & Systems at Accenture Technology Labs.

Our tech experts began with a look into what fuels industrial robotics and glimpsed at the future of the robotics economy.

“The industrial Internet is about embedded sensors, cloud storage, and cloud computing coming together to fuel this industry,” said Pramila.

“What’s interesting in this industry is a lot of the emphasis is starting today with folks looking at operational efficiency: How do we take our existing assets and use them better? But that’s just the start of the journey. And it’s going to take us to our next destination, which is an outcome-based economy.”

“Outcome-based economy” simply means that instead of paying for services, we’re actually purchasing the outcome we desire. I.e., in healthcare, we pay physicians to keep us healthy instead of paying for a routine checkup. But that means we need to work smarter, using tools like wearables and other embedded sensors to gather and analyze data. That’s how we transform our workforce into the next generation, by empowering humans with robotic counterparts (wearables and UAVs).

But now we’re inching ever closer to a completely autonomous robotic workforce, where humans are the ones in control, or even simply monitoring the overall output, rather than micromanaging. It’s becoming more of a collaborative process, where humans are building machine-learning capabilities into robots so we can begin to step away and let them handle the menial and dirty tasks, while humans can focus on the high-level problem solving.

Think about the agriculture industry, where automation replaced a lot of the handwork that was taking place on farms. And those workers, once they were freed from the farm, were able to kick off the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution of our time is going to come down to data. Because the more we measure and show people and organizations we can capture data, the more they want. And faster!

“The biggest impact that drones have made in our society is in the incredible amount of data we can retrieve from them,” said Haynie about UAVs.

“They also have the added benefit of being able to fly at different altitudes, and fly whenever, and almost wherever, they want. But it’s all about the sensors. Better data leads to expanding public safety, increasing operating efficiencies, and enhancing situational awareness.”

In the past, it was governments that empowered the university system to make breakthroughs in these types of areas. But now, organizations like DARPA host competitions where they offer large cash prizes to the team with the best prototype. And, not surprisingly, their most recent competition focused on Robotics and their ability to help humans in dangerous situations, like being trapped in a collapsed building.

Ferworn discussed the DARPA challenge, and some of the challenges they face.

“I don’t care if a robot can turn a valve, or open a door, we want them to recognize us buried under the rubble and come save us,” said Ferworn about rescue ‘bots. “We’re still using the same technology that we’ve used to save people who are trapped since World War I: dogs. Because they have an incredibly refined sense of smell, they’re fast, and work for play.”

But Ferworn says there’s a lot we can learn from our canine companions, and how they save people trapped in rubble, that we can apply to future robotics. He even performed a live demonstration with a canine member of the Colorado rescue squad. The furry savior rushed under the stage to save the “trapped” human.

So how can we make humans want to use robotics, if there’s no stopping them?

Firstly, they’ll have to show us their advantages. People are only going to appreciate how robots are going to save them time or make their life easier. The right situation for robotics is in the dirty, dangerous jobs that humans should no longer be doing. Then, if we add in the computing technologies, artificial intelligence, and real-time streaming of data from UAVs, you’re met with an incredibly powerful robotic companion who can tackle almost any task his (Or her? Its?) human handler wants to assign.

Each and every one of these incredible technologies exist in one form or another today. Now we need each sector to come together, collaborate, and help shape the robotic workforce of the future.

Teacher’s Pet: 7 field trips in Colorado that don’t suck!

Wed, 26 Aug 2015 10:58:21 -0400

Hey there, kids! Do you know what time it is? Thaaaaaat’s right! It’s back to school time! Don’t worry if you feel like this kid. We all do, even if it’s just a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, we all know that school is no walk in the park. With the routines, the homework, the not-so-healthy school lunches (I don’t care what Congress says, pizza is NOT a vegetable), and the general feeling of being at school. But, as we’ve all come to learn over the course of our education experiences, sometimes school can be pretty awesome; a place where you create memories and hey, even learn a thing or two. Especially when you go to school only to leave school to go somewhere else. You know: field trips.

Ah, yes, the field trip. There may be no other school activity that excites kids more. Everything about it exudes joy: the permission slips, the buddy system, the school bus ride, the impending excitement that comes with exploration, the notion that tonight there will be no homework. There isn’t a single thing about a field trip that sucks. Well, unless the destination itself is kind of geeky (looking at you, Colonial Williamsburg).

Fortunately, Colorado has a plethora of field trip destinations that will excite the mind and engage the student, teachers and everyone involved, even if it is just for the day. Here are our top picks in the area:

1. Anythink Libraries

The Adams County Libraries were some of the poorest funded libraries in Colorado until the community voted to increase library spending. The result was the Anythink Libraries. Their goal was to create an institution that was of the modern age, and provided modern tools. So Anythink did away with the Dewey Decimal System and added The Studio at the Wright Farms and Brighton locations. The Studio includes a digital lab, a 3D printer and other sweet tech options that your school library probably doesn’t provide. I mean, this is a library that collaborated with a local brewery to create a library beer. This isn’t your mom’s library; it’s a cool library. // 327 E. Bridge St., Brighton.

2. Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Natural history exhibitions, IMAX and planetarium shows, engaging activities and lectures that explore the wonders of science, Colorado, Earth and the universe. I mean, why wouldn’t you want to visit? Denver Museum of Nature and Science is a spectacular interactive museum featuring fossils, Egyptian mummies, riddles of the human body and dozens more hands-on activities. One of their newer, popular exhibits is Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids. Yes, I know they’re not real, but since when has imagination hindered the young mind? // 2001 Colorado Blvd., Denver.

3. Tattered Cover Bookstore

No, this isn’t like taking a trip to Barnes and Noble. The Tattered Cover Bookstore is arguably one of the top independent booksellers in America. They host hundreds of free children’s events throughout the year, including lectures, release parties and author appearances. They’ve been open since 1971 and have gotten creative with their business model, even offering book catering for events. If you take a trip to this bookstore, you’ll enter a world where printed books still reign king and the owners are savvy enough to keep it that way. // 2526 E. Colfax Ave., Denver.

4. Denver Art Museum

One of the largest museums between the West Coast and Chicago, the Denver Art Museum provides a collection of art so captivating, so all-consuming, that it very well may be a crime to not go there on a field trip. And if it’s not a crime, well, at the very least it should carry a fine. With hundreds of thousands of works from artists all over the world, surely it will inspire a few budding artists. // 100 W. 14th Ave. Parkway, Denver.

5. Dinosaur Ridge

Seriously, what kid doesn’t love the crap out of dinosaurs? They’re big, they’re dead and there was a hit movie out in theatres about them earlier this summer — Jurassic… something or other. While you can’t take your kids to see any live dinosaurs (not yet, anyway), you can visit the burying ground for these long-gone Colorado residents. At Dinosaur Ridge, you can touch the bones of Allosaurus and Stegosaurus and see the footprints at the site where some of the world’s most important dinosaur discoveries were made in the late 1880s. This place can make even the dorkiest of them all feel like Indiana Jones, even if it’s just for the day. // 16831 W. Alameda Parkway, Morrison.

6. Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum

If you want to be excited about engineering, you go to Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum. There, more than 40 planes and stunning space-oriented displays cover the vast museum space. It’s simply an aviation wonderland that allows you to get face-to-face with bombers, fighter jets, antique planes and a search-and-rescue helicopter. Plus, if you do a special second-Saturday-of-the-month field trip, you can have the chance to sit in a plane cockpit and see just how awesome it is to be an ace pilot. // 7711 E. Academy Blvd. #1, Denver.

7. The Butterfly Pavilion

Kids love bugs. Well, some kids love bugs. Other kids (and adults) freak out when they see a bug. But maybe that’s because they don’t really know them that well. At The Butterfly Pavilion, located in Westminster, you can interact with live invertebrates fluttering around in a lush rainforest (it’s not actually a rainforest, it’s just a simulated rainforest, relax). This space is home to more than 1,200 butterflies, moths and skippers. If you’re brave enough, you can even hold Rose, a Chilean Rose Hair tarantula, in the palm of your hand. Yeah, I dare you to do that. // 6552 W. 104th Ave., Westminster.

The school year is just beginning, children. But so is Field Trip Season. All you have to do is make sure those permission slips are signed and you’re off! Have a great school year, everyone.

Hey Starving Artist! You want 2 grand?

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 21:21:01 -0400

ATTENTION ALL ARTISTS: How does $2,500 sound? How about having your work seen by 10,000-plus people?

Pretty good, right?

Do you have a big idea? One that’s both innovative and artistic? Are you ready to propose that idea? How do you feel about it being a focal point in one of the newest, hippest and most exciting co-working spaces in Denver’s entrepreneurial ecosystem?

Why am I asking so many questions?

Because the Commons on Champa is looking for just the right person to take on this gig. If you answered yes to all of those questions it could be you. If you know someone who could answer yes to all of those questions, send them this link. Do it now – submissions are due by Wednesday, September 2, 2015.

All artists are welcome to submit: The work can be created in the medium of your choice. And FYI – the dimensions of the wall you’ll be working with are 9'4" by 34'4".

Check out the submission form here. Entering is super easy as long as you can do these three things:

1. Submit your proposal by Wednesday, September 2.

2. Send three samples of your artwork to [email protected] after completing your proposal.

3. Stay tuned – Commons on Champa be in touch with the winner the day of the deadline!

Your contribution to the startup ecosystem at this unique space will help build the entrepreneurial spirit and success of Denver!

The Commons on Champa looks forward to your submissions. Bring ‘em on!

Invest in Women, Everybody Wins!

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 20:41:26 -0400

Let’s be honest, women have made some serious strides in the workplace. As a matter of fact, women are running nearly 50% of all businesses in the United States. But even with that statistic, businesses with all male teams are four times more likely to receive funding from venture capital investors. There is a serious problem with our investment engine if it continues to keep half of their bench on the sidelines.

If Chip Kelly or whoever runs the Denver Broncos decided to only play half their team, how long do you think they’d stay as head coach?

This topic was the feature of one of the most riveting talks of the first day of COIN 2015 Summit – Invest in Women, Everybody Wins, given by Loretta McCarthy, Managing Partner of Golden Seeds, an early-stage venture capital fund that invests in women-owned businesses, as well as champions women’s place in the investment community.

“In 2004, women made up about 5% of the angel investors in the United States,” said McCarthy. “Today they make up approximately 26%. Meaning there’s 80,000 women who are angel investors.”

Don’t say we didn’t tell you, this is starting to become a movement.

There’s even been an increase in the amount of men who will fund women-led startups, being fondly referred to as Golden Dudes. And there need to be more of them. The more men can take a stand and show that not investing women isn’t just simple minded, but bad business sense, the faster this movement will grow.

And women have had a lot of help over the past 4-5 years due to the tremendous growth of seed accelerators that have sprung up across the country. Now there are well over 100 across the US, and they do an incredible job of keeping their workforce local, and keeping capital and job security nearby.

Yet, women continue to face funding challenges and myriad other obstacles when it comes to scaling their business. And then, having run out of options, they’re forced to turn to overseas funding pools or family offices that to often do not invest the proper time, energy, or money, into their seed companies.

“From 2011 to 2013, less than 3% of venture capital funded companies had female CEOs. And 85% of the companies that were funded had no women executives on their teams,” said McCarthy.

So maybe it’s more than gender diversity in the startup company. We need more diversity in the venture capital firms funding startups. In fact, VC firms with women partners are 2.5 times more likely to invest in a women-owned company.

Investment is all ones and zeros. Black and red. Balance sheets and EBITA. Yet for some reason investment leaders are ignoring the obvious truth that the numbers are clearly pointing towards: spending money on women in the investment community will not only pay dividends, but almost double the investment landscape.

If you handed me that term sheet, I’d sign it every day and twice on Sunday’s. The simple truth is, if you invest in women, everybody wins.

Governor Hickenlooper calls for “Curiosity” at COIN 2015

Tue, 25 Aug 2015 14:54:42 -0400

Governor John W. Hickenlooper welcomed a packed house of innovators, leaders and change agents at the 4th gathering of the Colorado Innovation Network Summit, held in Denver, CO. He challenged the group to be present over the next two days, to think outside the box and to foster collaboration to reduce friction and accelerate opportunities for Colorado. Most importantly, he echoed the summits mantra of curiosity: “Start asking questions!”

But what is “innovation?” Mark Sirangelo, Chief Innovation Officer for the State of Colorado and Vice President of Sierra Nevada Space Systems, defines it as “being able to look at a situation or challenge and realize that it can be done differently.” Innovation doesn’t apply only to technology and startup entrepreneurs, it transcends arts, culture, business, education, healthcare, community organizing and government.

This year’s summit will focus panels and discussions around four key session questions all through the lens of the theme “curiosity:”

1. How do our digital selves define us?

2. How are the ways we connect changing?

3. What do the communities of the future look like?

4. Who will advance global progress?

Panelists and attendees come from across the city, state and nation. COIN 2015 will address issues around healthcare information from experts such as Dhruv Jaggia from the IBM Watson team, gender-diverse business best practices from Loretta McCarthy of Golden Seeds, the technologies of tomorrow by Tony Werner of Comcast and innovation within local Colorado companies like Wild Goose Canning.

Comcast VP of Competitive Planning and Mobility Michael Soileau took the stage before the Governor to highlight the curious areas of innovation that the COIN 2015 presenting sponsor is participating in. He highlighted how the company’s Comcast Labs division employs 40 PhD’s and 10 distinguished fellows to push the envelope of innovation everyday, developing products like the X1 voice remote and the media solutions of tomorrow for customers and communities across the country.

The next few days are on track to be a curious confluence of communities and ideas. Let’s take the State of Colorado on a journey that the rest of the world can learn from.