This pastweek end I had the great pleasure to participate in StartUp weekend at the new Center for Innovation and Entreprenuership. This was part of SartUp week which is a global initiative to spawn entreprenuership. Learn more about the events and the organization by visiting https://startupweekend.org/

There were some fantastic mentors and innovative students and professionals from the community that participated in growing enthusiasm around entreprenuership. Teams were formed and they each build business concepts that were then pitched to a panel of judges. We even had Fall River Mayor elect Jasiel Correia II as one of the judges.

The winning team built a smart case "that makes your smart even phone smater". They will go on further in the competition but everyone that participated had a ton of fun and learned a lot through this process.

I was a mentor for the event and though I helped out with a couple of the teams I mostly worked with a team of 6 people passionate about growing PRIDE in the city of Fall River and beyond. Our team focused on building a business model around Community Engagement and using technology to collect and agregate useful data for the city, communities within it and tools for attracting future econimic growth. While most of the event took place at the CIE which is a branch of Umass Dartmouth we came over to the BIC Friday evening to brainstorm and collaborate.

Here are some pictures from the event: