KANSAS CITY, KS — (Marketwired) — 09/05/13 — Leaders of the (KCSV) — an association of startup founders, business owners and entrepreneurs based in the -Google Fiberhood- here — today announced their inaugural Most Entrepreneurial City In America (MECA) Youth Technology Innovation Challenge, to be held September 25-29 at the University of Missouri Kansas City and other venues.
The new education program is designed to provide 120 high school and college students from throughout the greater Kansas City area with the opportunity to work in teams to create technology solutions for specific business problems generated by local area businesses. The students — including 80 high school and 40 college students interested in the technology industries — will work over a five-day period in 20 teams of seven people, including a corporate or entrepreneur volunteer adviser for each team. They will design plans for solving those real-world business problems and at the end of the competition, awards will be presented to the winning teams at a special event to be held at the at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, MO.
“This entire program has been created to involve outstanding high school and college students in the entrepreneurial world of high technology by offering them an opportunity to work with their peers to solve real problems or challenges generated by some of our area-s leading up-and-coming companies,” explained Eze Redwood, a co-leader of the K.C. Startup Village and owner of Wings Café in Kansas City. “Our goal is to accelerate their learning curve in math, science and technology by giving them the opportunity to work on real world issues, with real world advisers and companies. In addition, we hope to encourage participating companies to create internships for these extraordinary young people.”
The KCSV event activities will include:
An initial meeting at UMKC on Wednesday, Sept. 25, where all participants will meet for the first time for team building and networking activities. They will tour the Startup Village on and around Stateline Road in KCK; teams will be formed and receive their “problem” to solve; and they may begin considering their approach to a solution.
A general session will be held at UMKC all day on Saturday, Sept. 28, with a series of subject matter experts who will speak to students on multiple aspects of technology and entrepreneurialism, including marketing, social media, writing skills, product rollout strategies, public speaking and other facets of the business world beyond just technical information. Teams will then begin formulating information and presentations for offering their solutions to the full group.
The final session will be held on Sunday afternoon, Sept. 29, at which time student teams will present their solutions and wireframes to the business problems posed by the companies. Industry participants will then vote on the best solutions and awards will be presented to the winning teams.
The new KCSV Youth Technology Innovation Challenge is being funded by a regional grant from the KC Accelerator Project and the , with support from of Kansas City, the personal and leadership development program currently in 20 high schools around the K.C. Metro; the . college access and scholarship program; the for science and technology education; the (CAPS); and the , an international college business skills program for community betterment.
“In addition to the many activities included in the MECA Youth Innovation Challenge, the Startup Village will also deploy the talents of local area student film-makers to document all the work being done over the five days of the program,” noted Leslie Scott, event co-organizer. “The goal is to create a documentary film that will show the depth and breadth of everyone-s involvement — from all the startup tech companies involved in the Kansas City Startup Village to the high school, college, association and business participants and supporters. This documentary, as well as a series of mini-episodes based on the individual teams, will provide insight into the mindset and decision making required of technology and business innovators. The student-directors- artistic prowess will then be displayed and judged in a following event. We hope that this event will simply be the first of many to be held over the years and we want to have a record of its inaugural success.”
Editors – for additional information please contact:
Eze Redwood
KCSV Ambassadors
Phone: (501) 366-6932
Email:
You must be logged in to post a comment Login