Techweek Friday: LaunchKC election day

Want to give away $50,000? Then take part Friday in the LaunchKC election at Techweek.

LaunchKC judges are set to pick nine winners of $50,000 investment grants in the afternoon. That leaves the 10th winner to be determined by public vote as the People’s Choice.

Voting takes place with online ballots that allow you to pick your three favorite companies from among the 20 finalists. Voting will be open from 8 a. m. to 1 p.m. through the voting site run by KCSourceLink.

The winners find out Friday afternoon at Union Station as part of Techweek.

Kansas City is the sixth city to hold a Techweek conference. It is the only one that will have 10 winners of the grants, thanks to the LaunchKC effort.

The 20 finalist’s day begins early with presentations to the judges beginning at 8 o’clock in the great hall at Union Station. Organizers have chairs set up for Techweek attendees to hear all 20 companies make their five-minute pitches. Their presentations run until noon.

The judges will have three minutes to ask questions of each presenter.

Access to the presentations requires a Techweek pass. Free access is available online and at the door but requires registration for an expo-only pass.

Techweek’s schedule for Friday also includes a large selection of tech-topic talks, speakers and demonstrations.

Voters for the People’s Choice winner need not attend the presentation. But it would help to know something about the companies you rank.

The Star offered a start on Tuesday by posting video visits with some of the contenders and suggestions about how to check out others through websites, blogs, Twitter accounts and more.

Techweek attendees had a chance Thursday to met finalists during the expo in the great hall at Union Station. The expo resumes Friday at 10:30 a.m.

By then, the LaunchKC presentations and voting will be well underway.

Here are the 20 finalists as listed on the ballot

• Alcohoot: Christopher Ayala, New York, N.Y.

• Blooom: Chris Costello, Overland Park, Kan.

• CBG Technologies: Ben Rao, Lee’s Summit, Mo.

• Edge Up Sports: Ilya Tabakh, Kansas City, Mo.

• HealthID: Angelo Pitassi Jr., Cranston, R.I.

• Integrated Roadways: Tim Sylvester, Kansas City, Mo.

• KC Drone Co.: Casey Adams, Kansas City, Mo.

• LaborChart: Ben Schultz, Overland Park, Kan.

• Loadlytics: Rashad Sanders, Boston, Mass.

• Mobility Designed, LLC: Liliana Younger, Roeland Park, Kan.

• Nodal Security: Marcus Eagan, Detroit, Mich.

• Ovatemp: Daniel Graf, Kansas City, Mo.

• PopBookings: Erika Klotz, Kansas City, Mo.

• Pycno: Nikita Gulin, Santiago, Chile

• SkillGravity: Alina Kharina, San Francisco, Calif.

• SquareOffs: Jeffrey Rohr, Kansas City, Kan.

• TapTeach: Adam Jones, Kearney, Mo.

• Ulytic: William Martin, Columbia, Mo.

• Video Fizz: Laura Steward, Kearney, Mo.

• Virtutecture: Tracy Ford, Lee’s Summit, Mo.

Here’s LaunchKC’s rules for voting

In addition to the nine businesses that will be selected on Friday by the LaunchKC judges, we are letting you, the Techweek attendees, select the 10th grant recipient.

To select your favorite business, go to the Launch KC online ballot, impartially hosted by KCSourceLink, and cast your vote for your top three LaunchKC finalists. The company with the most votes will win one of the $50,000 grants.

Details:

· Only one vote per IP address.

· Voting will be open from Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., CDT.

· Be sure to choose three different companies.

To see who wins the People's Choice Award, join us at the Extreme Screen Stage at 3:30 p.m. Friday for the awards ceremony.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 7:25 PM with the headline "Techweek Friday: LaunchKC election day."