KC’s first Techweek turns local company into People’s Choice winner
Kansas City’s first Techweek turned a local company into a People’s Choice winner Friday, capping the seven-day celebration of brain power and gadgetry.
PopBookings, based in Kansas City, was selected by an open online vote to join nine other winners selected by judges in LaunchKC’s grant competition held during Techweek.
Each collected $50,000 and will receive other support including mentoring and workspace for the next two years. Three of the winners from outside the area will move here as part of the deal.
“We’re humbled and honored that everybody in Kansas City picked us, voted for us,” said Scott Hanson, chief operating officer of PopBookings, which helps promotional agencies find temporary staff.
Techweek’s schedule extends into the weekend with a 24-hour Hackathon beginning at noon Saturday.
Organizers and attendees hailed the weeklong program as a success. This is only the sixth market to hold a Techweek, joining Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Detroit.
More than 5,000 people attended, according to Katy Lynch, chief executive of Chicago-based Techweek Inc., the company that organizes the conferences. It was twice what the company originally targeted.
“We’re a traveling tech festival. We are the platform,” Lynch said Friday. “It’s really up to the community to define Techweek with us.”
Programs here included the city’s two-day Big Data Summit in its third year, the LaunchKC competition, a jobs fair and hot-topic sessions on drones, 3D printing, venture capital and smart cities technologies.
Techweek Inc. is signed up for four more annual Kansas City events and Lynch already is thinking about next year. She likes the idea of checking up on this year’s startup companies to see where they are a year later.
Surveys are going out next week to sample participants and attendees about what they thought of Kansas City’s first Techweek effort.
Attending Techweek was as much about interacting with other attendees as it was taking in keynote speeches, panels and demonstrations.
“You never know who you’re going to meet at events like this. Somebody siting next to you might be an angel investor,” said Caleb Loya, whose said his startup 1 Minute Candidate was among the top 100 LaunchKC contenders, though not among the 20 finalists.
Deanna Lahre, whose Kansas City company Statistical Futures was another top 100 competitor, said Union Station made for a good venue. It provided ample room for even the larger-than-expected crowd.
“I’ve been to places where you can’t hardly get through,” Lahre said.
Techweek focuses a lot on the startup businesses it attracts, but big companies help finance the program through sponsorships and booths. They also come to make connections.
IBM had about 20 employees at the event, spreading the word that Big Blue partners with startups.
“I was impressed with the turnout,” said Steve Boyd, a local IBM employee who worked in the company’s booth. “We have a lot of new tech startups that I talked to that I wasn’t aware of before.”
Like any large event, Techweek suffered some inevitable problems. LaunchKC’s 20 finalists’ made their presentations to judges Friday morning and the original plan was to stream those sessions live online for public voters.
A change in the presentation’s location scotched that idea, but a work-around allowed voters to cast their lots online for the People’s Choice winner.
Techweek also became a platform to announce news.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, who spoke at a session Thursday, revealed $1.19 million in state grants for three area programs aimed at boosting entrepreneurship. LaunchKC received $565,000, Digital Sandbox $500,000 and the Independence Economic Development Council $125,000.
KCnext, a trade group for area tech companies, launched a tech job posting site called Chute that also promotes Kansas City and the lifestyle here as a way to draw technology talent to the region.
Techweek organizers say a city’s first year is largely about engaging the local tech community. Subsequent years aim to expand the reach further.
LaunchKC’s 10 investment grants topped similar offers at other Techweek cities that typically have made only one grant from their competitions. It also means Kansas City is gaining those three out-of-state businesses for at least two years.
One of them is Marcus Eagan’s Detroit-based Nodal Security. Its device protects against potential security threats from the increasing number of Internet-connected devices found in homes.
“I thought the chips were stacked against me because I’m not from Kansas City,” Eagan said.
The 10 LaunchKC winners
Blooom
Health ID
Integrated Roadways
Kansas City Drone Co.
Nodal Security
PopBookings
Pycno
SquareOffs
Vertisense (Alcohoot)
Video Fizz
This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 7:38 PM with the headline "KC’s first Techweek turns local company into People’s Choice winner."