On October 11, from 1–8 p.m., the region will celebrate entrepreneurship in Covington’s Innovation Alley (632 Russell Street).
“Every year UpStart’s format has changed to keep the event fresh and fun, and this year is no different. Our 5th year is exciting as we are integrating events from both sides of the river, throwing in a Bourbon Trail Fun Zone and adding an entrepreneur showcase event,” said Katie Meyer, director of Renaissance Covington and UpStart event volunteer. “And of course, as always, UpStart is a free community building, volunteer driven event,” said Meyer.
In partnership with the Techstars Cincinnati Startup Week, UpStart will kick off with a series of entrepreneur and business education seminars. The seminars begin at 1 p.m. and the topics will include: Trends in Angel Investing with Brad Zapp of CONNETIC Ventures; What is Braxton Brewery’s Success Formula with founder, Jake Rouse; and Starting and Selling a Bitcoin Startup with Jad Mubaslat, previously with bitcoin.co. The full slate of seminars and speakers can be found at https://cincinnati.startupweek.co/#schedule.
Beginning at 4 p.m., the celebration begins in Innovation Alley. One of the new events for UpStart this year will be meetNKY’s Kentucky Bourbon Trail Fun Zone. “Most folks don’t realize that Northern Kentucky is an up and coming bourbon hotbed with a number of bourbon related businesses. Upstart is a great event to attend and learn more about meetNKY’s efforts to extend the Kentucky Bourbon Trial into Northern Kentucky,” states Eric Summe, President and CEO of meetNKY.
Also, new to UpStart is a session created for the business community, Innovation Briefings. Innovation Briefings will give the Northern Kentucky & Cincinnati business community a front row seat to (what could be) the next big idea that could solve one of their biggest challenges. The six presenting companies represent some of the most innovative startups and are backed by some of the most successful investors and company builders in our region.
“The community of UpStart volunteers has packed October 11 with an unbelievable lineup of programming and fun. UpStart, like entrepreneurship, is constantly evolving but the “fundamentals” remain the same – Beer, Bands and Food Trucks. Braxton Brewery (from Big Bertha!) & West Sixth will serve the beer, music by the musicians of SkoolAid, a local arts based education organization and of course, multiple food trucks,” said Casey Barach, UpStart volunteer and director of NKY’s Innovation Network.
UpStart is made possible with support from sponsors including Adams, Stepner, Woltermann & Dusing, PLLC, Aviatra, Braxton Brewing Company, C-Forward, Cintrifuse, City of Covington, Commonwealth Hotels, Connectic Fund / Connetic Angels, Covington Business Council, Renaissance Covington, Gateway Community and Technical College, Graydon, Innovation Alley, meetNKY, Northern Kentucky Innovation Network Office, NKY Chamber of Commerce, NKY Tri-ED, Republic Bank, Scooter Media, Spotted Yeti, Venture Smarter, West 6th Brewery, and Zalla.
Attendees are asked to pre-register using the following links: Seminars – https://cincinnati.startupweek.co, The Celebration – http://bit.ly/UpStartCov.
