Start-Up City: Miami a chance to celebrate successes, assess and look forward

 

By Nancy Dahlberg / [email protected] / @ndahlberg

A year ago, startup incubators and coworking spaces were just beginning to open; mentorship programs and venture capital investment were scare. Now, the incubators are multiplying, new programs such as Endeavor Miami and Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses have kicked into action, and venture capital investment is on the upswing.

That was the report at Monday’s second annual Start-Up City: Miami organized by The Atlantic magazine’s events division and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as entrepreneurship experts from around the United States and South Florida celebrated successes and focused on the elements needed to further develop a South Florida tech hub and scale and fund local startups.

The Miami area is already the most entrepreneurial area in the nation, according to Kauffman Foundation research discussed at the event. However, nearly all of the region’s small businesses are under 10 employees. The good news, many of the panelists said, is that all the ingredients are here to support and grow an entrepreneurial ecosystem. Through a rapid series of panels and question-and-answer sessions, moderators explored ways to capitalize on South Florida’s unique culture, diversity and position as the Gateway to Latin America.

The event at the New World Center on Miami Beach — presented by The Atlantic and The Atlantic Cities — drew more than 700 attendees who networked with and listened to presentations by out-of-town experts including Michael Jones, co-founder of Google Earth; Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator; Ilan Zechory, founder of Rap Genius; David Porter, founder of 8tracks. Local speakers included Manny Medina, founder of Terremark and the upcoming eMerge Americas, and Maurice Ferre, co-founder of Mako Surgical, which sold last year for $1.65 billion. Many of the day’s discussions were led by The Atlantic’s senior editor, Richard Florida, an urban affairs expert and author of Rise of the Creative Class.

“The data shows that there is a near perfect correlation between urbanization and prosperity. There is also a near perfect correlation between the presence of small firms and the later growth of a region,” said Paul Singh, co-founder of 500 Startups and now founder of Crystal Tech Fund. “Tech companies will never create the majority of jobs, but they will have a disproportionately positive effect on the economy … If Miami finds a way to bring more high growth tech industry here, all the other industries will benefit.”

His call to action for South Florida investors in the audience: Invest half your money with companies here, invest the other half in companies outside the area and bring them here.

Marking the region’s progress was a report released Monday by Florida and his team at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management,  which found that Silicon Valley has been replaced by urban centers as the nexus of venture capital funded high-tech startups.

A companion report showed that South Florida dramatically improved its ability to attract venture capital, raking in more $300 million in 2013, the 16th　highest take among the 380-plus U.S. metro regions. Together with Orlando and Tampa, that figure rises to $600 million, Florida said, placing it among the top dozen venture capital regions in the country. Both reports can be found at www.martinprosperity.org.　

As a case study, the Start-Up City program pointed to Detroit. Josh Linkner, CEO and managing partner for Detroit Venture Partners, explained how that once-fragmented community has united in its mission to create a tech economy and save the city. Projects pairing foundation seed grants with venture capital have generated a billion dollars in investment in Detroit, said Linkner, who runs a $60 million fund that invests in young tech companies in that city.

“In our case we saw this incredible opportunity. Why go to either coast and be followers in a herd rather than make a big impact in your hometown?” said Linkner, who says he now gets calls all the time from entrepreneurs wanting to move back and investors interested in Detroit companies. “The creative class is returning. The draw is to leave your fingerprints on the city. In Detroit, all of us can be part of the rebirth of the city.”

The program also explored funding, still considered one of South Florida’s chief challenges. But the day brought good news: Will Weinraub, CEO of Miami startup LiveNinja, a platform for buying and selling services, said Monday he has raised an additional $500,000 from local angel investors, bringing total investment to $1<TH>million. Andres Moreno, whose Miami company, Open English, raised $120 million in venture funding, said during a panel that he is starting an online university for Latin America and has already raised his first $2.5 million for the new venture.

“I firmly believe If you have conviction about something, put some money behind it,” said Peter Kellner, co-founder of Endeavor, a global nonprofit that supports high impact entrepreneurship that recently opened in Miami. Kellner is raising money for his new fund, Richmond Global, and said he intends to make sizable growth-stage investments in local ventures. “It will take some time, but Miami has real promise. We need to get some of that capital on the sidelines excited about that.”

Read more on Starting Gate blog on MiamiHerald.com/business. Follow @ndahlberg on Twitter.

Photo at top: Richard Florida talks to Joel and Leticia Pollack of Panther Coffee, Roger Duarte of My Ceviche and John Hall of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses at Start-Up City: Miami.

 

 

LiveNinja announces $500,000 in additional angel funding

Miami startup LiveNinja, a real-time video chat company, on Monday announced an additional $500K in funding from local Miami angel investors, which will be used to market their latest business product, Katana by LiveNinja. This brings the company's funding to $1 million.

Katana is a customizable platform allowing businesses to drive sales by connecting with customers instantly using real-time video chat technology. Katana by LiveNinja offers synchronous video, audio, text chat and screen-sharing features businesses can use to easily guide potential customers to specific products or services. In addition, businesses can run reports, analytics and implement third party integrations to better track performance.

LiveNinja also plans to relaunch its consumer site allowing users to buy and sell expert knowledge in the coming months.

Business Plan Challenge deadline looms; your questions answered

No more procrastinating! Your Business Plan Challenge entry is due Saturday at 11:59 p.m., but you don’t have to wait until the last minute.

Your entry is a three-page business plan. For tips on what to include see the Business Plan Challenge Rules and Guidelines here. You are allowed one additional page for graphic material; many contestants use that for their financial chart.

Need help? FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, our sponsor, is hosting a free webinar on Tuesday, presented by Challenge judge Ricardo Weisz; see more information here. And if you missed our Business Plan Bootcamp, see a recap with tips here.

Email your entries to [email protected] for the Community Track; [email protected] for the FIU track; and highschoolchallenge@Mia miHerald.com for grades 8-12 (yes, eighth graders are welcome to compete). You should get an automatic reply from me. If you do not, please email [email protected] so that I can double check that you are entered.

In past years, 90 percent of the submissions come in on the last day, but there is one advantage to entering early: I will be able to check and confirm your entry before the deadline, making sure it was transmitted correctly and is complete. This gives you a chance to rectify it before the deadline if something is missing.

Once we receive the entries, they go to the judges — mentors, investors, executives and serial entrepreneurs — for preliminary and final judging. The Miami Herald video team will film the elevator pitches of the top six finalists in the Community and FIU Tracks for the People’s Pick, our popular online contest.

The three winners and People’s Pick in each track — as well as an overall Challenge Champion — will be profiled in the Miami Herald in a special report on May 19.

Your contest headquarters is MiamiHerald.com/challenge. Some questions we received last week:

Q. I entered last year but did not win. May I enter again?

A. Yes, we encourage that! And we’ve had past participants who have won the second time around. As long as your business is not more than 2 years old and you weren’t one of the top three winners, you can enter again.

Q. Does my cover page count in my page limit?

A. As long as your cover page is solely that and does not include content of the plan, we won’t count it. The business plan can be up to three pages and you can have one additional page for a photo, diagram or chart.

Q. Can I include links in my document?

A. Sure! However, we don’t require our judges to look at them — that is up to the judges — so make certain your most important information is in the plan itself.

Q. My team lives all over the country. Can we still enter?

A. As long as one core team member is based in South Florida, that is fine.

Q. I have two ideas. May I enter them both?

A. Yes, as separate entries.

Last minute questions? Email me at ndahlberg @MiamiHerald.com.

Good luck!

 

Startup Spotlight: Color Latino

 

COLOR LATINO

Headquarters: Miami

Concept: Color Latino is an apparel brand that champions Latino culture around the world and makes Latinos feel proud and empowered.

Story: Alvaro De Jesus started a marketing company in Venezuela in 2011 that helped young designers launch clothing brands, and after years of working with hundreds of designers he realized that there was a need for a clothing brand that authentically represented Latino culture.

“Even though there are clothing brands that represent just about every culture, subculture and lifestyle, there are no globally recognized brands that represented the Latino culture. Our mission is to change that,” De Jesus said. “What we try to do is capture the differences in culture and capture the passion. We use prints, we use cultural references. It’s all about showcasing the culture through fashion.”

Website: colorlatinostore.com

Launched: June 2013

Management team: Alvaro De Jesus, CEO; Pedro Roa, sales manager

No. of employees: 3

Financing: Investment to date is $150,000.

Recent milestones reached: Launched two successful collections and shipped products to over 40 states. Tutored for the past eight months by ‘Shark Tank’ star Daymond John’s Academy. More than 20 Latin celebrities have been spotted wearing Color Latino products, including Alexis y Fido. Now in two retail stores in the Miami area: Pier 6 in Bayside and El Trebol in Miramar. Secured a major business deal with China & Nacho, a popular young celebrity music group that solicited Color Latino for their product designs, marketing and sales capabilities.

Biggest startup challenge: Getting into retail stores outside of Miami.

Next step: Making connections with buyers from all over the country. For instance, Color Latino has already started participating in trade shows, including PROJECT in Las Vegas in February.

Advisor’s view: “Color Latino has achieved great success in the last six to eight months by launching its products into the Florida market and, most notably, attracting several large entertainment entities that have requested a long-term business sales and marketing relationship,” said Bill O'Hollaren, a business development consultant with the Daymond John Academy. Citing the recent deal with China & Nacho, he said “this clearly reflects Color Latino's relevance and popularity within this market as demonstrated by this level of commitment from a major celebrity group, along with other companies now contacting Color Latino to establish business relationships.”

Like any new business, Color Latino needs continued support in branding and marketing that will allow the company to secure major accounts and other relationships to quickly build up revenue, O’Hollaren said. “The key is to generate sufficient revenue and profits to capture the lion's share of the market to stay one to two years ahead of any current or future competition, thus building the largest and strongest company with branding beyond reproach. … Color Latino, Alvaro in particular, is one of Daymond John Academy's shining stars.”

Nancy Dahlberg

 

Alvaro De Jesus, founder and CEO of Color Latino, shows off some of the company's styles, here and at photo at top. Photos by Carl Juste of the Miami Herald.

Reports released at Start-Up City: Miami event show a tech hub shift

At Star-Up City: Miami this morning, urban affairs expert Richard Florida announced a new report, “Startup City: The Urban Shift in Venture Capital and High Technology,”  released by his team at the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. It found that venture capital funded high-tech startups are increasingly located in urban centers. This represents a huge shift from the late twentieth century model of suburban campuses or nerdistans. 

 A companion report reveals that Miami, not a city with a notable reputation for high tech culture, has dramatically improved its ability to attract venture capital, raking in more $300 million in 2013, the 16^th highest take among the 380-plus U.S. metro regions. Florida will present the findings of the report at The Atlantic’s Start-Up City: Miami, a summit exploring the urban tech revolution taking place Monday, March 31 at the New World Center. Florida is a co-founder and editor-at-large of The Atlantic Cities, and senior editor of The Atlantic. He’s also the founder of the Creative Class Group

Florida and his research team also found that the broader Southern Florida (So-Flo) mega-region, which includes Tampa and Orlando, took in a total of nearly $600 million ($150 million of it in Tampa, $75 million in Orlando), placing it among the top dozen venture capital regions in the United States, roughly comparable to Greater Chicago.  

Although there is still work to do, “the most surprising finding is that South Florida and Miami are emerging as a tech hub,” said Richard Florida. “The Creative Class and specifically the technology industry follows the talent, and techies and entrepreneurs are increasingly choosing to live in denser, livelier, more diverse locations like Miami.” He said he and his team will continue to monitor South Florida's progress. 

Other key findings include:

• * Across the region, Boca Raton accounts for the largest share of venture capital, more than $120 million ($93 million went to a single company, OpenPeak, an enterprise software developer).
• * Coconut Grove accounted for $65 million, Hollywood’s take was $30 million, and Miami Airport’s take was almost $40 million.
• * Within Miami itself, Coconut Grove was the leading neighborhood, followed by the Airport, and then Miami Beach ($7 million), South Brickell ($3.6 million), Edgewater/Morningside ($1.9 million) and North Brickell/Downtown ($1.4 million).
• * The location of venture capital investment is increasingly shifting from suburbs to urban centers. Downtown San Francisco is now receiving more venture funding than Silicon Valley.

The full report, along with the Startup City briefing for Miami, can be downloaded at www.martinprosperity.org. 

See a Q&A with Richard Florida here.

Naturally attractive, Miami area is magnet for creative-tech

 

By Nancy Dahlberg / [email protected] / @ndahlberg

Music, visual arts, film, fashion. With Miami and Miami Beach already a magnet for the creative industries, adding tech should be a natural attraction.

The makings of a vibrant creative-tech hub gained traction last week at the inaugural MIA Music Summit and its accompanying music hackathon. The events attracted about 500 entrepreneurs, music industry executives, investors and service providers. “That was a reinforcement that we were on to something, and it is a foundation to build upon,” said Derrick Ashong (pictured above), who served as master of ceremonies for the summit featuring 40 industry speakers.

Ashong, an anchor at Univision’s Fusion TV network who has a background in both the music industry and technology, rattled off Miami and Miami Beach’s deep or growing roots in all kinds of music from reggae to salsa to rap to electronic dance music. “This is the place for both musical and now technological innovation, and the intersection of those two gives what I see as a significant competitive advantage for this city.”

And while the music industry is going through tough times, few were singing the blues at the conference. “As the music industry is being rebuilt, it is being rebuilt in a different way. It’s a whole new palette for artists. It’s an exciting time,” said Marc Zimet of Viacom, which owns MTV Networks.

Neil Crilly of The Recording Academy, which produces the Grammys and Latin Grammys, said locating one of its 12 nationwide offices in Miami was a natural. He also said Miami was in the big four as a record-label office city, along with New York, Los Angeles and Nashville. Indeed all the big names are here, including BMG, Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony, MTV/Viacom, Nickelodeon, SBS, Univision/Fusion and Telemundo; events such as Ultra, the Winter Music Conference and the Latin Grammys; and, of course, the celebrity artists who have homes here.

Zimet and Crilly spoke at a fitting venue for a music-tech summit: New World Center, with 17 miles of fiber optic cable and 14 wall casts a year that are attracting 2,500 people on average.

Already, a number of Miami-based early-stage companies in the music-tech space are making noise. There’s Senzari, which recently released its MusicGraph product that pulls together musical, user and social data for music recommendation; Choose Digital, a digital marketplace for music, movies, TV shows and e-books that can be integrated into brands’ loyalty and incentive programs; AAMPP,  a music social network created around the needs of musicians and their fans. and Kompoz, a platform that allows musicians to collaborate and create songs with other musicians around town or around the world, to name a few.

We even have some big players you may not even think of as music innovators. Take Miami-based global phenom Zumba Fitness. “Its playlist reaches more than 15 million people a week for at least one hour a week. Zumba is creating a new platform for music,” said Scott Chitoff, Zumba’s chief legal officer. The fitness format, and the music that drives it, cuts across all demographics, he said. “Claudia Leitte of Brazil hooked up with Pitbull for a World Cup song and she is going global. How about the 65-year-old in Idaho listening to Don Omar?” Zumba has even put up money for the branding campaigns of emerging artists, he said.

Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine told the gathering: “We have all the right stuff — tax savings, musicians — the high-tech world has discovered Miami, people are moving here. And tremendous capital — we have the ability to get things done in the music world.”

Said Demian Bellumio, Senzari’s COO who organized the conference with the MIA Collective: “This allowed the conversation to get started. Now it is up to us to make tangible things happen.” He hopes to repeat the conference next year.

Tech is already starting to power other creative industries as well. The LAB Miami, a co-working center in Wynwood, has become a nucleus for creative-industry startups, and last week hosted a meetup for fashion entrepreneurs. The FashInvest Capital Conference chose Miami for its 2014 event on May 14. On Friday, CreativeMornings is featuring Cloak, a social entrepreneurial fashion enterprise.

All this week, the Hispanicize conference at the InterContinental Miami features national speakers, panel discussions and activities in all the creative industries, including music and film-making. The upcoming eMerge Americas Techweek in May will feature an entire track for the entertainment industry, among others.

Read more Miami Herald coverage of the MIA Music Summit on the Starting Gate blog here.

RELATED: See Our City Thoughts' event compilation here as sound, tech and data converge.

Matt Haggman, right, Miami program director of the Knight Foundation, Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, center, and Neil Crilly, who manages the Florida/Puerto Rico region office for The Recording Academy, discuss Miami and Miami Beach as a center for music and technology as part of the MIA Music Summit. Above, Derrick Ashong of Fusion is MC of the event. Both photos by Binsen Gonzalez of Our City Thoughts.

 

Entrepreneurship Datebook

Start-Up City: Miami: Join a day-long forum of entrepreneurs, investors and supporters exploring the national urban tech revolution and its impact on South Florida, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, March 31, New World Center, Miami Beach, $75. Tickets: www.theatlantic.com/live/events/start-up-city-miami/2014/ and select “register.”

Hispanicize 2014: This conference bills itself as the "largest annual event for Latino trendsetters and newsmakers in social media, journalism, advertising, PR, technology, film and music" and is Tuesday through Friday, April 1-4, at the InterContinental Miami. Info and tickets: www.hispanicizeevent.com

Miami Open Coffee Club: Connect with entrepreneurs over a cup of Joe, or meet with a mentor — Marco Scanu of the 345 Group, Robert Chavez of ProjectLift and Gerard Roy of TECKpert — 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. Thursday, April 3, Miami Innovation Center, 1951 NW 7th Ave. To RSVP: Go here.

Techover: The kickoff of this new meetup is 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at TSL in Wynwood. More info: Details: techovermiami.com/event/techover-miami-2/

CreativeMornings/Miami: Speaker is E.M. Mukasa, founder of CLOAK, a social enterprise through fashion, 8:30 a.m. Friday, April 4, at Ironside. RSVP: creativemornings.com/talks/e-m-mukasa-cloak-inc

We Robot: This two-day conference at the University of Miami Friday and Saturday, April 4-5, explores how the increasing sophistication of robots and their widespread deployment everywhere from the home, to hospitals, to public spaces, and even to the battlefield disrupts existing legal regimes or requires rethinking of various policy issues. Info: robots.law.miami.edu/2014/

Business Basics: Broward SCORE offers a free introduction covering what you really need to know about launching a business, presented by a group of seasoned pros, Saturday, April 5, 10:15 a.m.-1 p.m., Westside Regional Library. Info: broward.score.org (click on Local Workshops).

Next – From Nano to Macro, Innovation at Every Scale: Two-day festival for makers and innovators of all ages Saturday and Sunday, April 5-6,  at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, 3280 S. Miami Ave. Event includes a hackathon and is included with regular admission. More info: http://www.miamisci.org/events/nextweekend/

STARTING GATE

Find startup news and views, including a Q&A with urban affairs expert Richard Florida and a new study on South Florida's nation-leading growth in immigrant tech entrepreneurship, on the Starting Gate blog on MiamiHerald.com/business.

Nancy Dahlberg @ndahlberg

 

Still time to enter eMerge Techweek Launch Competition

Entrepreneurs will take center stage during the eMerge Techweek Launch Competition, and South Florida startups still have a chance to enter.

Early- and later-stage companies will compete and the Top 100 applicants will receive space in eMerge's Startup Village. Twenty-five semi-finalists will present to a panel of judges for one chance to win cash and prizes. Companies are evaluated on market, model, management and momentum. Early-stage winners will receive $50,000 and later-stage winners will receive $100,000.

But you can’t hit it out of the park, if you don’t step up to the plate. The application deadline for international companies to enter has passed, but local startups and later-stage companies can apply until Friday, April 4. Go here to find out more and register: http://emergeamericas.org/experience/exhibitions/challenge.

 

$300K Tap the Future contest open for entries

The Elebev team of Nestor Villalobos, Nick Boyce and Ben Potts with Steve Canal, manager of community commerce and partnerships for MillerCoors, after winning last year's Live Pitch Event at Tap The Future. 

 

Miller Lite Tap the Future is returning with Daymond John from Shark Tank to find the best businesses in the United States, give the owners some business advice and award them part of this year's $300,000 prize pool. Teams of entrepreneurs with original business ideas have until Sunday, April 6, to apply for a chance to win.

Think you can’t bring home some money in a national contest that garnered more than 2,000 entries last year? Talk to Miami-based Elebev.

Elebev was named as a Tap the Future finalist and won $20,000 for its business in the last competition. Founded by Nestor Villalobos, Elebev created Sfiro Premium Chillers, a product that creates transparent ice spheres that are served in a glass without any physical contamination.

To compete in Tap the Future, apply by April 6 at www.MLTaptheFuture.com.

Twenty-five semi-finalists will be selected to compete in live pitch events in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and Philadelphia. Miami’s event will be July 8. John and a panel of judges will select one business in each city to win $20,000 and advance to the national finals.

Posted March 28, 2014

 

All things tech focus of festival at science museum, hackathon for STEM education

Sneak peek: A rendering shows the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Science Museum, which will open in 2015 near AmericanAirlines Arena.

 

By Matias J. Ocner and Crystal Chew, South Florida News Service

When Gillian Thomas drives down Biscayne Boulevard, she looks past AmericanAirlines Arena and checks on the progress of the new Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, set to open in 2015.

“You can see it growing day by day, getting higher and higher,” said Thomas, the museum’s president and chief executive. “We are nearly up to the roof on one of the four buildings.”

The $275 million project will transform the museum into a state-of-the art facility, complete with a planetarium, aquarium and a center dedicated to scientific innovation, including engineering and technology.

To reflect the future, the museum and the Ryder Charitable Foundation are hosting a festival called NEXT: From Nano to Macro, Innovation at Every Scale, taking place next weekend at the science museum’s Coconut Grove location, near Vizcaya. Visitors will learn how technology is rapidly adapting to accommodate society’s demand for the next big thing — from the epic to the tiny nanoscale.

“Having an innovation-focused weekend just made sense,” said Angela Colbert, science curator at the museum. “It would align with the new museum and it is something that we can continue to develop throughout the years.”

Those who attend will notice Tesla Motors electric cars and Ryder trucks parked outside the museum. Ryder, a partner of the museum for more than five years, prides itself on its green engineering.

“Innovation is what works in the real world regardless of what field you’re in,” said Steven Monroe, vice president of Ryder System. “If we don’t change and if we don’t adapt, we won’t grow.”

To help foster this transformation, the museum will have a range of activities focused on innovation. One example: a projection mapping experience, in which people can project items onto a wall and interact with them.

“It’s a really interesting piece that will resonate with people,” Colbert said. “They project things on the walls, and people can actually interact with those projections and change what gets shown based on their movements.”

Eric Schoenborn, creative director of the Miami-based John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, who sees innovation through an artistic lens, will conduct the projections.

“We’re kind of playing in a space that San Francisco or New York can’t claim; this is all new stuff and it requires some technical skills,” Schoenborn said. “But the bottom line is that in order to make it any good, it requires real creativity, which is a piece that I think Miami, more and more, is bringing to innovation.”

NEXT will also include a weekend-long Hackathon Challenge that begins next Friday with a brainstorming session. The Challenge is calling on programmers, graphic designers, business professionals, educators and others who can envision mobile apps for kids. Programmers will build the apps on Saturday at The LAB Miami and return Sunday to the museum to present their apps  for a chance to win prizes -- as well as the hearts of the kids. 

“Kids these days are using mobile phones and a lot of that is for gaming,” said Daniel Lafuente, co-founder and chief operating officer at The LAB Miami. “With this particular event, we want to call on these different professionals who understand or envision a game and can come together over the course of a weekend to develop them.”

Lafuente believes South Florida has seen a steady rise in innovation throughout its science and technology fields.

“Instead of being Silicon Valley, Miami needs to be its own technology hub,” said Lafuente. “Once Miami identifies that base, they can absolutely become a major tech hub.’’

IF YOU GO

What: Next – From Nano to Macro, Innovation at Every Scale

When: April 5-6

Where: Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, 3280 S. Miami Ave.

Hours: Daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Cost: Event is included with regular admission. Admission price depends on your age and whether you’re a Miami-Dade County resident. Tickets range from $9.30 to $14.95. Museum members are free.

For information: http://www.miamisci.org/events/nextweekend/

For information on registering for the hackathon:  http://www.eventbrite.com/e/edhack-an-educational-mobile-app-hackathon-tickets-11144396189