Minnesota is an innovation-driven state. We enjoy our current quality of life because of the past and ongoing efforts of our fellow citizens to harness creativity, work hard and build things that make a lasting difference - food tech, life science, information tech, clean/green tech, education tech and the list goes on. Here a few recent and upcoming MN innovation highlights that are a reminder of our robust technology and entrepreneurship scene.
Minnesota Cup Awards - September 6
The Minnesota Cup is our state's biggest business plan competition, with over 1,000 entrants and six divisions. The year-long process, sponsored by the University of Minnesota and the Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship, ends with an awards presentation at the McNamara Center. This year's award ceremony, held just a few weeks ago, brought to the fore six great new companies innovating in completely different spaces.
The top prize went to PreciousStatus (also High Tech division winner), which has built a system to let medical caregivers provide families with short, real-time health updates on loved ones. The Division winners show the diversity of our economy: Envirolastech (Cleantech; thermoelastic wood replacement); Orthocor (Bioscience; electromagnetic knee pain relief); LifeFloor (General; slip-resistant flooring); Cognific (Student; web-based mental health engagement tools and therapies); Tuloko (Social Entrepreneur; social network/business directory focused on black-owned businesses).
Univ. of Minnesota Venture Center - 12 new startups in FY 2012
The U's Office of Technology Commercialization and Venture Center work to locate, license and commercialize U-based technologies. The Venture Center focuses on developing and spinning out startups into the local economy. In FY12, the Venture Center hit an all-time high 12 startup spinouts. 12 in 12 is a great accomplishment. Keep your eyes open for this U tech in the local economy, creating high-quality jobs and enriching our innovation ecosystem.
EduTech Conference (TiE Minnesota) - October 8
This is the second year of the annual education technology conference hosted by TiE Minnesota. Education technology has been important part of the IT economy here in Minnesota for the past three decades and is a high-profile growth area nationally. Among the local successes was the original Oregon Trail software. There are many new education tech startups coming into the local market, which creates great possibilities to align tech innovation, job growth and the manifold challenges of modern education.
