There are a plethora of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend these upcoming events for you.
Are you hosting a relevant community event? Feel free to add it to the FWD/KC calendar for increased exposure. Once your event is submitted, it will quickly get reviewed and then published to the calendar.
Verge Pitch Night
When: March 14, 5:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Where: Lifted Spirits Distillery
If you’ve never experienced a Verge pitch, now’s your opportunity to catch 3 of the most exciting companies in the Midwest. Each startup will have just 5 minutes on stage to pitch their startup—no exceptions.
The Marketing Series: Inbound Marketing for High-Growth Startups with Alex Greenwood, AGPR
When: March 15, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Sprint Accelerator
The Marketing Series takes an in-depth look at the science and analytics behind marketing campaigns–from the basics of growth hacking to ins-and-outs of content marketing.
How2: Develop and Apply Customer Insights
When: March 15, 11:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Where: UMKC SBTDC
The How2 Develop and Apply Customer Insights workshop is based on Steve Blank’s Lean Startup principles. The active participation format prepares participants to walk out with tools and a plan they can use immediately.
Do you want to gain an in-depth understanding of the customer development process? Plus, learn How2 apply these proven principles in your business. Then this workshop is for you!
In the workshop learn How2:
- Get out of the building
- Use archetypes to visualize the customer
- Conduct customer discovery, including How2 interview, what questions to ask and where to find customers
- Analyze and interpret the customers’ answers
- Define customer needs and derive insights from the answers you receive
- Apply your customer knowledge and insights to your business
* NOTE: A small amount of pre-work will be required before the class. Following completion of interviews, participants will schedule one-on-one sessions with the facilitator for interpreting data, needs definition, and insight development.
AWS Learning Day-DevOps in the Cloud
When: March 15, 1:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m.
Where: Westin Crown Center
Amazon Web Services is hosting a learning half-day followed by a happy hour at the Westin Crown Center. Meet your local AWS Account Team and Solution Architect and spend a half day taking a deep dive into DevOps methodology on AWS. Sumo Logic and Relus will be co-hosting and providing one on one sessions for those interested.
Cash Flow Management: 99 Problems but Cash Ain’t One!
When: March 15, 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Where: UMKC SBTDC
This course is designed for business owners, managers, accountants, bankers (commercial lenders and their staff) and consultants who have limited knowledge of financial statements and how to use them effectively.
In this three-hour session, we’ll show you how to turn financial statements into useful management tools. We’ll take a close look at where cash comes from in a small business, where it’s used in day-to-day operations and how to identify and correct cash flow problems. At the end of the session, you’ll be able to identify key information on cash flow statements and be able to follow the path of cash as it travels through your company.
As you examine actual case studies, you’ll identify cash flow strategies that you can use in your organization. You’ll become familiar with the sources and uses of cash, ratios and the most common “gobblers” of cash in any business.
Inaugural Health 2.0 Meetup: Redivus Health, KingFit, FEWDM Fitness
When: March 15, 5:30 p..m. – 7:30 p.m.
Where: Polsinelli Conference Center South
This is information you can take back to your business and use right away. This isn’t theory – its practical application for real businesses – like yours!
Health 2.0 is the premiere international catalyst of health-technology entrepreneurship. Active in more than ninety cities and countries around the world, we are proud to bring Kansas City to this exclusive and forward-thinking community! We welcome entrepreneurs in the health industry, as well as healthcare professionals, and students in the medical sciences to come network, enjoy hors d’oeuvres, and listen to some great speakers!
www.health2kc.com
FAQs
Who will be speaking?
The entrepreneurs who will be presenting their companies are Tommy Saunders, Founder and CEO of FEWDM Inc. and Miguel Johns, CEO of KingFit. Our Thought Leader (also known as the keynote speaker) will be Doug Peterson, Director of Clinical Innovations at Redivus Health.
Is there a limit on the number of people who can attend?
Yes – attendance is capped at 50, so RSVP soon!
Are there ID or minimum age requirements to enter the event?
Nope! Anyone is welcome to attend – although this event is recommended for those with an interest in healthcare.
How can I contact the organizer with any questions?
Email: info@health2kc.com
KCWiT International Women’s Day Tech Talk
When: March 15, 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Where: SMG Studio
IWD stands for International Women’s Day and this year’s theme is “Telling Our Story”.
Join Kansas City Women in Technology (KCWiT) and Women TechMakers (WTM KC) in celebration of International Women’s Day! All technology enthusiasts are welcome to attend.
- Q&A time with all of the speakers
- Meet speakers from a variety of interesting and unique technology backgrounds
- Hear career-insights from industry professionals
Come join us as we celebrate the women doing great things in our community. Visit womentechmakers.com to learn more.
KC Roundtable Breakfast
When: March 16, 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m.
Where: Eggtc
KC Roundtable is in existence to provide 20 and 30-something Kansas City entrepreneurs with a group of peers to support and collaborate on each others’ businesses. Our mission is to: – Focus on relationship building; not lead generating – Facilitate collaboration, openness, transparency, learning and teaching – Establish an entrepreneurial network – Fill the void of not having the water cooler.
We meet for breakfast and various locations around the city. In addition to our morning meetings, KC Roundtable provides additional opportunities to network with young entrepreneurs such as events like small group Mastermind sessions & After Hour events.
Prospective members are self-motivated, curious, open to learning and currently starting a new business. Thanks for checking us out. We look forward to meeting you soon!
The Sales Series: Eleven Elements of a Dynamite Sales Organization with Dan Schoepf, Lungs Up Legs Down Leadership
When: May 16, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Enterprise Center in Johnson County
The Sales Series teaches entrepreneurs the basics of building scalable sales systems, attracting and compensating top-performing sales staff and customer retention.
Velocity Social
When: March 16, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Main Slice Pizza
Join us at for Third Thursdays at Main Slice Pizza for an entrepreneurial social gathering. No formal agenda for this gathering, just some quality social time with like-minded entrepreneurs! Main Slice will have some discounts available to us! Presented by Lees Summit Market Center of Ideas.
Third Thursday KCedu and Lean Lab Happy Hour
When: March 16, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Where: EduHub
Join #KCedu and the Lean Lab at EduHub, a co-working space for education and youth-related startups. Network with genius educators, business partners, and other interested folks as you eat and drink, learn and collide!
When you arrive, grab a snack and check out the whiteboard where participants create the schedule on the fly! Want to share something? Want to get feedback from others on a topic? In addition to the featured guests, as an attendee, you can throw your idea up in one of the squares for small group breakout conversations. For example:
Want to talk about technology in education, apps, gamificatoin or how to make it relevant to kids?
Want to talk family-community engagement in schools and in KC?
Want to plan a city-wide project to bring KC together, led by kids?
Looking for some interested parties to co-write a grant? EdHub has several offices for us to spread out and share/discuss.
After introductions of any featured guests at 6pm, we go into an Edcamp/Unconference format in two fast-paced, 20 minute breakout sessions. Stay in one group or sample more than one discussion. We come back together as a group at 7:00 for final announcements and then continue conversations at EduHub or at a nearby establishment.
This format is about active small group networking and relationship building, not passive listening. CHOICE and VOICE! You’ll be happy you plugged into KC’s vibrant educator network.
Kauffman Foundation accelerator discussion with Yael Hochberg
When: March 17, 1:30 – 2:30
Where: Kauffman Foundation – Kauffman Labs
The Kauffman Foundation would like to invite you to a discussion with Seed Accelerator researcher, Yael Hochberg, next Friday, March 17th, at the Kauffman Foundation. The meeting will be in Kauffman Labs from 1:30-2:30pm. This is open to the public, and we hope you can join us! Here is a short video highlighting Dr. Hochberg, who was the 2016 Kauffman Prize award winner for outstanding research.
Please join us, and invite your team and anyone else who would like to join. We are pleased to have Dr. Hochberg with us to talk about her research, her findings, and answer any questions you have about accelerators and the Seed Accelerator Rankings.
Innovation Exchange: Real estate and entrepreneurship
When: March 21, 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Think Big Partners
Kansas City’s burgeoning entrepreneurial community is transforming the local real estate market.
As several huge coworking facilities come online, Think Big Partners and Startland News plan to explore how the entrepreneurial community has affected KC’s real estate development and how real estate trends are affecting entrepreneurs. From the cultural impact on the KC business community and KC’s ability to keep up, to the factors driving demand and design elements that are expected, there’s a lot to unpack with the coworking boom.
Come learn about what this surge means for the area from several experts, including:
– David Brain, Brain Development LLC
– Bob Berkebile, Principal Emeritus of BNIM
– Shervonne Cherry, community manager, Spark
– Matt Druten, co-founder of Edison Spaces
– Sarah Fustine, director of strategic partnerships at Think Big
**More guests to be announced**
LaunchCode Workshop #3: UX: Understanding the Magic
When: March 21, 5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Sprint Accelerator
When research, design and testing happen before a project goes into development, it means more accurate project estimates, reduced confusion for the dev team, and substantially less rework and bug fixes. Sound like magic? It’s called user-centered design. In this short introduction, we’ll discuss some of the benefits your team can gain by creating a good UX (user experience) for your customers. Sure, we say it’s all about users, but they’re not the only ones who will benefit from this new approach.
TOPICS:
* The 4-part process of user-centered design
* How a simple picture, a prototype, can solve problems before they even start
* Why your own ROI and job satisfaction will increase when you focus on users
ABOUT THE PRESENTER: AMY DEVIN
Amy is the Program Director at Pointworks Academy and is bent on educating individuals and companies about user-centered design wherever she goes. Whether teaching core concepts to individuals in a career transition or working with executives to discern improvement opportunities in their technology processes, she is talented at distilling complex concepts into understandable, relatable ideas.
NEXT ’17 Extended – Kansas City
When: March 21, 6:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Where: Google Fiber Space
Join us on March 21st for another excellent meetup of your Kansas City Google Developer Group (GDG)!
Come for the food & drinks, stay for the awesome content and priceless networking opportunities!
At this meetup:
Lightning talks
Let us know what you’re working on!
Cloud NEXT Summit 2017
Introduction to the new features & the future of GCP!
Looking forward to seeing all of you there!
Transit and parking info: Parking is limited and first come first serve at the Google Fiber Space – 1814 Westport Road. Street parking is available on nearby side streets (Bell St, Genessee St, Wyoming St) as well on Westport Road. We ask you do not park in the church lot to the east, adjacent lot to the Google Fiber parking space. Thanks!
Ongoing events
Don’t miss out on the events that happen every week at the same time, in the same place.
Code for KC Hack Night
Mondays from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Sprint Accelerator
Hammerspace Open House
Thursdays from 6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at Hammerspace
1 Million Cups
Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. at Kauffman Foundation, Lawrence and KC Live Stream
Looking ahead
Choosing a Retirement Solution for your Small Business
When: March 22, 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Where: UMKC SBTDC Tickets
Who should attend this workshop?
Any small business that does not already offer a retirement plan to its employees, wants to know more about the plan they currently offer or may want to change retirement plans.
Discover some incentives and benefits to offering a retirement plan.
Did you know that:
A self-employed person can offer herself/himself a retirement plan even is s/he is the only employee?
The business does not have to operate at a profit to offer a retirement plan?
Contributions to the plan typically involve pre-tax dollars?
Cost to offer the plan can be quite low or nonexistent and the employer might not have to supplement employee contributions?
Seminar is co-sponsored and facilitated by staff from the US Department of Labor.
The Foundation Series: Idea to App – Building your Digital MVP with Kunjan Shah
When: March 22, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Village Square Coworking Studio
The Foundation Series addresses legal and operational issues commonly faced by startup founders, from the process of finding and working with co-founders to strategies to protect your intellectual property. This ECJC workshop series is presented in partnership with Village Square, Located in the heart of the Kansas City Startup Village, Village Square is a coworking space that offers entrepreneurs and startups a place to call home.
Simplifying IoT: Get your IoT ideas to market faster
When: March 22, 11:15 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Think Big Partners
Join the Verizon IoT Team for lunch at Think Big Coworking on Wednesday, March 22, and learn how to prototype, test, connect and get your IoT ideas to market faster.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming every aspect of our world. Innovation is happening in real time. Enterprises, start-ups, municipalities and individuals are looking for ways to manage, scale and monetize IoT solutions and applications in accelerated timeframes.
Come meet the Verizon IoT team and learn about our ecosystem offering your company all the pieces of the puzzle you need for IoT success, including:
Network – Category M1 is part of Verizon’s strategy to make cellular network connectivity simple, reliable and economically viable as IoT adoption increases. Verizon’s Cat M1 deployment expected in early 2017 will make it the first wireless service provider in the U.S. to launch.
Hardware – We are working closely with industry-leading chipset, modules and device partners that include Altair, Sequans, U-Blox, Telit, Sierra Wireless, Gemalto, Nokia, and Ericsson to drive the ecosystem toward the next-generation of IoT use cases.
ThingSpace Platform – ThingSpace Manage is a self-service portal where you can manage the connectivity of IoT devices on the Verizon Wireless Network. ThingSpace Develop is a platform accelerating adoption of IoT by making it easier, faster and more accessible to develop IoT apps that benefit society.
Lunch will be provided. RSVP required.
The Capital Series: Winning Federal Research Grants to Fund Your Startup with Sally Williams, UMKC SBTDC
When: March 23, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: Enterprise Center in Johnson County
The Capital Series is offered for investors and entrepreneurs, allowing for detailed discussions of the due diligence process, term sheets, valuations and investor pitches during the equity investment process, as well as discussion of possible sources of debt financing. Lunch provided.
GUILDit Art/Biz Forums
When: March 23, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Where: Kemper Museum
GuildIt is the 1 Million Cups inspired for artists. Come see and hear a variety of artists present their businesses. Be a part of an audience that is inspired by KC’s talent and learn as we further their growth by giving businesses ideas, resources and solutions.
Once a month we have artists present their business for 6 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of brainstorming on their challenges, goals, and needs. // Forums are 4th Thursdays, 12-1pm, at the Kemper Museum.
Each event is followed by networking.
#Winning at Sales: Nobody eats until Somebody sells something
When: April 3, 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Where: UMKC SBTDC
Five sessions: April 3, April 24, May 15, June 5 and June 26
Do you want to jump out front and be #WINNING in sales? Our series will allow you to increase profits through sales growth via accountability.
In these sessions, you will:
Network with other small businesses.
Learn tactical, applicable sales information from experts.
Hold yourself and your peers accountable for your sales goals, plans, and follow through.
Sales management is an integral part of your daily business success.
Learn to fill your sales funnel and become accountable to drive your BEST sales performance!
Apply today to be a member of this non-competitive, one per industry peer-to-peer sales accountability roundtable.