First Ever Campus-Community Innovation Town Hall - April 30

On Thursday, April 30 from noon to 1 p.m. Syracuse University's Blackstone LaunchPad and partners will host a virtual campus-community innovation town hall.  In attendance will be Randy Wolken, CEO of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York; Kathi Durdon, executive director of the CNY Biotech Accelerator/Upstate Medical University; Win Thurlow, executive director of The MedTech Association; and Rick Clonan, VP of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at CenterState CEO's Tech Garden. ​

​All of these organizations are key partners in building the regional innovation ecosystem.  This lunchtime community conversation will help leverage campus and community expertise and resources to plant and grow ideas. 

Everyone is invited across the community to join in and see the power of the network. The link for the virtual town hall is here.

Topics during the town hall will include:

Seed and scale

• Building a regional mentor and subject matter expert network
• Expanding professional service provider network (attorneys, accountants, insurance, etc.) to provide some pro-bono technical assistance
• Targeting companies that might be early adaptors or beta customers
• Building networks of supply chain partners
• Access to pre-seed capital
• Expertise to scale
• Growth capital

Accelerate tech commercialization

• Unlocking faculty IP, as well as most viable university ventures that could be commercialized or licensed
• Experiential opportunities
• Internships and other creative opportunities  for students to create CNY “stickiness” and build talent pool for regional companies
• Recruitment and retention
• Keeping talent here – how do we engage our best and brightest with the community?

For more information or questions please email Jeannine Rogers, Program Manager at [email protected].