Open Mic Pitch Night at the Innovation Celebration is presented by ETC and Squadra Ventures. This is a unique opportunity for the Baltimore community to embrace new technology and foster connections. This is where entrepreneurs can practice pitching their startup or idea to an audience and receive feedback from a group of like-minded peers, investors, and tech leaders in a safe space. Pitches will be casual - no presentations - simply get up on stage and spend 2 minutes telling the audience about your company or idea. During the networking hour, audience members will have the opportunity to ask companies questions.

Learn fundamentals of starting/scaling a startup from professionals, network w/ super fun people and pitch your startup to REAL investors!!! Are you an early stage founder? Could you use some insights and tactical takeaways with legal considerations, growth tactics, raising capital and more? If so, this might be the perfect opportunity for you to receive invaluable education and network with great industry leaders at our event during Baltimore Innovation Week! Kamp is behind some of the best startup/vc events around the nation with helping over 5,000 founders in 20+ cities. The founder, Phil Castro, will be leading this special discussion throughout the day and expect nothing less than an amazing experience.

A conversation presenting the concept of Diversity Incubators and the benefit of Benefit Corporations. A vision for the future emphasizing not only diversity of people, but diversity of ideas.

Wearable Tech Ventures has redefined wearable technology, innovation and inclusivity. Join us as we discuss how this global ecosystem redefined the wearables category; identified new funding opportunities for founders; and established a growing youth entrepreneurship program in partnership with UMBC and emerging founder programs with American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Institutes of Health Small Business Programs.

Learn how this tech initiative, started in Baltimore by founder & CEO LaKisha Greenwade, has grown with representation in 4 continents and is on track to support 100 wearable startups led by non-traditional founders by 2030. www.WearableTechVentures.org

This panel discussion will provide insight into the challenges faced by Baltimore companies accessing the capital markets. Hear the entrepreneur, investor and banker perspectives on successful approaches to raising capital and some unique solutions to addressing capital needs.

Join Betamore, the CNI @ Hoen, and Outlook OVFX, for a killer night of good food, drinks, and conversations surrounding Baltimore’s unique film ecosystem. We'll showcase the work and breadth of Baltimore’s growing Tech x Film industry in a fun, community setting in the heart of East Baltimore.

The evening will kick off with a happy hour, generously sponsored by Pitch Creator, at the historic Hoen & Co, where guests will have the chance to tour OVFX and Betamore’s new home at the Center for Neighborhood Innovation (CNI) @ Hoen & Co, network, and enjoy food from Fuzzies Burgers and Taharka Bros. Following the happy hour, Rob Lee from Truth in this Art podcast will MC a panel of Baltimore’s top animators, filmmakers, casting directors, and artists as they discuss our City’s current and future film ecosystem. Finally, guests will be invited to stick around for a sneak peak screening of Outlook’s work in development and a “Shot in Baltimore” feature film! Please let us know you're coming by selecting and entering your email address below. RSVP is required for food & drink.

Response Labs will host a panel discussion on the power and potential of data-driven digital marketing. Moderated by CEO Dan Dawes, our panel will include Team RL leaders in marketing strategy, technology, media and creative. We’ll recap what we learned working with national brands in major industries through the pandemic. More importantly, our experts will share our perspective on the future of digital marketing and how to prepare now. We'll explore how businesses can connect with customers in meaningful ways by getting the right message to the right people specifically using data to inform and drive your marketing activities. Our aim is to provide real insights and practical applications for businesses of any size or industry.

Are you looking to get a better idea of what exists within Baltimore's entrepreneurial support ecosystem to help your venture? EcoMap - a Baltimore-based company that maps and manages ecosystems all over the world - is the technology partner behind Baltimore Tech Connect. This platform was established as a partnership between Fearless and Upsurge Baltimore with the goal of developing a digital front door for tech entrepreneurs in the city. EcoMap Co-Founder/CEO Pava LaPere and Head of Business Development Kevin Carter will use this session to tell the story of how the company started as a Johns Hopkins-based research project looking to solve a problem, an overview of how the Baltimore Tech Connect platform can help you find relevant resources, and answer any questions from entrepreneurs looking to get better plugged into Baltimore's entrepreneurial ecosystem.

One of Baltimore’s biggest challenges is providing youth with pathways to grow and thrive as they become adults. We want to uncover the many ways we can support them by exploring how those pathways are being created into on-ramps to careers in technology and creative. Leaders at Betamore, Outlook Studios, and more are coming together to highlight how the community can tackle this together in order to uncover talent that are sitting in our backyard. Join a conversation on how you can support these efforts and look for unexpected creative and tech talent.

1. Fireside Chat: “My Global Startup Story”: Hear from Baltimore-area startups that have successfully gone global. Panelists will share their experiences and advice about how they balanced the challenge of entering new markets while accelerating their startup businesses.

2. The Value of Early Attention to Compliance with Regulations Three legal experts will share strategies to protect your Intellectual Property, and discuss key legal and regulatory considerations for global expansion.

3. Resources to Help You Go Global There are many resources at the federal, state, and local levels available to support your global expansion. Hear from dedicated officials who will share how they support Maryland businesses.

We negotiate every day – with distributors, globally dispersed employees, manufacturing facilities abroad, international customers, parents, and even our kids. Even though we constantly negotiate, many of us know very little about the strategy and psychology behind effective negotiations. When negotiating across borders or between cultures there are additional complexities that need to be managed, and this workshop will address these, as well as bust some myths with regards to the concept of cross-cultural negotiations. This workshop will give you the opportunity to develop your cross-cultural negotiation skills in a low risk learning environment, as well as to learn more about how to prepare for and how to mitigate potential pitfalls in cross-cultural negotiations.

Recruitment and retention of talent for startups in 2022.

We know many people in the tech community are sitting or standing in one position for many hours at a time. Aches and pains creep in and we want to teach you how to manage and prevent further discomforts through recovery and strengthening techniques. During the NetWorkout you will learn strategies in-person right from the desks at ETC from Brian and Erin Brando, owners of B-Fit Lifestyle. If you are an ETC member we will teach you right from your own desk. After the NetWorkout we will stick around for some post-movement networking. Workout clothes are not required. We are excited to see you!

Whether you have an idea, are preparing to launch a start-up, or have taken the leap, this workshop will allow you a one-on-one opportunity towards taking steps in developing, designing, and building the elements that will contribute to your ultimate goal. If you’re attending our workshop, we ask that you please share a link to your website so we can prepare a branding blueprint for you before your arrival. Please email your link, if available, to studio@andrebean.com

Pamela Fasolo and Eliot Pearson from Enradius will have a conversation about using website and mobile location data to optimize ad campaign performance for more conversions. We'll go over the new features of Google Analytics 4 and how it'll help campaign tracking and performance. We'll also discuss the importance of conversion pixel placement and tracking, what it does, what you should track, and how it helps get the most out of ad campaigns. We'll also touch on location based mobile data, and how the technology can help you add to your advertising campaigns. For those with brick and mortar locations, the mobile data allows businesses to see information on people who are at their location based on their cell phone data. Being able to see things like where in person visitors came from, what brands they're loyal to, where they go before and after, and any other behavioral mosaic cluster, business owners can add geofencing locations, or new behavioral segments.

Historians may well mark the decade that just passed as one of the most tumultuous for Baltimore—from a housing market crisis to civil and racial unrest to political scandal to a global pandemic—which culminated in the 7th decade of overall population loss based on the results of the 2020 Census. With 20 years of community-based data, the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance (BNIA) embarked on the “Baltimore Community Change Project 2010-2020” that shows a clear pattern of neighborhoods diverging apart, creating a dual reality of "Two Baltimores" where some neighborhoods are growing and getting all kinds of resources, but others are not. No one can afford — not ethically, psychologically, or financially — this kind of “enduring divergence” (to keep pulling apart) if we want a more just and equitable future for Baltimore.

Over $719 Billion in investment capital awaits those entrepreneurs who can show both financial return and social impact. This session will help you understand how to balance these two objectives, develop a plan for approaching these investors and gain insight into the growing market for Impact Investing.

Success in tourism and hospitality has always been based upon positive human interactions, but when the pandemic made in-person contact impossible, the industry had to pivot and find ways to deliver those memorable interactions in new ways. Even with in-person visits on the rise, some smaller attractions and venues have discovered that the use of the technology discovered out of necessity may still be an important asset in the future.

Most entrepreneurs and small business owners lack access to the resources and supports necessary to start, stabilize and grow their enterprises, particularly in systemically marginalized communities. There are new models being developed and deployed to aim resources directly at the ground to connect and mobilize people to build the power to bring economic development to communities that have been struggling to survive for generations. Paulo Gregory, the Steward of the The Black Butterfly Network, will share how Cohado® utilizes a community organizing model to link Black businesses to work collaboratively to strengthen businesses through peer support, and evolve a networked movement of entrepreneurs to initiate focused community development.

Equitech Tuesday is a weekly gathering for Baltimore's Tech community to connect, collaborate, and support an increasingly diverse set of startup founders and their companies.

Equitech with UpSurge Baltimore, Hutch, and Techstars

Please join UpSurge Baltimore, Hutch, and Techstars for three Equitech workshops designed to support founders and tech startups in Baltimore.

2 pm: Finding your first investment (1 hour) Hosted by Techstars MD, Adam Phillips

3 pm: Building diverse digital services (1 hour) Hosted by Hutch Program Manager, Stephanie Chin

Hutch founders will share how they're building more equitable tech solutions while building a lasting brand and culture at the forefront of their businesses.

4 pm: Love and Loyalty: The Value of Focusing on Community over Customers Hosted by UpSurge Baltimore, CEO, Jamie McDonald

Community isn’t a new thing. But in the digital age, the community has become an accelerant, lighting the fires of both company growth and social change. How can companies take the concepts of community and movement building and apply them to their marketing and retention strategies, to create spine-tingling connection and loyalty? Come find out.

How print can help you build your business through direct mail, EDDM, tradeshow material, and advertising. American Business Forms & Envelopes started in the ETC many moons ago, and we now print for Amazon, Procter & Gamble, Under Armour, as well as a host of other Fortune 500 companies.

Networking isn't just getting together at an event and handing out business cards. In this session you will learn Networking as a strategy. Build a Network that can help you succeed now and for decades to come. In this session David Carberry will go over 4 Core strategies that will help you and your organization improve ways to connect. This will be an interactive meeting where you will also have the opportunity to present your organization and network and others in the room.

We will be working in structured groups for this activity so be open and ready to communicate your Needs and how others can help you and how you can help others in the room.

We will be working in structured groups for this activity so be open and ready to communicate your Needs and how others can help you and how you can help others in the room.

Start your Monday off right at Baltimore Innovation Week! Check in and get your nametag at the registration desk then grab a coffee and start mingling with Baltimore’s innovation community!