Cedar Valley 1 Million Cups Program to Launch
posted on Monday, November 3, 2014 in Blog
Waterloo – 1 Million Cups, a weekly event to engage, educate, and connect entrepreneurs, is set to launch during Global Entrepreneurship Week. The public is invited to attend at nine the morning of Wednesday, November 19th at the UNI Innovation Incubator (8120 Jennings Drive in Cedar Falls).
Cedar Valley 1 Million Cups is a regional initiative where two area entrepreneurs are given six minutes to deliver a prepared presentation about a new idea or business startup. This is then followed by 20 minutes of dialog with the audience in attendance. Organizers hope the audience will be successful existing area business owners, peer startup entrepreneurs, public sector service providers, lenders, and potential investors. The location of 1 Million Cups will rotate throughout the Cedar Valley, but will start on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa.
According to Randy Pilkington, director of UNI Business and Community Services, “UNI Business and Community Services has a rich tradition of supporting entrepreneurs, both statewide and here at home in the Cedar Valley. We know that the Cedar Valley 1 Million Cups program will connect innovators in the Cedar Valley to each other and to other entrepreneurship networking events to make the region a leader in entrepreneurship support and development.”
The Greater Cedar Valley Alliance & Chamber supports the effort. Steve Dust, CEO Alliance & Chamber, believes that “the prosperity of the Cedar Valley still depends on fostering, growing, and attracting entrepreneurship in all types of businesses. We want to encourage more people to build on our history of successful entrepreneurship, and the Alliance & Chamber is excited to work with the 1 Million Cups team to enhance the strong, growing startup scene throughout the Cedar Valley economic area.”
“1 Million Cups is a program for entrepreneurs, driven by entrepreneurs,” said Alyssa Nolte, Director of Marketing for iTracking Research. “It's a true collaborative effort of a committee comprised of 23 varied public and private sector organizations coming together to make this a reality in the Cedar Valley.” Other entrepreneurially-minded firms on the planning committee include Visual Logic Group, Monday Creations, iGus Marketing, Spinutech, Pixel Labs Creative, Sidecar Coffee Roasters, Far Reach, and Luann Alemao & Associates.
The Cedar Valley joins dozens of other communities across the US where 1 Million Cups is already in operation, including Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Iowa City. The public is invited to sign up to present startup business ideas, RSVP to attend (not required), or to learn more about the initiative via the website at www.cedarvalley1mc.com. To find other local Global Entrepreneurship Week events coming up visit www.iasourcelink.com/gew.