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Darren Bonawitz attended Kansas State University where he majored in Electrical Engineering with an emphasis in Communication Systems.

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Posts Tagged ‘KC Hub’

1102 GRAND Features Aaron Sloup, KC Hub

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

By Greg Elliott, Director of Business Development at 1102 GRAND

There are many people and groups all working to make the region around Kansas City a better place to work, live and enjoy life. I recently caught up with Aaron Sloup, co-founder of KC Hub, to get his take on what is happening in the Kansas City area and to share with us what KC Hub is all about.

Tell us a little about KC Hub’s background -

KC Hub started as a conversation between Ryan Weber and me about the fact that KC has a ton of resources like incubators, entrepreneur support (Kauffman, Pipeline, KCSourceLink, etc), major regional universities, bioscience research facilities and an active startup community, but our metro wasn’t really known as an innovation hub like North Carolina’s Research Triangle, Austin, TX or Silicon Valley. We came together in July 2010 to officially form as a non-profit to take on the task of transforming KC into an “ecosystem for innovation.” Our four founders are Ryan Weber, Matt Wilson, Matt Sawka and me. Since that time our region has made some incredible strides toward that end. KC is showing up on all kinds of national and worldwide rankings for entrepreneurial cities, Google Fiber selected us from well over 1000 cities to prove out its network, UMKC’s Bloch School is growing and accelerating their programs and making national lists as well, the KC Chamber’s Big 5 shows a lot of promise and that the folks in that organization are understanding and embracing a similar vision, not to mention KCNext…the list goes on and on. At KC Hub, we’re just excited to get the word out on cool things like this and try to support and grow the community any way we can.

What goal did you hope to achieve by founding KC Hub? What is the group’s mission or core focus?

The goal is really to make innovation the standard for KC. Whether it’s healthcare, transportation or IT, KC Hub wants Kansas City to be a place where the new breakthroughs take place. Our stated mission is “to transform the Kansas City region into an ecosystem for innovation.” Having said that, we don’t have illusions of grandeur thinking that we’re going to do this alone. We know that it’s going to take our entire community to accomplish that feat, and we’d like to just play a role in moving our region in the right direction.

How can the community get involved in the cause?

Find something you’re passionate about, whether it’s cancer research, tech startups or renewable energy, and then find groups you can join, events you attend, classes you can take, etc. Honestly, if you really want to make an impact, go start a company. There are a ton of resources in KC, from Pipeline to KCSourceLink to bizperc to Kauffman Labs, all of which support startups. With KC Hub, we built a website that allows anyone to create an account and post innovation news and events from across the region and around the world. We just wanted to create a central place for people to share cool and innovative things that are happening now. We’ve had a lot of people contact us just to find out how they can help. Innovative Networks is a good example; they actually did all the custom Drupal development and hosting for our site. They’re also a KC-based tech company and wanted to contribute to the cause.

What would an ideal Business Ecosystem look like to you?

Ooo, ideal? A supportive community of entrepreneurs/startups, unlimited capital, a wealth of excellent mentors, great and affordable legal advice, cheap office space, excellent research institutions – the thing is, Kansas City already has most of those aside from the unlimited capital part. But our VP, Ryan Weber, had a passion for that and is now the KC director for Angel Capital Group, bringing much needed, early stage funding to our region. KC may not have the big names that other regions do, but we have all the pieces in place and the community of innovators is getting bigger and stronger. I guess on the big names thing, Zaarly’s getting up there. And now that they have Meg Whitman on their board, I think more and more people will be following what they’re up to. It’s a cool story for everyone involved and a great testament to some of the innovative thinking happening here in the metro.

What do you like best about being involved in the research/technology community in Kansas City?

Seeing how passionate people are here. And it’s a different passion than what you might see on the coasts. Here, it’s more about believing in a long term vision vs. just building something to sell off in a year.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I want to throw a plug out there for Startup Weekend. It’s a really cool event, where you show up, form teams and basically build a company over a weekend. They usually have two a year. Even if you’re just curious about startups and want to learn, it’s a great event to learn by doing something vs. just reading about it.

How should interested people get in touch with you?

Jump on kchub.org, create an account and start posting interesting news/events about innovation in KC and throughout the world, or join us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. We like social media and talking about innovation. Come to a KCNext happy hour or Tech ESP event (when they start again in the spring) – we’re usually at those events. Feel free to drop us a line via our site as well.

Thanks for sharing Aaron and it will be exciting to see what is next for the Kansas City area!

Tags: 1102 GRAND, Aaron Sloup, ecosystem for innovation, entrepreneur, innovation hub, Internet Hub, Kansas City, KC community, KC Hub, KC Hub co-founder, Matt Sawka, Matt Wilson, Ryan Weber, Startup Weekend
Posted in 1102 GRAND, Kansas City Events, technology companies | No Comments »

1102 GRAND to Co-Host IT Networking Event November 18th

Friday, November 5th, 2010

Posted by: Darren Bonawitz

1102 GRAND is co-hosting an upcoming IT networking event with KCnext. The event will be held on Thursday, Nov. 18th at the Press Bar & Panini Grill at Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, Kansas City, MO 64108) from 5 – 8 p.m.

Although this is a casual come and go event, registration is required. Space is very limited (250 people maximum), so don’t wait – register today at http://www.kcnext.com/events.

A special thanks from the KCnext team to Stallard Technologies, the Title Sponsor for the event, as well as our other sponsors so far including the following: Commenco, KC Hub, Level 3 Communications and TeliaSonera. There are still several sponsorship opportunities available. So don’t miss this chance to get your company’s name in front of the 250 of the area’s IT professionals and decision makers! For more information on how to be a sponsor, please visit KCnext.com/events.

Tags: 1102 GRAND, colocation provider, colocation services, Commenco, crosstown station, data center, data center network, datacenter, facility, it networking, it professionals, kansas city events, KC Hub, KCnext, Level 3 Communications, Networking, networking event, professional network, professional networking, save money, Stallard Technologies, TeliaSonera
Posted in 1102 GRAND, Networking | No Comments »

Kansas City IT Professionals September Networking Event

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Posted by: Darren Bonawitz

Interested in meeting other technology professionals in the area and making lasting connections? Kansas City IT Professionals will host a networking event at 6:00 pm on September 21 at The Well. This happy hour is a wonderful opportunity to engage in conversation with other Kansas City technology professionals. Kansas City IT Professionals aims to build connections between local technology businesses and IT professionals.

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Posted in 1102 GRAND, Location, Midwest data center, Networking, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Kansas City Data Center and Internet Hub features KC Hub

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

By: Darren Bonawitz

This week we featured KC Hub, an organization which aims to shape Kansas City into a center for research and innovation. Aaron Sloup, co-founder of KC Hub, answered some questions about the organization.

Tell us a little about your organization’s background:
Our official name is the KC Hub Foundation, but we go by KC Hub. Ryan Weber and I came up with the concept of creating a Kansas City based Silicon Valley or Research Triangle (like the one in North Carolina) in October 2009. For about six months, the concept was in somewhat of an incubator stage – we did a ton of research and talked to hundreds of people about the idea. We formed a non-profit corporation in July 2010. Other founding members of the Board include Matt Wilson, Matt Sawka and Aaron Siders.

Why was it founded and what is the group’s mission or core focus?:
Our goal is to create an ecosystem for innovation. Originally we hoped to find that there was already a group that was taking shape and pursuing a mission like the one we envisioned. We found that Kansas City is fairly “siloed;” we have some strong vertical ecosystems in specific sectors. Life sciences is a great example. Through the effort of many groups across the region, researchers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and non-profits, the life sciences community works together to come up with the next big idea and then bring that idea to market. KCnext is another good example. At KC Hub, we want to build on some of that momentum and help innovators across all sectors connect. There are definite economies of scale that we, as a city and a region, can take advantage of.

Who should consider becoming a member of your group?
KC Hub has always been about connecting the people with the next big idea and the people that can make that idea happen. We generally refer to those two groups as “innovators.” This is a pretty diverse group, which is why it’s a little hard to target. It includes people from universities and research institutions, angel and venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and startup companies and though leaders from established companies. And those are just some examples; anyone who’s an innovator is welcome.

What are some of the member benefits?
Connecting with other innovators is the main benefit. Finding others with the same mindset, that think big, take big risks and make big ideas happen can have all kinds of benefits from helping launch a business, find a resource or just have a great discussion.

What do you like best about being involved in the research / technology community in Kansas City?
There’s always something new and exciting to learn about. You hear so much about technology companies on the coasts or in other regions of the world, but the reality is, KC’s actually got a lot of interesting things going on in the tech community. It’s fun to discover some of these hidden gems.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Yes. We’ve had some great advisors that have been critical to our success. And beyond that, so many people have provided ideas, advice and resources. It’s really been a community effort, so thanks to everyone that has contributed.

How should interested people get in touch with you?
The best way is via our website, kchub.org. Right now, it’s just a placeholder while our innovation networking site is being developed, but we update our social networking groups often – there are links to our Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter from kchub.org, as well as a general email address.

Tags: 1102 GRAND, business entrepreneur, business innovation, business networking, Darren Bonawitz, data center, Data Center Security, data circuit, data management, Data Suites, datacenter, economy, ecosystems, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, innovation, innovation and technology, innovative business, innovators, Internet Hub, Internet hub and data center, kansas city business, kansas city businesses, kansas city kansas, kansas city MO, KC Hub, life sciences, Midwest data center, Midwest Internet hub, non-profit, research, research community, technology, technology innovation, venture capitalists, visionaries
Posted in 1102 GRAND, Midwest data center | No Comments »