eMerge and the Hackathon circuit

1/10/2024

By being focused and intentional we can harness the collective energy of the brilliant leaders that are part of our educational institutions, bringing them together in neutral ground, in the nuclear reactor that is a tech conference, and let that energy and collaborations magnify and grow throughout the year, knowing that it will just get better in 2025, and 2026…. And by 2030. Being intentional about getting are best and brilliant together, we will enable an enviable, marketable, profitable, innovative and fully integrated workforce pipeline where education and industry are in lock step together and pioneering innovation and enterprise.

What are we doing

Collaborating to enable a space at Emerge where we center around our South Florida's talent and use the hackathons as a place to foster creativity and bring those project to fruition at the tech conference to share student led innovation. This will create a virtuous feedback loop between students, industry, and educator to meet annually in a semi-competitive environment to inspire, move, and motivate educators and students.

Education is our Largerst Industry

Enable E-merge to become another heartbeat of for education in South Florida. K-16 education is both a major industry all by itself, and it’s the critical artery that feeds industry and innovation. There's over a million students in K through 16 in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. Over 20% of our population is a student. That means at least 60% of our population’s live revolves around our educational systems between students, parents, administrators, and educators. Its a huge part our industry. And not just that. EVER COMPANY NEEDS WORKERS, and they need innovative future ready, adaptive, creative, and home grown talent.

Students are the heartbeat of the future

We need to treat is as the luxurious resource it is and showcase that best of our talent in South Florida outside of it walled gardens of the universities and colleges.

Rally Around Naturally occuring rythems of business

We need critical rallying point where all are vital arteries meet, where every one of our educational institutions and leaders come together see what industry is doing, and mix and mingle with each other to gain insights and inspiration and possibly pivot so they can help their students be better prepared for what's next. Coming together will have an amplifying effect, five years from now those educators, professors, teachers will have brought new insights into the classrooms, and then those students will be creating and building their own startup ideas, pitching for venture capital and, making better products and innovative ideas than if we did nothing. Emerge can serve as the rallying point, the connection point, that nurturing point, that brings us all together as a fully integrated system. From kindergarten through college, to ideas and hackathons, to startup venture capital to enterprise we wholistically circulate through every edge of our community.

The conference becomes a heartbeat that connects the major innovative educational institutions here in South Florida, the 4,5, and 10th largest public schools districts in the US, showcases the best of what our and capable of, connect those students with opportunities in businesses, and bring that innovation and the financial benefits that come with that flowing back into our community.

What is Emerge?

eMerge Americas is a technology event that connects the Americas and is held annually in Miami Beach, Florida. The event brings together global industry leaders, investors, corporate business executives, government leaders, and entrepreneurs to shape the future of tech and innovation 12. The event features keynote speakers, panel discussions, and exhibitions of cutting-edge technologies and innovations. The event is scheduled to take place on April 18-19, 2024.

Melissa Medina, CEO of Emerge, loves the idea and is willing to give us 1000 sq feet of space that we can use for this including tables, backdrops, etc.

What's in it for the students

As part of the student participation this is what the students would get:

• Experiential Learning and Exposure

• Technical mentoring from industry professionals like myself to continue working on and building their projects from Pluto Hacks

• The opportunity to attend and industry conference and network with industry professionals

• The space to demo their project at the conference which would also

• Connect the students with Internships. The reverse career fair.

What this looks like:

WHAT DOES THIS COLLABORATION LOOK LIKE

Partnership between: MDC, UM, FIU, FAU, BC, NSU and other florida colleges and universities.

Expo

• Hackathon winning students from BC, FIU, MDC, FAU, UM, NSU, etc to showcase their minimum viable products and possibly pitch their ideas for venture capitalEducation Row all things education nice and cozy next to each other rubbing shoulders

• Battle for the best: award a best in show for the students/projects demo'd at the Expo

• Education floor, each institution can demo two of or three of their best and innovative technology products.

Panels

Thought leadership: Panels focused on the latest and greatest innovations

• Best of AI, Immersive, and gaming technology in action in education today

• What industry needs from higher education

• The Blue/Green economies and how our research institutions are leaning in

• The wholistic pipeline, bringing the STEM ecosystem together: How Non-profits, K-12, Public Sector and Industry are rallying together to create the workforce of the future.

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