{"id":4891,"date":"2013-02-27T18:47:12","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T23:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/?p=4891"},"modified":"2013-03-11T15:26:47","modified_gmt":"2013-03-11T20:26:47","slug":"mside-students-submit-ideas-to-innovation-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/archives\/4891","title":{"rendered":"M’side Students Submit Ideas to Innovation Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jescy Rodriguez–<\/strong>Last night, several students from Morningside College submitted Ideas to Sioux City Growth Organization\u2019s Annual Innovation Market 2013.\u00a0 Sioux City Growth Organization (SCGO) is a local group of professionals, younger than 40, that encourage social networking and progressive, innovative ideas to help the future of Sioux City.<\/p>\n

This was the 3rd<\/sup> appearance of the Innovation Market in the existence of Sioux City GO.\u00a0 The idea behind the Innovation Market is to listen to local entrepreneurial ideas and network in order to make these ideas come to pass.\u00a0 Another added benefit to the market is a $5,000 prize donated to the best-voted idea, alongside a free office space for a year.\u00a0 This year is the first year the Innovation Market has been able to provide a runner up prize of $2,500.\u00a0 The opportunity saw 50 unique ideas for local businesses or events created by Sioux City residents.<\/p>\n

Morningside students Blake Anderson and Lehi Tonga were amongst the aspiring entrepreneurs at the market and represented their proposal for their spin on a local nightclub business, which has been going for some time now.<\/p>\n

\"Blake<\/a>
Blake Anderson and Lehi Tonga of Static Entertainment LLC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Anderson and Tonga presented their idea, Static Entertainment LLC., which is\u00a0 a service that provides the local 18-24 year olds with a safe nighttime club experience.\u00a0 Their first two events were entitled Genesis and Winterfresh.\u00a0 They make this all happen by renting out space in the Sioux City Convention Center, hiring DJ\u2019s, photographers and other entertainment specialist and open it to the public providing a one night club-styled extravaganza type event designed to enhance the nightlife of Sioux City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith all of us being from areas out of state (places like California and Minnesota),\u00a0 we saw the need for a nightclub scene for young adults to party in a controlled environment,\u201d\u00a0 Anderson explained.\u00a0 \u201cWe wanted to bring all the schools in the local Siouxland area together. All of the colleges in a 60 mile radius to come party and have a great time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anderson and Tonga aren\u2019t the only Morningside students to be involved in this think tank.\u00a0 Also integral parts of Static Entertainment are students Jon Cripe, current head of Security here on campus, and Marco Linares.\u00a0 Cripe is responsible for the being the Creative Director of these events, where as Linares is in charge of being the Director of Accounting for the small business.\u00a0 Anderson\u2019s role in the company is that of an Operations Administrator, leaving Tonga in charge of the Public Relations.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the responsibilities and duties kind of blend and overlap when we are in the flow of things.\u201d\u00a0 Tonga said.\u00a0 \u201cGenesis was our first event and from it we learned a lot about the business as well as ourselves.\u00a0 When we got to Winterfresh we had a bit of a better plan to execute the event. This time we are really excited with what we have planned for Storm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storm is Static Entertainment\u2019s next event scheduled for April 6th<\/sup>\u00a0 located downtown in the Sioux City Convention Center.<\/p>\n

Blake Anderson also submitted another idea alongside another Morningside College student Sean Richardson.\u00a0 Richardson and Anderson\u2019s idea for an app sparked plenty of buzz throughout the crowds at the Innovation Market.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called the \u201cdiscover my campus\u201d app and will be Software as is Service (SAIS), although it is currently in the developmental stage.\u00a0 This app is also a finalist for the Briar Cliff idea market called Swim with the Sharks, and will be voted on this upcoming Thursday.<\/p>\n

Richardson explains, \u201cIt\u2019s more than just an app.\u00a0 It will put your entire campus in your pocket.\u00a0 Colleges will be able to stay connected to their students like never before, without having to spam up their student\u2019s email accounts with unread emails. Students would be able to use this app during their years at the college as a type of map of the campus as well as an event calendar.\u00a0 But its not just limited to that, the idea also allows for students to navigate through campus using the GPS systems on their phones. It would make it so new students could track their way from their dorm to the door of their classroom without any hassle.\u00a0 Potential meal menus from the cafeteria could be updated to the app. The possibilities with the Discover my campus app are endless.\u201d<\/p>\n

The SCGO Innovation Market kicked off with a Social hour cocktail event where everyone was encouraged to browse and comment on the ideas of their fellow entrepreneurs, as well as, network a bit with the various business professionals in attendance.\u00a0 After that, there were various speakers who talked about their professional careers and how they started their own business.\u00a0 One keynote speaker was Dusty Davidson, co-founder and CEO of Silicon Prairie News, an innovative company that connected various Midwestern \u201cstartup Hubs\u201d and created an awareness of the technological advancement in the Midwest.<\/p>\n

Lots of inspirational and important lessons were taught at the Innovation Market but most of all the spirit of entrepreneurship could be seen and heard in every conversation at the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good networking tool, and it brings a lot of people together with the same aspirations that we have with Static Entertainment,\u201d Tonga said of the Innovation Market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ability to get the professional feedback we\u2019ve been getting all night with our idea is huge for us. It\u2019s different and fun. Where else do you get to collaborate with young professionals in the area and bounce ideas to help your own operations?\u201d\u00a0 commented Anderson.\u00a0 \u201cI think Students love to see entrepreneurial things take off, especially when they see that other students that they go to school with have started their own business, there is less of a fear stigma to starting a business of their own.\u00a0 Empowerment is key to the dreams of my peers and is what this great country was founded upon.\u00a0 I think that SCGO Innovation Market is great thing and am glad to have the opportunity to network and learn with them.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions or would like to participate in next year\u2019s Innovation Market, go to siouxcitygo.com to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jescy Rodriguez–Last night, several students from Morningside College submitted Ideas to Sioux City Growth Organization\u2019s Annual Innovation Market 2013.\u00a0 Sioux City Growth Organization (SCGO) is a local group of professionals, younger than 40, that encourage social networking and progressive, innovative ideas to help the future of Sioux City. This was the 3rd appearance of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":4892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[203],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4891"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4982,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4891\/revisions\/4982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.morningside.edu\/thecr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}