Part 1 of weekly “News & Notes” feature spotlights East Tennessee
This week’s “News & Notes” feature was too long to capture in one article, As such, we are focused in Monday’s edition on East Tennessee and will spotlight the Nashville area in a second article tomorrow.
From Knoxville:
- Applications are now open for the 23 Alpha cohort of the local chapter of Bunker Labs “Veterans in Residence” program. The local effort is part of a national initiative providing veterans and military spouses with support to grow their business ideas. The deadline to apply at this link is September 30. The new cohort will begin in early January.
- The Knoxville Chamber has joined the Angel Capital Association as an affiliate member in order to offer free educational programing for up to 75 regional accredited investors who would like to learn about angel investing. Improving access to capital is a major component of successfully implementing the vision outlined in the Chamber’s “Path to Prosperity” strategic vision. Those 75 Chamber members who take advantage of the membership will have access to live “lunch and learn” webinars from 12 noon to 1 p.m. EDY every month through August 2023, as well as archived webinars. Click here to learn more.
- The Tennessee Advanced Energy Business Council (TAEBC), a Knoxville-headquartered but statewide member organization, has released the first episode of its new podcast series. Titled “Energizing Tennessee,” the inaugural guest is Steve Seifried, President of the TAEBC Board of Directors and Tennessee Account Executive at Ameresco. The podcast is sponsored by FirstBank. Click here to listen to the episode.
- The Knoxville edition of the TNLedger newspaper spotlighted Jim Biggs, Executive Director of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center, in its latest edition (link here).
From Chattanooga:
CO.LAB has announced that both adults and students who pitch business ideas at October’s “Will This Float?” competition will now be eligible for a monetary prize. Adults will compete for a $5,000 prize, which had already been announced, and students will now be vying for a $500 win.
“We wanted to incentivize the students with real dollars, and the requirement is that The Company Lab will help make sure the funds go back into the students’ business idea,” CO.LAB’s Director of Communications Chloé Morrison said.
Potential applicants also now have more time to sign up for the pitch competition. The new deadline for both the adult and student tracks is September 30.
Powered by The Double Cola Company, “Will This Float?” is a chance for both seasoned and budding entrepreneurs to pitch ideas related to consumer packaged goods, meaning products or anything that might be bought in a retail store.
From Cookeville:
The pitch event for the Upper Cumberland Development District’s “Recovery2Work” program begins at 6 p.m. CDT next Monday at The Biz Foundry, 114 North Cedar Avenue. Those pitching will have been in recovery at least two years and have a business idea that will help themselves and the community. To register, click here.
From Northeast Tennessee:
The region is hosting its second annual “Minority Enterprise Development (MED) Week” starting Monday and continuing through Sunday. The weeklong agenda includes a minority business owner panel discussion, virtual procurement forum, lunch keynote presentation, evening entrepreneur networking event, and “Buy Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) Day.” More details and links to registration can be found here.
