Detroit is getting ready to take its star turn for this year's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition.
The $1 million business plan competition has taken place in Ann Arbor during its first two years, but has made the move to downtown Detroit this fall. Two things helped make that happen, the resurgence of downtown Detroit with its cosmopolitan attributes and recruitment of the Quicken Loans family of companies to showcase the Motor City's emerging tech community.
"We spent a lot of time looking through Detroit's venues and looking up the city's gems," says Lauren Bigelow, executive director of
Accelerate Michigan. "If we bring in companies and investors we want to show them the belles of the ball."
And some big names are coming, specifically the event's keynote speaker, Travelocity founder & former CEO Terry Jones. Jones is a veteran of 10 start-ups and has a perspective on launching and building successful new economy firms that few people in Michigan can match. Plus, he is an "unknown quantity" with a fresh perspective to Michigan's tech community when it comes to events like this.
Accelerate Michigan launched two years ago out of Ann Arbor with the idea of connecting the cream of the crop of Michigan's start-ups with the resources they need (business accelerators, investors, partners) and also showcase the state's vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem to the rest of the world. To make that happen the competition offers $500,000 in seed capital as a top prize and access to investors, executives and entrepreneurs from both here and around the world.
Accelerate Michigan takes place between Nov. 13-15 in places like the Westin Book-Cadillac Hotel, the Guardian Building and Orchestra Hall. For information, click
here.
Source: Lauren Bigelow, executive director of Accelerate Michigan
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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