THE BOOK Fall 2018
Tech Square ATL is a membership community with a media publication dedicated to connecting you to people at the heart of Atlanta’s tech scene. We spark these connections through our special events, featured stories, and collaborative workspace. Learn more at TechSquareATL.com.
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Creating Connections Connections help make ideas flow. Connections between synapses, people, organizations, and communities help ideas spread, evolve, and lead to breakthroughs. By their very nature, our cities, towns, and communities of all sizes and shapes are connected - through human relationships and infrastructure. It is the density and diversity of these connections which determine a community’s value. The whole purpose of Tech Square has been to create a physical neighborhood to foster stronger connections between the talented people who live and work here. In this issue, we’ll share how we helped create opportunities for those connections to occur. May this issue inspire you to create connections that lead to your own breakthroughs in 2019.
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What is Tech Square?
“Innovative, quirky, and cool” 3
“You can learn from others’ experiences and they from yours.”
“Valuable to Atlanta”
Tech Square by the
100+ Startups
NUMBERS 10 Top 10 Engineering Programs
Startup Accelerators
Research Labs
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Corporate Innovation Centers
2,100+ Students call Tech Square home
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1 Top 10 MBA
Program
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2018 in
REVIEW
Tech Square has grown in density and diversity in 2018, helping to put Atlanta on the map nationally and internationally as a tech hub. Before we dive into the details of the Fall season, let’s take a step back and consider what unfolded over the entire year.
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New to the Neighborhood
Accenture expanded and remodeled its innovation hub. NCR global headquarters opened both of its towers. Chick-fil-A unveiled its innovation studio. The Point, a supply chain innovation consortium moved into Tech Square Labs. CODA celebrated its top-off and announced WeWork as a major tenant. Anthem broke ground on its 21-story home.
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Bloomberg spent a day at Tech Square broadcasting two live shows. United Technologies Corporation acquired Predikto. The fourth and fifth Atlanta Startup Battle crowned three winners. Elavon made a three year commitment to ATDC’s FinTech program. NASCO helped launch ATDC’s new HealthTech program. Jen Bonnett ended her successful tenure as general manager of ATDC and John Avery took over the reins. ATDC companies were prolific fundraisers. Pindrop raised $90m, Greenlight $16m, Springbot $15m, Steady $9, Rimidi $6.5m, Groundfloor $4.2M, Cypress.io $4m, MoQuality $2.5m, Roadsync $2.5, Storjd $2.4m, Goodr $1.25m, micro c $1m, and Landing Lion $500k.
Exits and Milestones 8
Top 5 Viewed Stories Every month, we publish stories to help connect you to people at the heart of Atlanta’s tech scene. Here is a recap of the most viewed stories of 2018. You can view them and the many other stories we published at www.techsquareatl.com/stories.
A Simple Approach to Creating Opportunities for Others Jordan Madison wakes up each morning with a singular mission: to make at least one person smile and laugh that day.
Bridging the Gap Between Startups and Fortune 1000 Engage is a venture fund, growth platform, and network focused on improving connectivity among investors, startups, and enterprise customers.
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What’s Up: Blockchain Blockchain. It’s a word we’ve all heard before, it’s all over the news, and it has the potential to revolutionize industries globally.
The Hot Seat: Talk Data to Me In this episode of The Hot Seat podcast, we asked three bold experts to predict how data will affect our lives in the next five years.
Student Organization Brings Beautiful Code To Nonprofits Rhea Chatterjee and Andre Hijaouy founded Bits of Good to connect Georgia Tech computer science students with local nonprofits to leverage their skills for the greater good.
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Total Members: 1,441
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r
ne g i s
De
prene
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Co d
ist log
no
ch Te
Entre
Generalist
You know Tech Square ATL is your best connection into the highest density of startups, students, researchers, and corporate innovators in the entire southeastern US. But what makes these breakthrough people tick? Below is a pie chart of our 1,441 members by persona and to the right is a word cloud of their top 25 areas of expertise.
ur
ator r t s i in
Adm Maker Academic Civic Boos ter Inves tor
Student
JavaScript
Music Computer
Writing
Science
Events
Java Sales Finance
Python Project Management Management
Problem Solving
C++
Startups
Research
Networking
Technology Design
Marketing
Machine Learning MATLAB
Social Media
Economic Development
Innovation
Graphic Design
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Tech Square Job Fair
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Twice each year, the Tech Square Job Fair connects breakthrough talent and breakthrough companies in their own backyard. Since it began three years ago, we have welcomed 2,424 job seekers, many of who have attended multiple shows, and they have had 4,037 conversations with employers.
464 Job Seekers
426 Follow-ups
Fall 2018 + 14
Companies
809 Conversations 14
Top Majors
Mechanical Engineering Biomedical Engineering
Computer Science MBA
Electrical/Computer Engineering Business Administration
Schools Represented Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia State University Emory University Kennesaw State University Spelman College Stanford University North Carolina A&T University
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University of Cincinnati University of South Carolina University of Central Florida James Madison University Savannah State University Middle Tennessee State University The University of Georgia
Spring & Fall 2018 Exhibitors
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Coffee and Cocktail Talks
Looking to provide more informal social interludes, we introduced Coffee Talk for the early birds and Cocktail Talk for those wanting to linger around after work. Both offer the opportunity to enjoy tasty treats, sip on a beverage of choice, and compare answers to the Question of the Day.
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Questions Discussed Over the course of 2018, we gathered 20 times in the morning for Coffee Talk and seven times after work for Cocktail Talk, including a gingerbread-themed one for the holidays. Questions answered included these gems:
1. What is your favorite productivity hack? 2. If you were an office supply, which would you be and why?
3. What is something that you failed at within
the past year, and what did you learn from it?
4. What are you learning? 5. What technology do you want to have in 2050?
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Talks by the
NUMBERS
162 Pasteries Served
201 Unique
Attendees
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Local Beers Sampled 20
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CONNECTED Communities Before the written word, connections were tangible and immediate. With the dawn of the Victorian internet, aka the telegraph, connections evolved to include the ephemeral and invisible.
With the modern Internet, ubiquity of connected devices, and emergence of artificial intelligence, these connections don’t require humans anymore. Devices connecting with other devices generating terabytes of data for software to review and take action without human involvement. How are emerging technologies altering our cities, towns, and communities? This Fall season, we explored this question through a variety of programs and events, starting with the Show&Tell we co-hosted with the Technology Association of Georgia and continuing through all our Power Meals.
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Show&Tell
One part science fair and one part home computer home brew club. Companies and researchers showed off their connected cities experiments which ranged from crazy prototypes to fully deployed systems. Following a brief introduction, we dove into a series of five minute predictions for how life will be shaped by these technologies five years from now. Then the guests took questions from the audience before everyone returned to exploring the science fair exhibits.
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In the Hot Seat “We’re going to see a shift in social. I believe that, as a society, we’re actually going to realize how detrimental some of these technologies can be, not only to meeting people face-to-face, but to relating to each other as fellow humans on the earth.”
Nate Damen ATLtvhead
“In the future, it’s not just going to be breaking down silos inter-company, it’s going to be breaking down silos intracompany. We have to start working together or we’re all going to be working on the same problem five times over.”
Alison Powers thyssenkrupp
“A city itself is a technology. It is a network of technologies. It is a complex system, but it is in fact, a technology itself. The city might be the most consequential technology that we as humans have built.“
Luigi Ray-Montanez Code for America
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Power Meal
TIMELINE
OCT 2
Economically Connected Cities SEP 12
Privacy vs. Convenience Stan Vangilder
Chris Mesa
OCT 16
Connecting to Atlanta’s Story SEP 19
Metamorphosis of a Smart City John Avery
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Nicolas Palpacuer
OCT 23
Future of Transportation
NOV 8
Transportation for the Masses
DEC 4
Smart Business
Dennis Klingebiel Kseniya Shelkovskaya
Merry Hunter
NOV 29
The Power of Art NOV 1
Smart Data Allen Bell
James Dwyer
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Insights Nicolas Palpacuer
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For a city to be smart, you need multiple sectors to be integrated. A smart city is a moving target; smart is relative, once we have reached some level of smart it will look outdated compared to what can be done with the newer technology.
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Darren Epps
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Data framework and analysis is needed to account for current technologies and the impact on cities. Short range air travel is one potential disruption to mobility. Many buildings are not electrically equipped for the transition to electric transportation.
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Siena Tetali
Creating partnerships between the arts and lower socioeconomic communities can provide an enriched experience and benefit our next generation. In order to bring arts alive in Tech Square, we have to create a symbiosis between the developer, artist, and entrepreneur because we are all creators and capable.
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Power Meals by the
NUMBERS
60 Unique
27 Unique
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Power Meals
Connections
Attendees 28
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Merry and
BRIGHT
Taking time to celebrate the holiday season is an important part of the Tech Square community. It’s the perfect antidote for the stress of Finals week or trying to hit your Q4 goals. This year, we gathered for some good food and holiday cheer once on the westside and again in the heart of Tech Square. Along the way, we assembled your predictions for 2019.
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N+NS Holiday Lunch
The burgeoning North+Northside community on the western edge of Tech Square had the largest holiday party since the new tradition began four years ago. A total of 271 people from the neighborhood gathered to make snowmen and snowwomen, feast on a tasty buffet, and propose ideas for new holidays. While Singles Day, Cat Dress Up Day, and First Warm Day might not make it on to your official company holidays anytime soon, we did enjoy the festive cello performance and time together.
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Tech Square Holiday Party
You can’t consider your year complete until you gather elbow-toelbow in the Centergy lobby for a warm meal, cold beverages, live music, and door prizes that might or might not be re-gifted.
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Predictions for 2019 Breakthroughs “We’re at the transportation hub of America, which is a confluence of three major interstate highways. With all of these different suppliers coming together, I’m thinking it has to be blockchain.”
Christopher Garland Roadsync
“2019 is going to be the year that people finally start to realize that metadata management is the key to digital transformation. It’s the key to every cloud. It’s the key to everything.” “I think probably some of the most important work that will be done next year will be in the areas of privacy, data security, and personal data management.”
Carl Bedingfield
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AT&T Foundry
Tyler Johnson Covergent
“Drone technology is really going to breakthrough in terms of being an actual business application. UAVs are just so much cheaper to operate and it’s really just a convenient technology for marketing and filming things.”
James Dwyer
Southern Company
“I’m just feeling good about 3D printing
and its use case for larger corporations and manufacturing. I’m excited about the opportunities.”
Scott Lopano
Tech Square Ventures “Getting the VR experience translated to the shopping experience is something I want to see happen. I would love to be able to see myself in items before I go buy them, especially online because I don’t like to shop in person anymore.”
Rhea Perkins CREATE-X
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THANK YOU! To Our Team The team who make all the Tech Square ATL magic possible is small and mighty. We move fast and pull off audacious ideas on short timelines because of this team. Next time you see them, give them the props they deserve. Team: Ashley Summerall, Amelia Davis, Sammi Hudock, Scott Henderson, and Jared Serfozo.
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To Our Partners Tech Square ATL became the membership community and media publication it is today because of the unwavering support and active collaboration of our partners. Everything we do is shaped by their ideas and involvement. We can do all of what we do because of the resources and advocacy they contribute to our work.
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