Accelerating Innovation to Jumpstart KC’s Comeback from COVID-19 – Comeback KC Ventures is funded through an 18-month SPRINT Challenge grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and administered by KC Digital Drive and the UMKC Innovation Center.
KC Digital Drive is hosting an Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) Developer Challenge. The AR/VR Challenge will bring together entrepreneurs, hackers, makers, developers, and other creative minds with the goal of building AR applications that solve local problems.
The MetroLab Network is a consortium of city-university partnerships across the US that fosters collaboration between local governments and academic researchers and practitioners. Faculty and students get access to real-life laboratories to test advanced approaches aimed at addressing city priorities and challenges.
On a foundation enabled by the Smart Gigabit Communities grant, we’re in the second year of a three-year program that’s built around two goals: building at least two gigabit apps per year, and establishing a Digital Town Square that connects next-generation network resources within the metro area to keep gigabit traffic local and between other gigabit communities.
US Ignite is a national, independent non-profit organization with a mission to build transformative, impactful applications that require gigabit fiber networks and similar next-generation infrastructure and to create test bed communities in which to incubate these applications. KC Digital Drive has led the Kansas City metro area’s participation and engagement with US Ignite since both organizations began in 2011-2012.
KC Digital Drive, the KC Coalition for Digital Inclusion (KCCDI), and the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) have coordinated to host three complementary events focused on the digital future of cities. Digital Week will bring delegates and attendees from around the country for a focused week of learning and connecting in Kansas City. There are a mix of free and paid events with a variety of topics and target audiences, and we’ve included a number of opportunities for Kansas Citians to interact with our out-of-town attendees, to participate in Kansas City’s leadership role in these critical conversations.
On November 11th, the Comeback KC Ventures program held its first Innovation Showcase, highlighting 12 entrepreneurs who are developing new products and services in response to COVID-19. The full list of entrepreneurs who presented can be found below, along with a brief description of their solution and a link to a recording of their presentation. […]
A new type of business accelerator geared toward infrastructure and construction businesses is up and running in Virginia, and Kansas City-based architecture startup PlanIT Impact has won a chance to participate in the business boot camp’s first year. Smart City Works, a non-profit business networking company, has found that construction and infrastructure startups require a […]
Google announces it will start bringing free gigabit speed Internet to all to low-income residences connected to Google Fiber through the US HUD ConnectHome initiative.