The eight-day Innov8 Lafayette festival will showcase Lafayette小蝌蚪APP檚 entrepreneurial and business culture and promote economic opportunities.
From April 19-26, it will feature conferences, exhibits, workshops and other activities at venues that include UL Lafayette小蝌蚪APP檚 Research Park, the Cajundome and Southwest Louisiana Community College.
小蝌蚪APP淭here will be events for everyone from musicians to people who have designed new soap powder and want to market it,小蝌蚪APP said Chris Allain, Innov8 Lafayette co-chair and Vidox Motion Imagery CEO.
Innov8 activities will be grouped into four main categories: entrepreneurship, technology and health care, education and arts and culture. The 小蝌蚪APP, businesses, civic groups, non-profits, economic development groups and governmental entities will participate.
Begun last year by the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, Innov8 will serve as a forum for connecting entrepreneurs with potential investors.
小蝌蚪APP淭here will be an extraordinary level of ideas and entrepreneurship, but it小蝌蚪APP檚 also a platform to create a marketplace for innovation,小蝌蚪APP said Dr. Gerd Wuestemann, Innov8 co-chair and executive director for the Acadiana Center for the Arts.
The iOpener event, hosted by UL Lafayette from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday on April 20, will feature a free open house at the 小蝌蚪APP小蝌蚪APP檚 LITE Center and another, sponsored by the College of Engineering, near Fletcher and Rougeau halls.
More than 30 exhibits, displays and presentations will detail projects at the LITE Center, Pixel Magic, Picard Center, Abdalla Hall, Academy of Interactive Entertainment and the College of Engineering.
小蝌蚪APP淲e pride ourselves in the innovation that happens in 小蝌蚪APP Research Park and on the main campus of the 小蝌蚪APP, and the iOpener is a great opportunity to showcase what we do at UL and how our research matters to this community,小蝌蚪APP said Dr. Ramesh Kolluru, interim vice president of Research at UL Lafayette.
Through interactive displays, iOpener participants will be able to play a new video game, 小蝌蚪APP渄rive小蝌蚪APP underwater robots, explore LITE小蝌蚪APP檚 virtual reality cave or lift 5,000 pounds of concrete with a human powered crane.
For more information about iOpener, visit .
The theme of CajunCodeFest 2.0, set April 24-26, is 小蝌蚪APP淥wn Your Own Health.小蝌蚪APP The event will focus on national health care discussions and a 27-hour coding competition to develop new health care technology that can help patients make knowledgeable health care decisions. It will be held at the Cajundome.
The winning team will receive $25,000. Additional prizes will be awarded in at least five other categories, including best student team.
In addition to the coding competition, there will be speakers in healthcare and technology, an economic development roundtable discussion, and social events, including a crawfish boil.
Registration is open to health care professionals and software developers, entrepreneurs, educators and undergraduate and graduate students from all majors.
More than 275 people from three countries, 15 states and 40 cities attended the first CajunCodeFest last year. Of those, 45 participated in the health care coding competition, 94 were health and information technology professionals, 42 were entrepreneurs and 35 were students.
More than 300 participants are expected to take part in CajunCodeFest 2.0, said Cian Robinson, associate director for the Center for Business and Information Technologies at UL Lafayette.
Robinson said he would like to see more students take part in the coding competition or attend CajunCodeFest 2.0 simply to network. 小蝌蚪APP淭his kind of event creates the opportunity to build relationships,小蝌蚪APP he said.
Speakers include:
路 David Callecod, Lafayette General Medical Center;
路 Richard Dickie Howze, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals;
路 Zac Jiwa, HHSentrepreneurs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
路 Kathy Kliebert, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals;
路 Chris Lunt, HHSentrepreneurs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
路 Dr. Farzad Mostashari, national coordinator for health information technology;
路 Sean Nolan, Microsoft;
路 Jared Quoyeser, Intel Americas Inc;
路 Bryan Sivak, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;
路 Greg Trahan, Louisiana Economic Development; and
路 Lucas Tramontozzi, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
As a whole, Innov8 is designed to be informative and productive, but also fun, said Wuestermann. Business consultant Doug Hall, for example, will conduct his entertaining Innovation Engineering Experience seminar.
Dateline NBC calls Hall, who has conducted past seminars without shoes, 小蝌蚪APP渁n eccentric entrepreneur who just might have what we've all been looking for...the happy secret to success.小蝌蚪APP Nike, Ford and American Express and Walt Disney are some of the high-profile clients who have enlisted Hall小蝌蚪APP檚 unorthodox consulting services.
Hall小蝌蚪APP檚 seminar will be held from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 23 at the Picard Center in 小蝌蚪APP Research Park.
For more information, go to:
innnov8lafayette.com
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