Ed Foundation, Talent
CS education, entrepreneurship, MassTLC Ed Foundation, talent, Technovation, TechnovationMA

Technovation 2018 Kicks Off

The MassTLC Ed Foundation kicked off the local Technovation 2018 program on Saturday, January 6th. Approximately 80 students, parents, coaches, mentors, and judges gathered at LogMeIn’s Seaport offices to learn about the program, receive a crash course on entrepreneurship, and practice ideation and pitching.

MassTLC Ed Foundation Programs Director and Technovation Regional Ambassador, Rachel Nicoll, welcomed attendees and explained the program to them. She also shared the year’s schedule of additional, voluntary support programs, including an MIT App Inventor programming class and the business plan and pitch workshop. Program information, including the full schedule, is available here.

Attendees also heard from Michelle Crothers, Sales Manager at LogMeIn. Michelle explained the company’s #LogHerIn program, which seeks to address the difficulties that tech companies have in attracting and retaining female employees, particularly in technical roles. #LogHerIn aims to use education, leadership, networking, and support to make LogMeIn the tech company to work for as a female.

The day’s keynote speaker, Harvard Business School Professor and MassTLC Trustee, Lynda Applegate, delivered an MBA-level education on entrepreneurship, strategy development, and product pitching. Lynda’s session finished with a real-life example from Shark Tank, which brought to life many of the points that she had made during her presentation.

To end the day, the girls broke into groups and did a quick ideation exercise. Each group used four concepts – a user, verb, object, and wildcard – to make a sentence. They then conceptualized an application to address the issue represented by their sentence, wrote a short backstory on how the app would be used, and drew the homescreen of the app for a presentation. Each team then took turns practicing their pitches for the audience.

This brief, but information filled, day provided real-life examples of the different aspects of the Technovation curriculum. Over the next three months, the girls will put these lessons to use as they work through the program.

To learn more about Technovation and how to get involved, contact Rachel Nicoll at rnicoll@masstlc.org.

Thank you to our Ed Foundation sponsors:

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