Innovate Birmingham’s eleventh cohort - its first totally virtual cohort - will present their capstone projects at Demo Day this week.
Revealing data about minority-owned, women-owned and small businesses across the Birmingham region will be unveiled by Innovate Birmingham this week.
The results of three surveys that capture a comprehensive list of minority- and women-owned businesses, a snapshot on consumer spending trends and a business impact survey to better understand COVID-19’s effect on Birmingham companies – specifically its small businesses – will be released at Innovate Birmingham’s Demo Day, which will take place virtually at 3 p.m. on August 13.
Innovate Birmingham offers free data analytics and software development bootcamps in an effort to help fill the tech talent gap that exists in the Birmingham region, where there are more tech jobs available than people skilled to fill those roles. Its Demo Day, which is free and open to the public, will showcase to potential employers the skills this cohort’s 45 graduates have learned through the program.
These four organizations partnered with Innovate Birmingham to create three surveys, the results of which will be presented at Demo Day.
Now in its eleventh cohort, for the first time the data analytics group combined forces with community organizations like BE BHM, Bham BizHub and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama (¡HICA!) to craft three surveys for its capstone project that seek to build community through data, with a specific focus on women- and minority-owned businesses in the region.
“Each cohort is encouraged to do something relevant and real-world applicable [for their capstone project] and work with our partners to identify data needs,” said Haley Medved Kendrick, Ph.D., director of Innovate Birmingham. “The students’ interests, as they are living through COVID and the murder of George Floyd and racial injustice, aligned with [Innovate Birmingham’s] mission and values centering around equity and creating an inclusive ecosystem.”
The data analytics students, in a collaborative effort with its community partners and ThinkData Solutions, created these specific surveys to understand the needs and landscape of underserved businesses in the community.
“Small businesses and local business are important for us all,” said Robin Hunt, cofounder of ThinkData Solutions and Innovate Birmingham’s data analytics instructor. “Now more than ever, businesses in their local areas need visibility and not have costs associated with being a part of a comprehensive list that ensures more visibility and promotions.”
This is the first year this collaboration has taken place, Kendrick said – but hopefully not the last.
“This partnership leverages the strengths of the different organizations [we partnered with],” she said. “It emerged as a natural fit for the [data analytics] capstone project, and we’d love to welcome more partners as a fit [in the future].”
The software development group will also present its capstone projects at Demo Day, which historically have included apps and software development tools they’ve built over the course of their 14 weeks in the bootcamp.
Click here to register to attend Demo Day, which is free and open to the public.