’Tis the season of giving, and Innovation Bootcamp alumni are doing just that. A group came together at Innovation Gateway’s latest Reboot event on Dec. 2, providing food, drinks, and networking opportunities for past Bootcamp participants.
Reboot is a biannual event for Bootcamp alumni to get to know fellow participants from other cohorts through networking, workshops, and sharing updates on their entrepreneurial journey. In this session, Your Pie franchisee and Bootcamp alumnus Jonathan Wood provided pizza, and Millie Finch, founder of Night Sky Coffee Roasters, provided hot beverages.
After some social time with peers—and special guest Hairy Dawg—Kara Fresk and Allie Cox, both Bootcamp alumni, UGA faculty in the Mary Frances Early College of Education, and co-founders of Collective Growth Endeavors, led a session on Pitch Perfect Networking. Participants lined up in rows facing each other and, in “speed-dating-style”, delivered one-minute pitches to each other before switching partners.
Next, alongside Cox and Fresk, Sarah Covert, professor emeritus in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and Diane Kirkwood, UGA HR deputy director, facilitated speed coaching circles. In this session, participants sat in four circles to identify entrepreneurial challenges and work through those together with help from the alumni facilitators.
“The recurring attendance of Innovation Bootcamp participants to our Reboot alumni gatherings, sometimes years after their experience in the program, is a testament to the strong connections and community that are cultivated during the Bootcamp sessions,” Innovation Gateway program manager Allyson Hester said. “The longevity of their involvement and the palpable energy they bring with them is evidence of the need for a supportive community like the one we strive to build through the Innovation Bootcamp experience.”
