Tech Fest set for Aug. 9 and 10 in Cape

Editor's note: The Tech Fest is officially organized and put on by the Marquette Tech District; Codefi promotes it. This story has been edited to reflect that.

Marquette Tech District's Tech Fest is coming up Aug. 9 and 10, and for its third year, organizers are shaking things up.

Codefi co-founder Chris Carnell said the event has traditionally been held at Codefi�s 338 Broadway location, but the event has outgrown the space. This year, it�ll be at Isle Casino Cape Girardeau�s Event Center at 777 N. Main St.

�We started the event to showcase economic progress from tech and startup companies in the [Marquette] tech district,� Carnell explained.

And showcasing is still very much at the heart of Tech Fest, Carnell said.

The 1st50K competition invites startup companies to vie for $50,000 in cash and pro bono services, and, Carnell said, this year�s competitors are further along in the startup process than Codefi has seen previously.

�A majority of them are revenue-generating with products already developed,� Carnell said.

The competition isn�t just for tech companies, Carnell added.

�We look mainly for companies doing innovative things,� he said.

Entrepreneurs come from all over the world, Carnell said, and relocate to a space in or near the Marquette Tech District, which houses Codefi and numerous other tech companies.

Past winners include Nutlock, a bicycle-lock company, and Morning Star Behavioral Associates, a company specializing in helping people with developmental or intellectual disabilities by instilling their proprietary program, 11 Categories of Independence.

Since its inception in spring 2015, $250,000 has been awarded, and those companies have generated close to $2 million in revenue and created 20 jobs, Carnell said.

Traditionally, the pitch competition has been part of Tech Fest, and this year, that continues, but Tech Fest will also include the announcement of the winners, Carnell added.

Another showcase will be projects created in this summer�s youth camp, Carnell said.

And there will be a guest speaker, he said: Cuonzo Martin, head basketball coach at the University of Missouri at Columbia, whose story of overcoming adversity has a lot of parallels to challenges faced by entrepreneurs.

Carnell said about 250 to 350 people are expected to attend the ticketed event.

Tickets are available at www.codefiworks.com, along with a schedule of events and more information.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

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