Students, teachers, researchers, professionals and investors from the Baltimore area gathered at the Carey Business School’s Harbor East campus for the second Innovation Factory Summit and Mosh Pit Competition.
“The Innovation Factory Summit started as a Carey Business School class project, and a small group of students brought it to fruition last year,” Carey Finance Professor Jim Kyung-Soo Liew said. “This year it was bigger and better, with a high level of involvement from throughout Johns Hopkins.”
The day included keynote speakers and breakout sessions with topics including “Rockin’ It as a Female Entrepreneur” and “Financing Social Innovation,” and a panel discussion of the progress that Johns Hopkins has made in the innovation arena over the past several years. The day concluded with presentations by 21 start-up teams who were chosen from a much larger initial round of submissions to present their ideas to panels of experienced investors and entrepreneurs.
“We’ve received many emails from faculty and investors who were impressed with how the conference was run and how much energy and planning the students brought to the event,” Liew said.
Elizabeth Galbut and Thomas Antony, students in the Design Leadership program, headed this year’s event.
“The event and the turnout far exceeded our expectations,” Antony said. Last year’s inaugural event featured four teams in one final competition, instead of the current format of separate events for health care, social entrepreneurship, and general entrepreneurship and innovation categories.