From the development of a robust new workshop series to some fierce foosball competitions, 2012 has been quite a year for ATDC. And the New Year is likely to bring even more excitement, as we continue to find new and effective ways to help make Georgia a leader in technology entrepreneurship.
Here are just a few of the 2012 highlights.
- ATDC members continued to make us proud, dominating awards categories at numerous events and competitions. For example, members took three of the top five spots at Startup Riot 2012 and made up nearly half of the exclusive participant list. Member startups and mentors also nearly swept the awards categories at TiECON Southeast 2012, winning four out of the five awards including Entrepreneur of 2012, Top Up-and-Coming Entrepreneur, College Student Entrepreneur and Deal of the Year. And at Venture Atlanta, more than one dozen members and graduates took the stage to pitch their concepts, wowing an audience of venture capitalists, bankers, angel investors and others.
- We graduated 8 member companies at our annual Startup Showcase with more than 400 people gathering to celebrate the tech startup community and honor the new graduates: 3DM Systems, Asankya, Axion Biosystems, BioAutomaton Systems Inc. (BSI), Celtaxsys, Digital Assent, Preparis, and SimpleC.
- We launched the Industry Connect program and had more than 15+ visits with Fortune 1000 companies interested in doing business with ATDC member companies.
- We unveiled the Entrepreneurs Education Series, a rotation of in-depth workshops geared to early-stage members that focused on the business aspects of a startup. In addition, “Tech Talks” was launched, a monthly seminar dedicated to topics important to chief technology officers, vice presidents of engineering, directors of development and developers.
As for 2013, there will be plenty of opportunities to network with other entrepreneurs and learn from seasoned veterans. Want to meet with ATDC staff to discuss your startup? Team members will have office hours available by appointment starting the first week of January. New and prospective members are invited to attend an information session on Jan. 8 to learn more about membership benefits and qualifications.
We salute the hard work of all of our ATDC entrepreneurs and look forward to seeing more member company accomplishments in 2013. ATDC offices will be closed from Dec. 24 through Jan. 2. Happy holidays and see you next year!