Get to know the six finalists for Silicon Prairie Champion
While entrepreneurs are hard at work building, this individual or company selflessly gives time to advancing their startup community. And the finalists are…
SPN Newsroom
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Seed Here’s Amanda Styron and Andy Stoll took home the Golden Analog for Silicon Prairie Champion in 2013.
It won’t be long until we’re all looking elegant and dapper August 21 at Midland Theatre in Kansas City, celebrating another year of growth and success across the region at the Silicon Prairie Awards.
We’ve seen unique storylines unfold in our three core regions—an influx of code schools in Nebraska, Iowa’s foundational growth of accelerators and spaces for collaboration, and Kansas City’s attraction as a hub for testing out new technologies.
Everyone plays a part, which brings us here. Before we can celebrate, we need all of you to help us determine which individuals and companies we’ll be crowning. It’s a two-week voting period that ends at 11:59 p.m. on August 11. That means you have loads of time to spread the word. Cast your vote for the Silicon Prairie Awards!
Join us for the Silicon Prairie Awards: We have an exciting evening of community celebration planned for Aug. 21 at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City. Tickets are still available for the event, which includes an opening reception, keynote talk by N3TWORK co-founder Erik Lammerding, awards ceremony and closing party. Purchase your tickets today.
While entrepreneurs are hard at work building, this individual or company selflessly gives time to advancing their startup community.
Brian Ardinger
Founder and managing director of NMotion accelerator
Runs and promotes events like Open Coffee, Welcome to the Jungle, FAC and Startup Week Lincoln. Also brings in entrepreneurial speakers to the region
Entrepreneur in residence at NUTech Ventures
Co-founder of the Big Plate, a blog highlighting local startups
Nomination: “His insights on marketing, business and customer development are are so finely-tuned that even speaking with him alone for 30 minutes can do your business a wealth of good.”
Nomination: “There are lots of mentors in Silicon Prairie, but Brian stands above them. It is like everyone else is playing checkers while Brian is playing a long game of chess… and he is winning.”
Nomination: “Tominsky has boundless energy for all aspects of the startup community. He organized open coffees, barcamps, coderdojos and more while running his own recruiting business, culminating with the amazing event that was Startup Weekend Cedar Rapids. It felt like a true turning point for our community, with new and old faces among participants, judges and mentors from all levels of the community, tons of energy, and a few participants still going strong on their new companies today. With his new role at the Iowa Startup Accelerator, he’s poised to do even more amazing things. Tominsky is a no-brainer.”
Organizer behind Gravitate, Des Moines’ newest entrepreneurial center of gravity opening this fall
Mentor for Drake University’s Lorentzen Hatchery program
Nomination: “Geoff is doing great things for the Iowa community, between the blog, the podcast and the new coworking space, he’s the state of Iowa’s premier advocate for startups and entrepreneurship!”
Founder of Kansas City Women in Technology, with a mission to interest young girls in technology and inspire career choices through mentoring and workshops, and to create a network of women in technology career paths in the Kansas City area.
Organizes CoderDojoKC
Created a Coding & Cupcakes in town to encourage mothers and daughters to learn tech skills
Nomination: “Jennifer is one of the most active voices for women and girls in the tech community, with a focus on keeping all that potential talent right here.”
Brought the Sprint Accelerator community space to the Crossroads
Teamed with Techstars to launch a mobile health accelerator
Nomination: “The Sprint Accelerator was the center of the KC tech community this year, period.”
Nomination: “He has been there at every turn for the community. This is really hard work and he just keeps giving more. Not sure how he doesn’t collapse! His work with the Accelerator, SPN, Pipeline, as well as serving as a leader in his own company is quite inspiring.”
Co-founder of one of the region’s first code schools, Omaha Code School
Co-founder of dev shop Big Wheel Brigade
Actively advocating for women in tech by securing scholarships for women to attend OCS and hosting an Allies workshop to help understand the importance of diversity and inclusivity
Supports entrepreneurs through programs like Surge Omaha and promotes local artists through free art shows at the Code School
All 12 of his OCS students got jobs within two months of graduation
Nomination: “Sumeet is a pioneer in the startup community in so many ways.”
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This story is part of the AIM Archive
This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »
It won’t be long until we’re all looking elegant and dapper August 21 at Midland Theatre in Kansas City, celebrating another year of growth and success across the region at the Silicon Prairie Awards.
