Black Tech firms hold MLK Day meeting to discuss Social Innovation and Technology

WASHINGTON - Jan. 19, 2015 - PRLog -- Several pioneering Black Tech firms, policy analysts and others held an invitation-only meeting on Martin Luther King's Birthday (January 19, 2015) in Washington, DC to discuss social innovation and technology. The meeting focused on the role technology might play in addressing Black Male safety and security issues. The meeting was held to plan a hackathon to develop an app (or apps) that will address Black Male health issues.The goals of the meeting were to:

1. Launch the hackathon to develop an app/apps that will address Black Male Health Issues, specifically including the problem of the elevated murder rate.
2. Surface new/old tech talent in the Black community
3. Highlight unique talent/vision at WeWork/641 Ventures
4. Bring attention to the role that Tech might play in addressing critical issues affecting Black Males
5. Show lack of attention on these issues by non-minority tech firms (Google/Facebook, etc.)

The meeting was held in the Conference Room on the 3rd floor at WeWork Wonder Bread, Washington, DC.

One website defines a hackathon as "a competition where developers, designers, product managers and other roles get together in teams to create a new piece of software or application in a given amount of time, then present it to a larger group...the idea is to get a cross-section of people to come up with new ideas or computer programs to help solve vexing social problems. Participants get to flex their creative muscles by building something new from the ground up. The community sees and hears new ideas that can actually get implemented. And last but not least, people have fun and get inspired.”

The prime organizers of the MLK Day meeting were:

National Crowdfunding Services, LLC (NCS). According to Wikipedia, "Crowdfunding, crowd financing, equity crowdfunding, or crowd sourced capital..describes a collective effort by people who..pool their money and resources together via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations." Crowdfunding can be used to fund a startup or existing company, or small business." NCS provides crowdfunding advisory services. http://nationalcrowdfundingservices.com/

and

Creative Investment Research is an investment research and management company. "We research and create socially responsible investments and provide investment advisory services. The company was founded in 1989." https://www.creativeinvest.com/

Food was provided by 641 Ventures, a collection of minority-owned social entrepreneurs and startups with a mission of collaboration, consulting, incubating emerging startups, building a talent pool, finding synergies and developing high value products and services. "Our goal is to build startup companies into scalable and sustainable ventures."

Attendees included:

GO PAY YOUR TUITION IS A NEW WAY TO FINANCE STUDENT LOAN DEBT. "We are practically giving money away to students and providing the best solution for families to be able to afford higher education without the mountains of debt in the current borrowing system. We believe that we can help tackle this economic crisis one dollar at a time by creating a hybrid approach to traditional financing." http://gopyt.com/

PreneurHub.com connects entrepreneurs, customers, and organizations in order to find partners, incubate ventures, and meet milestones. "PreneurHub allows member based associations to deploy their own sites to promote and incubate member entrepreneurs and businesses. PreneurHub sites allow associations to support member entrepreneur activity and create a close knit community of members who build and develop their business ventures." http://www.preneurhub.com/

PANGIA is a social platform enabling distributed networks come together under a single brand to promote their organizations mission and purpose. "PANGIA software creates a member based application, enabling the creation of events, photo galleries, email marketing and custom branding. These features will enable small organizations to organize very quickly under a single mission. I believe PANGIA will change the way communities organize."

Diversity Science, LLC, is an expert-based network of scientists and engineers dedicated to broadening participation and increasing representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).  It has as its mission to bridge the gap between today’s top science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) talent and the companies, agencies, institutions, and organizations that can benefit from engaging them in STEM programming.  http://www.diversityscience.com

Holliday Advisors, LLC provides strategic management and marketing services to small businesses, non profits and individuals. "From crisis management to strategic planning to  developing creative ideas to event planning to social media marketing, they work with clients to satisfy their specific needs as directed or to design custom marketing plans." http://hollidayadvisors.com/