2017 Updates
Business support & Entrepreneurship
Our community (Bronx) has an encouraging number of small businesses, usually operated by the owner/CEO and a few other helping hands. The struggle for such businesses is not having the resources necessary to compete in the internet or mobile application world of today. This presents a perfect opportunity to connect them with local young and tech savvy students or aspiring professionals without much experience or confidence, but with great potential.
The Bronx community has an amazing numbers of dynamic “go getters”, and “self-starters” which is the hallmark of a thriving immigrant community. This presents a perfect opportunity for entrepreneurship since those are essential characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. To address these opportunities, a program called Traincube was developed to provide unique training to connect local students, programmers and tech enthusiasts with businesses in the community. Trainees gain real life experience building software solutions directly for a business, while businesses gain access to the latest mobile and web technologies.
Training Programs
There is an enormous need for technical people in the United States. Locally, that burden is felt even deeper, not only because students need to “catch-up” in terms of academics but also because a degree in Computer Science or related fields is not enough. The fast pace of technology requires individuals to keep sharpening their skills and gain experience through self-learning, practice, and challenge. A hopeful candidate in the field needs to stay current with all relevant and emerging technologies to remain competitive. We spend a lot of time thinking about such problems and decided it was best to create a series of short “Challenges” to motivate trainees while at the same time preparing them to be competitive.
Traincube Mobile Challenge and Traincube Web Challenge are both examples of such program. These programs help trainees sharpen their skills and gain experience. The participants were trained on the skills required to build a project for a business. The motivation was to create a safe environment in which trainees can build their confidence and learn through practice. A side effect based on past results, has been that trainees also become more entrepreneurial.
Networking Events
Many people feel uncomfortable about social networking and find it challenging for several reasons. Typically, they are unsure of how to start a conversation with people they have just met and fear rejection. Members of minority groups face an even higher challenge due to the lack of professional networking opportunities. We set out to foster an environment where we celebrate diversity in technology while at the same time providing networking opportunities. The mission was to conquer fear and teach the benefits of networking. With the help of Google Developer Groups, O’Reilly book publishing, and other technical organizations in the community the Innovation Lab hosted several networking events. Four tech-oriented networking events were organized. In all, over 350 people have attended and fully participated in those networking 4 events. A “group field trip” on 18th March 2016 to an external networking event, the Launchpad Day Latino, was hosted at Google's NYC offices.
At each of these events, we instill the benefits of meeting and interacting with like-minded individuals. Each event was unique and had its own focus and agenda. The opportunity to learn from or work with others, create meaningful relationships as well as grow personally and professionally was at the core objective of all the networking events.