Demo Day for Eitanim Chattanooga, a program that expands leadership and entrepreneurial experiences for teens, will take place Friday, Aug. 2 at 1:30 p.m., fifth floor of the Edney Innovation Building, 1100 Market St. The teens will demonstrate their projects to be scored by local judges. This event is free and open to the public. Partners for this program include The Enterprise Center, Co-Lab, EBP Fiber Optics, The Innovation District, The Jewish Federation of Greater Chattanooga, and the Israeli American Council.
Demo Day judges include:
• Jack Studer - founding member of Lamp Post group and former interim director of Co-Lab.
• Charlie Brock - Charlie is CEO of Brock Partnerships, an advisory and investment company. From 2013-2018, Charlie led Launch Tennessee, a public-private entity charged with developing and enhancing the state’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Prior to taking the helm of LaunchTN, Charlie was a key player in Chattanooga’s startup landscape, co-founding the city’s first angel group, Chattanooga Renaissance Fund, serving as CEO of CO.LAB and the inaugural director of the GigTank accelerator.
• Niki Phillips - senior media strategist, Marketing, EPB Fiber Optics
"Inspired by the state of Israel as “the start-up nation” and an innovation hub, the Israel American Council/Eitanim is a nation-wide program that motivates teens to develop critical thinking, problem solving and community activism," officials said. "This national program includes developing soft skills through innovative educational tools and hands-on learning methods, promoting critical thinking, and problem solving mindsets. Teens develop leadership skills and expose them to techniques to assist them in becoming future game changers in their local community. Interfaith teens work together towards a common goal and real world problem solving. Each group will have exercises that includes team building, innovation skills, through project-based learning with local mentors. At the conclusion of the program, each team will demonstrate the solution to the problem they have solved. The Chattanooga/Israel entrepreneurial relationship will be the case study for their projects."