The Rhode Island Coalition of Entrepreneurs is making a new move: The entity, which works to unify and advocate for the Rhode Island entrepreneurial community, has announced that it will host its first-annual Startup Day on May 4.
Paff Auditorium at the University of Rhode Island's Providence-based Sheppard Building will host the day-long event, featuring seven panels. Topics range from "storytelling" and "design thinking" to "legal and accounting compliance." Culinary education provider Amos House is also catering the event.
"We have several key audience members," said Pat Sabatino, CEO of Datarista and executive director of RICE. "The first would be our core audience — founders, high growth [startups] ... or someone who is contemplating it; someone who wants to take this leap."
Then, of course, are those who want to be supportive of the Ocean State's entrepreneurial environment.
The RICE leadership team argued that success for Startup Day isn't just a big turnout — although slightly north of 100 have already RSVPed to the event.
Instead, "the truth is, if we get an audience of interested people and useful content that helps them start or advance their young company here in the state of Rhode Island, [that's success]," added Adam Alpert, associate director of RICE.
Startup Day is completely volunteer-run, "done on the backs of the people who are doing this out of the love of our community," Sabatino said.
The idea for the event, which has been in the planning stages for 18 months, was born from a casual coffee meeting between Sabatino and others within the community. URI then "preemptively struck," sponsors came on board and the rest is history.
Alpert and Sabatino emphasized the difference these sponsors made towards the event, whose support allowed the ticket cost go from $40 to $25 (there are additional scholarships available, as well as discounts for students; RICE members get in free).
These sponsors include URI and URI Ventures, as well as Matter Communications, Virgin Pulse, Cox Communications, Innovate Newport and more.
Sabatino and Alpert added that the event was uniquely shaped by insight from RICE's membership, which steered the planning team towards specific concepts and agenda items.
"It's not a gang of five at the top," Sabatino said. "It's a a member-driven event — the structure, the date, the content — it's all shaped by our members to serve the greater ecosystem."
These perspectives help set Startup Day apart.
"I think there are so many wonderful events that are coming to Rhode Island," Alpert said. "[But this] brings something unique to the table [because it was] shaped significantly for those in the trenches to be immediately valuable."
Disclosure: Cox Business RI is a founding partner of Rhode Island Inno.
