• Article

    LaunchCode bridging tech-talent gap in Miami

    Published January 16, 2015 by

    Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square, right, announced the first LaunchCode Miami class will take place March 3. Wifredo Fernandez, director of CREATE Miami, left, and Leandro Finol, executive director of the Idea Center, asked McKelvey about the challenges and opportunities he has discovered in South Florida. Photo by Preston Tesvich. One solution to Miami’s tech talent shortage is in reach. That was the message from Jim McKelvey, founder of LaunchCode, during an appearance Wednesday night at the Idea Center in downtown Miami. During a talk, “Land Your Dream Job,” he asked 200 attendees to tell their friends and their friend’s friends that it’s time to get “a six-figure job” as a computer programmer, that it’s free, and anyone can sign up today. McKelvey, the co-founder of the $6 billion company Square, was the featured guest for the Idea Center’s “Pioneers @ MDC” lecture series hosted at Miami Dade College. The free, monthly lectures inspire local entrepreneurs with stories from leaders in innovation. Knight Foundation supports both the Idea Center and LaunchCode to attract and keep talented workers in South Florida, while building the entrepreneurial community and expanding economic opportunity.
  • Article

    Knight communities hit Sundance

    Published January 16, 2015 by

    By Nicole Chipi, program associate for Knight Foundation’s arts program In just a few days, film creators and purveyors from across the eight Knight resident communities will be in Park City, Utah, to showcase their work, connect with artists from around the world, and discover new voices in independent cinema....
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    Miami’s corporations and startups explore ways of working together to promote growth

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    Photo by Patricia Clark, Highnote Foundry, 2015. Dan Sachar is a client partner and Miami office head of Highnote Foundry, a consulting, capital and incubation services firm that builds startups in partnership with larger corporations. Below, he writes about a Jan. 8 gathering sponsored by Knight Foundation titled “Corporates & Startups: Partnering for Growth.” Last week a capacity audience of corporate executives, investors and entrepreneurs packed a room in Coral Gables to learn what happens when large corporations and early-stage startups join forces. I was lucky enough to moderate a diverse panel of brilliant South Florida business people and engage the audience in a discussion about not only how established corporations and startups can partner for growth, but also how these partnerships can provide a key ingredient to turbocharge Miami’s entrepreneurial technology scene. 
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    Akron residents warm to the work of the League of Creative Interventionists

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    Photo by David Swirsky.  Styrofoam couches and sidewalk chalk turned out to be a potent attraction to families with children at Akron’s First Night celebration thanks to a happy series of unexpected events. First Night Akron invited the Akron League of Creative Interventionists to participate in the New Year’s Eve family-oriented celebration with music, theater and dance performances across a 12-block area downtown.  “We wanted to provide more interactive experiences during First Night where people could be part of the entertainment rather than just be entertained, and I thought the league would be a great addition to the interactive activities,” wrote Kelli Fetter in an email. Fetter is director of events at Downtown Akron Partnership, which organizes First Night. She met the Akron league’s leader, David Swirsky, during the Detroit Learning Exchange (#Akron2Detroit) bus trip for young professionals a few months ago.
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    Opera @ The Waterfront hits a high note

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    Ceci Dadisman is director of communications for Palm Beach Opera, a 2013 winner of Knight Arts Challenge South Florida. On Dec. 13, we presented our second annual Opera @ The Waterfront concert at Meyer Amphitheatre in downtown West Palm Beach. It was as successful as a company could hope. The crowds came out and enjoyed the 90-minute concert on a perfect, 70-degree afternoon. We had nearly 100 performers on stage including internationally renowned singers, tenor James Valenti and baritone Michael Chioldi. They were joined by our 2014/2015 season Palm Beach Opera Young Artists, and our full orchestra and chorus. We estimate that 3,700 to 4,000 people attended, which is a huge increase from the 2,500 who joined us in 2013. And more than 300 unique visitors viewed our live stream online! Families of our singers from around the world who were unable to come to Palm Beach even hosted viewing parties by projecting our live stream on the walls of their homes.
  • Article

    Knight communities hit Sundance

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    In just a few days, film creators and purveyors from across the eight Knight resident communities will be in Park City, Utah, to showcase their work, connect with artists from around the world, and discover new voices in independent cinema. We’re excited this year that Knight Foundation grantees will be well represented at the festival, with multiple entries from Miami’s own Borscht Corp. screening, including “The Sun Like a Big Dark Animal” by animation collective Bleeding Palm and “Papa Machete” by Jonathan David Kane and Jason Fitzroy Jeffers. Independent cinemas, screening organizations and festivals from across Knight communities will be in Park City as well, scouting new films to bring back to eager audiences at home. Among them will be the Michigan Theater, Filmadelphia, the Nightlight, Coral Gables Art Cinema and O Cinema, which recently opened its third South Florida location.
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    ‘The Invisible Season’ opens during Filmgate Interactive

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    The third annual Filmgate Interactive, a Knight Arts grantee, is Florida’s only transmedia conference that blurs genres and weaves film, technology and interactive storytelling together. The festival, which runs from February 1-8, features more than 10 screenings, five performances, three interactive exhibits and 10 workshops throughout Miami Beach and Greater...
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    The New Tropic aspires to help Miamians become better locals

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    We’re on a mission to help people in Miami be better locals. We all have an instinctive need to find our local—the things we love about where we live. It helps balance out the complaining we all like to do. We want to be connected to the people and places around us, and to be part, even in a small way, of shaping our city’s future. For every hour we spend in traffic, we need a hidden place of respite no one’s discovered; for every tourist trap, a hole-in-the-wall with the best arepas. For every frustration with local government, we need a new project or idea or emerging leader to get us excited about the future again. In growing changing places like ours, those things are tremendously important, but too often hard to find.
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    DataKind expanding to help more social good organizations use data to advance their work

    Published January 15, 2015 by

    A volunteer during one of DataKind's DataDives. Photo from DataKind on Flickr. Jake Porway is founder and executive director of DataKind, a nonprofit that connects social good organizations with leading data scientists to solve problems and inform decision-making. When we launched DataKind in 2011 we had big dreams about just how powerful data science could be in helping social change organizations around the world tackle huge issues such as health care, poverty and education. We were overwhelmed with interest from data scientists eager to use their skills to make a difference and social sector leaders eager to learn more about how data science could help them transform their work. We had ideas about how to bring these two groups of talented and passionate individuals together, but they were just ideas. Now, three years into our adventure, we’ve created a suite of programs designed to deliver powerful data science resources to mission-driven organizations.
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    Teaching artists and Philadelphia’s economy

    Published January 14, 2015 by

    By Jacob Winterstein, The Philadelphia Poetry Slam A year and a half ago I decided to leave my full-time salaried position as a Development Director at a great non-profit to try and turn my part time passions into a full time living. I wanted to write and perform more poetry,...
  • Article

    Opera @ The Waterfront hits a high note

    Published January 14, 2015 by

    By Ceci Dadisman, director of communications for Palm Beach Opera, a 2013 winner of Knight Arts Challenge South Florida On Dec. 13, we presented our second annual Opera @ The Waterfront concert at Meyer Amphitheatre in downtown West Palm Beach. It was as successful as a company could hope. The...