LISTnet wants to make sure nobody gets lost in the shuffle.
With Long Island wading deeper into an innovation economy, new tech and biotech enterprises form with regularity. But not every one of those startups arrives with fanfare or is fully recognized for its successes, even those launched by entrepreneurs who’ve enjoyed past fanfare and success – and the Long Island Software & Technology Network wants to give credit where it’s due.
So LISTnet is re-tasking its BEST Events – for Business Excellence Strategies and Trends – from panel-driven networkers to tech-industry showcases. The first BEST Event of 2016, slated for May 4 at the Garden City Hotel, will feature four Island-based tech startups sharing their stories – but don’t mistake it for just another “please fund me” event, warns LISTnet President Peter Goldsmith.
Peter Goldsmith
“It’s not a pitch night or a ‘Shark Tank,’” Goldsmith told Innovate LI. “There’s no asking for money. This is to let people know about companies that are growing and what they’re doing.
Careful to line up companies “at different developmental stages,” Goldsmith has assembled a slate of 10-to-15-minute presentations from special guests, including CA cofounder Russ Artzt, who will discuss his new IT firm Digital Associates, and Tyler Roye, who will update the audience on the goings on at Huntington-based group-gifting platform eGifter.
Also scheduled to present: former Hofstra University students James Knaus and Ashish Pandhi, who run their social media-management app Bettr out of LaunchPad Mineola, and Jack Pellman, founder of Dr. Leonardo Interactive Web Services, a Melville-based producer of websites for healthcare professionals.
Nassau County Executive Ed Mangano is also slated to grace the proceedings, according to Goldsmith, to deliver a progress report on his Nassau County Tech Task Team, an assemblage of investors, industrialists and government representative dedicated to promoting the “Tech Island” concept.
While LISTnet’s BEST events were once a quarterly staple at the Garden City Hotel, the idea now is to take the relaunched series on the road, using the May 4 event to introduce LISTnet members and guests to the new format and then scheduling subsequent showcases at different locations around Long Island.
“This is really a showcase for technology,” Goldsmith said. “We’ve had BEST events with panel discussions on venture funding and panel discussions on marketing, but we came up with the idea of making this all about the technology, about what’s happening on Long Island, about what the tech companies are doing, about what the county executive is doing.
“We’re trying to make Tech Island into something real.”
The May 4 event is free to LISTnet members and $25 for nonmembers. Registration is required. Registration and more information is available at LISTnet.org.
