Here’s a look at news from around Michigan’s innovation hubs:
— Detroit-based LevelEleven, a sales performance platform that employs gamification to stoke competition, headed to Mountain View, CA, last week to compete in Google’s national demo day on April 2. The company was selected to pitch (out of 60 applicants) at Google’s Detroit demo day event, and it went up against 11 companies at the national demo day.
LevelEleven won the game-changer award, voted on by people in the crowd and those watching the live stream online. There is no money involved in the prize, just bragging rights. (Click here to read a blog post outlining the company’s journey to demo day.)
—The Greenlight Business Competition was held on March 31 in Lansing, where participants were competing for $50,000 in cash prizes. The winners are: Airway Innovations ($25,000), a Grand Valley State startup developing patent-pending breathing tube technology; SteriDev ($10,000), a Lansing-based company making advanced medical products for use in surgery; Safety Sit ($7,000), the maker of a medical device that supports patients during rehabilitation; AutoMowTic ($5,000), a Kalamazoo-based startup working on a new way to mow lawns; OneSound ($1,000), which creates collaborative playlists that stream to one device; and SS Equestrian Center ($1,000).
The GreenLight competition, now in its fifth year, was co-created by the Michigan State University Innovation Center and Michigan State University Federal Credit Union.
—Ann Arbor SPARK will host its second annual A2Tech job fair on April 9 at Kensington Court in Ann Arbor. Free and open to the public, A2Tech gives job seekers a chance to learn about the area’s open IT positions. CEO Paul Krutko said in a press release that his organization is holding the job fair at the request of local employers, and more than 30 tech companies in search of talent will be on hand. (For more info, click here.)
—According to a new report from SkilledUp, the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area is responsible for 2 percent of the nation’s Web development jobs. (Both suburbs of Detroit, Dearborn is where Ford is headquartered and Warren is where General Motors’ technical operations are located.) The top area in the country was New York City-Newark, NJ, with 12 percent of Web development jobs. Other cities credited with 2 percent of Web development jobs are Austin, TX; San Diego, CA; Philadelphia, PA; and Phoenix, AZ.
—The Mobile Technology Association of Michigan has launched a weekly podcast to discuss all things mobile/wireless in the Great Lakes State. Michigan Mobile Musings is hosted on BlogTalkRadio by Melissa Birnie and Lisa Kosak. Those interested in appearing on the show should contact [email protected].
