Our new year story begins with a barefoot running event organized at Innovation Warehouse by Yale alumnus Ian Randolph. Little did LoNyLa founder and fellow bulldog J Dakota Powell realize that running barefoot is healthier than running in super-cool Nikes. While attending the event, Powell met Luisa Marieth Morales, the International Community Developer at Innovation Warehouse.
Both Powell and Morales are American expats from New York City. When Morales heard about the international TimeWave festival, which fuses technology and live performance, her eyes lit up. Her response: let’s do it.TimeWave will launch at Innovation Warehouse (IW), which was formed by a group of seasoned entrepreneurs in collaboration with the City of London Corporation.
Located in East London’s Tech City, Innovation Warehouse provides a runway that helps startup businesses achieve sustainable growth. It functions as a combination of micro-lending facility, experiential business school, R&D department, and angel investor, in an open and buzzing environment.
Published in 2007, The Race to the Top – A Review of Government’s Science and Innovation Policies put forth the initiative “Connect” for assisting high-growth startups. Lord Sainsbury commended this initiative to Regional Development Agencies as a component of their Business Support programme. While Innovation Warehouse builds on the Connect model, it has also introduced differentiators that target sustainability, resilience and commercialization.
To date, dozens of international artists from the six continents will be contributing work and participating in TimeWave. The festival will use Vidyo’s telepresence technology to stream remote work from around the world to London. Other events include a Demo Day for technology companies, a reception for audiences to meet the artists and an after-show soiree. Stay posted on TimeWave by visiting timewavefestival.com.LoNyLa and Innovation Warehouse envision a long-term partnership on various programming initiatives that fuse technology with arts and entertainment. For 2013, the two organizations are planning a digital entertainment conference to further explore this intersection.
Morales and Powell are no strangers to the digital startup community.
Morales is co-founder of PokSea Studios, which specializes in social media for startups and development on a startup budget and bandwidth. She is also the organizer of the New York Silicon Alley Meetup, which was set up to create a global network of tech communities from San Francisco to Sydney. Morales graduated from Pace University (NYC) with a degree in Economics.
After Yale, Powell completed her graduate work at the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), NYU. She first came to London in 2000 as a business strategist in the Internet space. She was responsible for devising digital strategies for companies in venture capital portfolios, helping to migrate bricks and mortar operations to the net.Powell then worked for <kpe> Europe, the American digital agency that built Channel 4’s e4.com. Founded by Mark Patricof, <kpe> not only provided digital services but also created multiplatform entertainment (now termed “transmedia”) and invested in digital startups. Her digital work has been featured in TIME Magazine Europe.
For more information on TimeWave, please visit timewavefestival.com.
