by Megan Burns, Director - Catalyst
As we approach the end of the year, the tradition of receiving friends and families holiday cards, recapping their highlights of the past 12-months, are trickling in. I love this time of year to contemplate the milestones of the past year's successes, remember new acquaintances met and ponder lessons learned. A great foundation, strategy and guide to plan for the New Year. The Power of Tomorrow.
Catalyst Insights’ article, Strategy: The Catalyst Roadmap to Success highlighted networking is key and an intentionally strategic priority for Catalyst to expand Azafran's vast global business network. Our goal is to build a community to:
Support technology founders and entrepreneurs
Introduce applied technology to global enterprises
Connect with Channel Partners
Share insights from impactful thought leaders
Establish and leverage best practices with world-class partners
Improve access to financial resources.
Since we last checked in, Catalyst has uncovered an amazing business community on the East coast. The Philadelphia Alliance for Capital and Technologies (PACT) is the go-to resource for fast-growing companies across the Philadelphia region. They serve as a driver of entrepreneurship, innovation and work to provide leadership, access, and equity for underrepresented founders. Through this, they positively impact a company’s life cycle – from start-up through continuing growth – by facilitating interaction, information and education in their community.
I recently attended PACT's annual conference uniting investors and entrepreneurial communities in the Mid-Atlantic region for panel sessions, keynote speakers (including Astronaut Captain Mark Kelly, and networking. 45+ healthcare and technology companies at all stages of development presented to a national base of investors throughout the day for a chance to enter The Lion’s Den. Similar to Shark Tank, The Lion’s Den is a panel of successful CEOs and investors prepared to make live investment offers to three of the finalists. Invest they did! Right on the spot over $1million invested.
Dean Miller, PACTs President and CEO, Cheryl Jarvis-Johnson Director, Programs & Operations and the entire team organized a terrific and engaging event. Attendees and PACT leadership represented a who’s who of investors, innovation centers and enterprise companies including KPMG, Comcast Business, EY, Vanguard, Bank of America, Independence Blue Cross, RSM, University Science Center, Bridge Bank and Morgan Lewis just to name a few.
Connecting the Dots: Event Networking, a past Catalyst article, mentioned one of my favorite commencement speeches, Steve Jobs' in 2005 to Stanford Grads where he encouraged us to enhance our networks by attending events and networking. Always remembering to connect the dots.
You can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. Trust the dots will connect. This concept applies to when we meet people. Especially at events. When we are open, without an agenda, authentic connection happens. We may connect the dots later to find out why.
When I accepted an invitation to attend The Federal Circuit Bar Association ® (FCBA) and the Philadelphia Intellectual Property Law Association (PIPLA) Bench & Bar® in Dialogue at the beautiful Franklin Institute by our Intellectual Property (IP) friends and experts, Matthew Fedowitz and Patrick Keene from Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, I responded absolutely! A lovely evening and engaging conversation happened to bring awareness to the PACT organization and upcoming conference. Steve Jobs certainly had it right! I didn’t connect the dots until after I said yes to attend a Circuit Bar Association dinner!! Plus Patrick and Matthew are lending their expertise to support Catalyst to help small & mid sized companies understand incorporating patent and IP into their strategy therefore creating a greater value in their M&A.
As Catalyst enters the new year, what’s in store for 2023? Catalyst is preparing a schedule of events to attend kicking off in January with CES and NRF
Missed past 2022 Catalyst articles?