Editor’s note: In the latest post that’s part of the news partnering agreement between ExitEvent and WRALTechWire, Laura Baverman talks with Ari Kern about UP Global, Startup Weekend and Startup America.
DURHAM, N.C. – At least a handful of Startup Weekend events will happen in the Triangle by year’s end, including the first local Women and second EDU editions. One class of NEXT mentoring is planned. And perhaps the Triangle will send its first entrepreneurs as mentors to Entrepreneurs Across Borders, the newest program of the international entrepreneurial support organization known as UP Global.
There’s one UP Global woman who supports all of these Triangle efforts (and those in 11 other southeastern states and Puerto Rico), and we spent some time chatting during her visit to the Triangle last week.
Ari Kern lives in Kansas City and is one of a dozen or so regional managers for the Seattle organization formed a year ago to house the global activities of Startup Weekend and the President Barack Obama initiative known as Startup America. She’ll oversee more than 60 Startup Weekends, four Startup Weekend EDUs, three Corporate Internal Startup Weekends and three NEXT mentoring programs throughout the Southeast this year. That’s nearly double the activity of 2013.
Though she spends most of her time on Google Hangouts sharing tips and insights with event organizers, she also makes visits to the regions to get to know the teams and find out how she can support their event plans with UP’s national and global resources.
For example, Google for Entrepreneurs and the Blackstone Charitable Foundation have pledged to match up to $2,000 in funds raised in 10 cities for Startup Weekend: Women events. Kern is helping local organizer Mital Patel rally a dozen or so local women to raise funds and plan an event at HQ Raleigh later this year.
The entire post can be read at ExitEvent.
