Stories

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the Tech Rising Summit, an impactful annual event that brings together corporations, nonprofits, local government, and academic institutions to advance digital equity in our community.

Tech Rising, an initiative led by the AvidXchange Foundation in partnership with 20+ local corporations, strives to bridge the digital divide and make Charlotte the most digitally inclusive community in the U.S.  through strategic engagement with the Center for Digital Equity, government, academic and nonprofit  partnerships.  

Over the past 4 years, here are the results of this event:

• $133K in grant funding through the Tech Idea Incubator Grant to 24 nonprofit organizations to seed innovative ideas to increase digital equity.
• Hosted over 600 attendees which include nonprofit leaders, corporate leaders, local government and academic leaders to find collaborative ways to increase digital equity.
• 100% of attendees said it was a good use of their time and 100% made a new connection. 

This year’s summit  focused on CyberSecurity and AI - Threats and Opportunities to foster Digital Equity and the event was hosted at Honeywell’s Global Headquarters on May 5th.

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Here are the highlighted speakers and topics for this year:

• Center for Digital Equity Update
  • Moderated by Natali Bentancur,  Deputy Director, Center for Digital Equity, featuring partners:
    • Sarah Cassidy, Managing Director with Barings
    • Jamar Davis, Information Technology Project Coordinator with City of Charlotte
    • Michael Terrell, Senior Managing Director - North Carolina, with Per Scholas
• Corporate & Government Partner Panel: The increase of Cyber Crime due to AI
  • Moderated by Bruce Clark, Executive Director of the Center for Digital Equity featuring:
    • Sean Wright, Chief Information Security Officer at AvidXchange
    • Chase Carpenter, Chief Security Officer at Honeywell
    • Charlitta Hatch - Chief Data and Analytics Officer, City of Charlotte
• Community Impact Panel: CyberSecurity and AI - Threats and Opportunities to foster Digital Equity
  • Moderated by Rob Phocas, Director of Corporate Responsibility at AvidXchange
    • Detective John Koukopoulos, Cyber Crimes Unit, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police
    • Jasmine Jackson - Founder and Executive Director T-ATP
    • David Flynn - Information Technology Director at Habitat for Humanity
• Breakout sessions led by Apparo
  • Bolster Your Organizations' Cybersecurity
  • AI for Fundraising and Marketing  

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A key staple of the summit is the Tech Rising “Tech Idea” Incubator Fund which was established since the first summit as a way to seed innovative ideas born from participation in the event.

Overview of the Fund:

• There will be two grants of $10K each available.
• Preference will be given to seeding ideas that include an element of utilizing Cybersecurity and AI

Funding corporate partners include: Ally Financial, AvidXchange, Google Fiber, and Honeywell.

Nonprofit Criteria:

• Open to every 501c3 nonprofit serving Mecklenburg County.

Examples of types of projects/programs that could be funded, include, but are not limited to:

• Seeding or expanding Cybersecurity or AI program within your curriculum
• Collaboration with another nonprofit to pilot a program
• Expanding programs to new students who wouldn’t normally get a chance to participate
• Testing pilot ideas to see if they can be expanded to more students

Tech Idea Fund submission process:

• May 6th - June 31st : Tech Idea submission window is open,  all submissions must be received by 5pm on June 31st via this form.

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