Thanks to everyone who came to Google for Entrepreneurs Day at CoCo on Feb. 20. If you missed it, check out this awesome highlight video.
The big announcement that day was the launch of a Google-sponsored, two-year run of events at CoCo – all geared toward startups and tech. These events will take several forms. You can see them all plotted on one page…or read on.
Big events
The backbone of the year will be several larger scale events, where we can invite lots of people in to share ideas, socialize and develop new ideas and businesses:
- Google for Entrepreneurs Happy Hour (Fri. May 3rd, 2013) Word on the street is that Google+ will be a hot topic!
- Startup Weekend Twin Cities (Spring & Fall) Already a successful semi-annual event, SWTC will be bringing the party to CoCo.
- Fail Fest (July) A suggestion from one of our members, this evening event will encourage attendees to tell their failure stories and talk about the role of failure in developing character and entrepreneurial skills.
- Google for Entrepreneurs Pitch Event (December) The culmination of the year’s events, in which startups can practice their pitches and vie for special prizes.
User groups and meetups
During the year, we’ll play host to recurring tech and startup-focused meetups, including:
- Google Developers Group – Twin Cities (monthly) A meetup for developers who work with the Google software stack.
- Android Users Group of MN (monthly, alternating between CoCo and Code 42) A meetup for developers, marketers and others who are interested in the Android environment.
- House of Genius (semi-monthly) A new event in the Twin Cities that brings together startups and a diverse and changing cast of mentors.
- Rails MN (monthly, 2nd Mondays) A meetup designed to help those learning Ruby on Rails build new business, cool prototypes or side projects.
- Healthcare.MN (monthly, 1st Mondays) A meetup for healthcare-focused tech startups.
Hangouts
CoCo wil host two types of online-only events, which will be held via Google Hangouts and will be open to all who are interested. These events will feature local entrepreneurs and tech and marketing experts from Google.
- Startup Marketing 101 (March, June, August, November)
- Future of Technology in MN (April, October)
Black Box Mondays
Following the Google event, we received so many suggestions for events (thank you!) that we realized we needed a way to accommodate new and interesting ideas as they come up during the year. The solution? On nearly half the Mondays in 2013, we’ll open up our Classroom in Minneapolis for meetups, workshops and classes that are geared toward tech and startups. Below are some of the potential classes and meetups, many of which were suggested (and we hope will be led or moderated) by our community.
- Investor education
- How *not* to love your startup
- Entrepreneurship & economic development for the rest of MN
- How and when to pivot
- Coders & Makers meetup
- Google Apps for mere mortals
- “For startups” series
- UI design for startups
- PR for startups
- SEO for startups
- Content marketing for startups
- Finance & accounting for startups
- Strategic partnerships for startups
- Tech marketing for startups
Got and idea for a Black Box session? Let us know!





