This past Saturday, PS27 Director of Communications, Christine Caven joined startGNV for BarCamp at the Historic Hippodrome Theatre in Downtown Gainesville. Giving back to the community, Christine currently sits on the startGNV Board of Directors as Vice President and Secretary. Below are our Top 5 highlights from the event and photo gallery.

1. Hearing startGNV President’s 1852 Startup Pitch

All aboard! James Gibson, Co-Founder, and CTO of Quottly kicked off the BarCamp sessions with a personal passion; trains. In his talk, “Why is the City Seal a Train? My 1852 Startup Pitch” he shared his love of Florida History, family ties, and just why you should invest in railroads.

2. Networking with local Entrepreneurs, Creators, and Techies at the Hippodrome

Over 80 people participated in BarCamp including founders and tech employees passionate about learning. BarCamp is the largest annual gathering of the innovation community in Gainesville. We can’t wait to see this thriving community continue to grow.

3. Learning about Mental Health from Female Founder Aashi Faldu

Aashi Faldu, CEO and Founder of Eufinity helped center the room with a deep breathing exercise and discussion on mental health. Eufinity is mental health and wellness app that is tailored for college students. We first connected with Aashi at the OneSixOne Ventures Demo Day and have been following their progress since. Aashi is also a University of Florida student studying at the UF Innovation Academy.

PS27 is a proud sponsor of startGNV, which includes providing scholarships to underrepresented founders, including women, veterans, and people of color. We were pleased to help Eufinity with a scholarship to BarCamp.

4. Creating Paper Hats During Lindsey Day-Rodriguez’s talk on “How to Build a Network”

We know that entrepreneurs often wear many hats. But how can you use those hats to build your network, increase your social status, and find the job of your dreams? In Lindsey’s talk, we learned just how peers, teachers, organizers, and hats can help you when networking on LinkedIn. I’ll tip my hat to you, LD.

5. Experiencing an Ad-hoc Conference

At BarCamp, very few of the sessions are planned in advance. During this ad-hoc “unconference” the community is invited to add an informative 30-minute session to the drawing board at the beginning of the day and this becomes the conference agenda. We really enjoyed seeing the variety of topics covered including talks on website building, medicinal mushrooms, local art, the future of work, and more! Thank you to startGNV for planning this exciting event. Learn more about startGNV here.

BarCamp Photo Gallery