Cucalorus Connect, November 14-15, 2019
Cucalorus Connect is a 2-day business, technology and innovation conference taking place in Historic Downtown Wilmington, NC. Connect is where technology and creativity collide, including topics like artificial intelligence, Data driven patient-centricity , the role of meaning in brand, big data, and entrepreneurial resilience. Join us for an outstanding lineup of speakers organized in five dynamic tracks: Healthtech, Gigtech, Fintech, Startups, and the Community Brew. (Learn more about the Connect tracks here!) Connect examines storytelling as an essential tool for business success and focuses on promoting technology-driven, traded-sector employers as the spark for economic growth in Southeastern North Carolina and beyond.
Stay tuned for 2019 Connect Programming!
Connect Pass: $100
Grab a pass now, which includes access to all Connect events, Nov 14-15, 2019!
2018 Connect events ::
10x10 Challenge Screening
Various
10 entrepreneurs are paired with 10 filmmakers and challenged to make a 4-minute promo video in five days. See them on Sunday. The BarTrack product reduces thousands of lost dollars...
Agave – The Spirit of a Nation
Nick Kovacic, Matthew Riggieri
In Mexico families have been passing down the tradition of distilling agave for generations. Discover how this once obscure Mexican drink has grown into the fastest growing spirit in the...
Agave Soirée
Shelley Granger and Luke Carnavale
Join us for an Agave Soirée and sip Casamigos like a star! Experience all four agave based spirits produced by George Clooney and Rande Gerber with your tequila tour guides,...
AI: It’s All About the Data
Bill Stuart, Senior Staff Data Scientist, GE
Missing data? Dirty data? Identify the major challenges and solutions facing companies using AI applications. Bill Stuart, Senior Staff Data Scientist, GE Bill joined GE in April 2018. He focuses...
AI: The 3rd Generation of Computing
Dr. Curry Guinn, Dr. Julian Keith, Mike Orr (moderator)
Explore how humans learn and reason, then see where current tech stands in reproducing our biological capabilities. Dr. Curry Guinn, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Computer Science, UNCW Dr....
Assessing Opportunities
Dr. Xaver Neumeyer, Assistant Professor of Management, Cameron School of Business, UNCW
Finding attractive entrepreneurial opportunities to pursue is a major challenge and requires a systematic approach. The goal of this session is to familiarize participants with approaches that can help with...
Brewmaster
Douglas Tirola
SXSW Documentary Spotlight film Brewmaster artfully captures the craftsmanship, passion and innovation within the beer industry by following the stories of two struggling beer lovers: Drew, a New York lawyer and...
Charlie Fink’s Metaverse
Charlie Fink, Futurist and Forbes Columnist
"The greatest entertainment, technology and business story of our time- and the company that solves it will be bigger than Google." -Charlie Fink From Lion King to Location Based-VR and...
Community Brew Closeout Session
Amanda Fitzpatrick, News Anchor, WWAY and Cedric Harrison, Founder, Support the PORT
This final session features key speakers from the track with an opportunity to share insights and ideas generated during previous discussions. Everyone will have a chance to comment and contribute...
Connect Doc Showcase
Various
Join us for clips from some of the most moving docs from the festival schedule and a discussion with the filmmakers. Extraordinary People // Laura Hart McKinny, John McKinny Impact: Investing...
Connect Social Hour
Hosted by the NC Biotechnology Center, Southeastern Office
Enjoy drinks and river views at this social hour hosted by the NC Biotechnology Center, Southeastern Office.
Cucalorus Connect Beer Party
Edward Teach Brewery hosts the annual Cucalorus Connect Beer Party. Wind down with a cold one after two days of mind-blowing technology and talking at Cucalorus Connect.
Cucalorus Kickoff Party
Kickoff Cucalorus in style at the Cucalorus Kickoff Party at tekMountain. Join us on November 6th at 5:30pm to celebrate the start of Cucalorus and the Connect Conference. Come mingle...
Cuctails 80s 90s Dance Party
Cuctails DJ Dance Party with DJ Suspence. Featured guest bartenders Rob Mariani and Joe Nicol.
Cuctails Late Night Party
An unexpected combo of bonfires and tastie beverages. With a few interactive installations and “Soul Sessions” - a late night open mic experience.
Cuctails Party – LiLa w/ Billy Heathen
Share a few drinks with other festival goers at one of the booziest places in town. Passholders get in for free. Libations from featured bartender John Parra of Foundation and...
Design Thinking for Delightful Banking Experiences
Malaika Paquiot, Master Product Manager, International Markets, nCino
Learn strategies that draw from manufacturing and the visual arts to foster creativity and innovation. Malaika Paquiot, Master Product Manager, International Markets, nCino With more than 15 years experience, Malaika...
DIY AI: You Can Do It Too!
Dr. Ralph Reda, Adjunct Professor of Physics and Instructor of Business Analytics, UNCW
Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) were once the domain of computer scientists proficient in advanced programming languages with access to high-performance supercomputers. Over the past few years, advances...
Emerging Trends in FinTech
Xeth Waxman, Executive Vice President of Engineering, Apiture
Be innovative or get left behind. Learn how FinTech is disrupting traditional financial services. Xeth Waxman, Executive Vice President of Engineering, Apiture Xeth is as a seasoned engineering leader, with...
Employment in the New Economy
Pat Petitti, Co-founder and CEO at Catalant
Explore how AI technology matches business expertise with enterprises to address needs efficiently and in real-time. The result? An agile workforce. Pat Petitti, Co-founder and CEO at Catalant Prior to founding...
Farmsteaders
Shaena Mallett
Having abandoned a career as a food processing engineer at General Mills, Nick returns home, the prodigal son, to resurrect his late grandfather’s dairy farm. Short Before the Feature: NourishNC Short // Steven...
Film Festival Alliance / BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Find the trusted core
Iddo Patt (moderator)
The elephant in the room…Boards. How do you attract and retain effective board members, manage them and set realistic expectations? How do you handle the blurred lines between governance and...
Film Festival Alliance / CODE OF CONDUCT: Share your values
Alliance for Action (moderator)
Most film organizations don’t have the means to run their own HR department. What are the codes of conduct that you set forth and what kind of messaging do you...
Film Festival Alliance / Introducing New Technology to Your Team
Iddo Patt, Eventive
Festival organizers and staff are constantly being asked to do more with less. New festival management, ticketing and digital traffic technologies promise to save huge amounts of time and effort...
Film Festival Alliance / STAFF: Building a balanced team
Lani Simeona (moderator)
Our first session delves right into staffing, and the many issues that arise with this topic, including interviewing, hiring (seasonal staff, interns), onboarding and parity within your hires. Who is...
Film Festival Alliance / VOLUNTEERS
We all know festivals wouldn’t happen without volunteers. How do you reward your volunteers, beyond the basics? How do you handle the blurred lines between volunteers who work as hard...
Film Festival Alliance: Meet the Festivals
Lela Meadow-Conner
Film Festival Alliance invites attending Cucalorus and regional filmmakers to a candid Meet the Programmers discussion with film festival programmers from across the country. Attending festivals include Full Frame, RiverRun, Atlanta,...
Financial Inclusion
Stephen Slattery, Vice President, Business Development Americas, Ding
Ding was founded to change billions of lives by accelerating mobile access. As the number one international mobile top-up platform in the world, Ding has been keeping people connected since...
FinTech and the Digital Consumer: The Future of Banking
Thomas Cozzolino, Timur Davis, Xeth Waxman, Jonathan Rowe, Malaika Paquiot (moderator)
The digital revolution has arrived in the financial services sector. Whether a challenge or an opportunity, financial services and consumers are taking a bold step to engage with emerging innovations....
Food for Thought
Frankie Roberts, Joe Conway, Beth Gaglione, Sarah Daniels (moderator)
Who has access to healthy, fresh food and grocery stores? Who doesn’t? Why does it matter? What can we do to create sustainable food systems that deliver equitable solutions to...
G&T: The History of Cinchona Bark and the Birth of Tonic
Rob Mariani and Scot Sanborn of Sutler’s Gin
You may know of it as a drink mixer, but tonic actually started as a medicine, curing malaria and other diseases. The history of tonic began in 1640 in Peru...
Get Artificially Intelligent in Your Customer Experience
Wilson Raj, Global Director of Customer Intelligence, SAS
The explosion of data is fueling more algorithmic and real-time approaches to addressing different business issues, and customer experience (CX) in particular. The nexus of big data analytics and the...
GigTech: AI and the Sharing Economy
Mark Steiner, Pat Petitti, Robert Preville, Mona Badie (moderator)
Setting the stage for our investigation of artificial intelligence and the changing nature of work, this panel features industries ranging from entertainment to software. This session explores two distinct economic...
Go Book Yourself – A GigSalad Workshop
Megan Price & Heather Roonan, GigSalad
Experts from the leading entertainment booking marketplace share the tools you need to turn your gig opportunities and passion into profit. Heather Roonan, Content Manager & GigSalad Veteran, GigSalad After...
IGNITE! Short Talks from Industry Insiders
Dr. Jeff Bullard, David Burke, Ginny Mahaney, Dr. Luke Marshall, Nate O'Keefe
Join several speakers as they present their experiences and points of view on the "Last Mile" of patient engagement, while exploring the obstacles and opportunities for the patient and caregivers. ...
Intro to Super 8 Filmmaking Workshop
Norwood Cheek
This session will focus on a quick background on the evolution of film formats and give insight into shooting super 8 today - what film stocks are available, what to...
Jules of Light and Dark
Daniel Laabs
A lustrous and tender Texas tale of loneliness and uncertainty, director Daniel Laabs’ feature debut tracks the uneasy coming-of-age of Maya (Tallie Medel), whose on-again, off-again relationship with her free-spirited...
Modern Architecture and FinTech: Are You Listening?
Thomas Cozzolino, Senior Director of Market Strategy at Salesforce
David Bowie once said that "tomorrow belongs to those who can hear it coming”. While talk of "digital transformation" is all the rage in financial services, how can technology tune...
Monumental Transformations: Community Art in the South
How do monuments define public spaces? What do they say about our culture, our history and our memories?Featuring the short films Silence Sam and Silenced Sam. Cedric Harrison, Founder, Support the PORT Beyond...
Network for Advancing Behavioral Health: Creating a Sandbox for HealthTech to Detect, Divert, and Impact Behavioral Health Outcomes
Mike Rhoades, CEO, Blaze Advisors
WakeMed treats over 270,000 ED patients each year and over 1/3rd of these ED visits are directly or indirectly related to a behavioral health or substance use diagnosis. With opiate...
Opening HealthTech Symposium
Chris Hillier, PhD, Executive Director, NHRMC Innovation Center
Chris sets the stage for an engaging day of conversation that looks at how healthcare tech, big data, AI and cutting-edge user interfaces can drive patient engagement, better health outcomes...
Pegasorus Lounge Opening
Your first chance to check out the new filmmakers lounge at CFCC Union Station, 5th floor.
Poitín Workshop
Ollie, Great Wagon Road
Experience the real-life account of an Irish bootlegger - once caught for selling his moonshine - make a comeback in the states through his Grandson Oliver Mulligan, who left his...
Race and Recovery: Post-Florence Realities
Rep. Rodney Moore, JC Lyle, Kojo Nantumbu, Cedric Harrison (moderator)
How has the community response to Hurricane Florence spread itself into our communities? How have historical racial divisions and imbalances impacted victims in African-American neighborhoods? Rodney Moore, NC House of...
Rocket Pitch
Various
Fast-paced pitch competition. Watch startups go head-to-head with just 90 seconds and one slide to capture audience votes. Presented in conjunction with the All Conference Keynote, Speaking the Same Language: Connecting...
SCRUM #1: How does HealthTech become fun?
Michael Katchman, Dr. Carrie Shaw, Sean Ahlum (moderator)
The promise of technology to improve the delivery, payment, and/or consumption of care also crosses paths with regulations, databases, applications, mobiles, wearables...can fun be in this mix? Michael Katchman, Founder...
Scrum #2: The data SPEAKS. . . yet how can we better LISTEN?
Adrianne Overbay, Chris Skowrownek, Wilson Raj, Mike Rhoades (moderator)
How do we “anticipate” health events and, in doing so, creatively engage patients in self management of their care while informing and activating caregivers? Adrianne Overbay, AVP, National Value Based...
SCRUM #3: The Last Mile of Digital Health: Fun, Sticky, and Engaging
Jeff James, Philip Brown, Wilson Raj, Sean Ahlum (moderator)
Connected devices, monitors, and avatars are finally showing up in healthcare, but refusal and abandonment rates are high. What are consumer objections to “care-by-wire” and how can we mitigate? Jeff...
SCRUM #4: Calling Ma Bell… Virtualizing Care via telehealth and remote monitoring
Jason Gwizdala, Ronnie McNeill, Chris Hillier (moderator)
Explore how to integrate artificial intelligence tools into the consumer and patient lifecycle to build confidence and trust in Virtual Care. Jason Gwizdala, Head of I2M Solution Acceleration, Philips Wellcentive...
Speaking the Same Language: Connecting with Technology Brands Today
Susan Ellis, Director of Brand and Corporate Social Innovation, SAS / with special guest, Charlie Fink, Futurist and Forbes Columnist
Our All-Conference Session includes the Rocket Pitch Competition, presentation of the Emergent Leadership Fellows, and a featured keynote by Susan Ellis. When we think of technology, words like empathy and...
Sponsor Reception
Hosted by the NC fILM Forum
NC fILM Forum hosts the Cucalorus Sponsor Reception at Pour Taproom.
The Blockchain Revolution
Girard Newkirk, Breven Warren, Richard Pasquantonio (moderator)
Labeled as the next Big Thing, learn how a profound technological shift will change how the world does business. Girard Newkirk, founder and CEO, KWHCoin As the founder and CEO...
The Campari Cuctails Party
The official launch of our four day cocktail journey, the Campari Cuctails party features a very special visiting bartender with a special selection of our custom recipes, as well as...
The Community Brewer’s Panel: an inside look at brewing in NC
Jacqueline Crane, Gary Sholar, Aaron Skiles, Deborah Sperati, Paul Singh (special guest), Kevin Maurer (moderator)
What is it about craft beer (other than its tasty goodness and buzzy benefits) that captivates everyday people and helps to shape and define their communities? Hear from all sides...
The Future of Financial Services
Timur Davis, Canapi Inc. and Christopher Roede, Poyner Spruill
Learn how disruptive innovations are reshaping the business of financial services. Timur Davis, Principal, Canapi Inc. Timur creates and executes investment and incubation strategies supporting Canapi’s mission to bring innovation...
The History of Rum: A Pirate’s Journey
Scott Smith, Outer Banks Distilling
Drink your way through the history of Rum, from the Colonial Period until now, and learn about how a place on the Outer Banks of North Carolina inspired a group...
The Investor Mindset
Paul Singh, Entrepreneur, Results Junkies
Whether you’re a founder, investor or community leader, my guess is that you’re interested in creating more sustainable (and, hopefully, valuable) businesses. Paul Singh, Entrepreneur, Results Junkies Paul is an...
The Next Generation of Cloud-based Thinking
David Reeser, Shaun Olsen, Mike Orr (moderator)
Explore where the Cloud and its computing capability is going. Learn what new capabilities are being developed and how the current challenges will be met in the future. David Reeser,...
The Saint Bernard Syndicate
Mads Brugger (Denmark)
Subversive satirist Mads Brugger’s latest is an odd-couple comedy about the pitfalls of striking out into the economic frontier; it charts two hapless Danes’ scheme to sell Saint Bernards to...
Vodka: The Water of Life
Esteban McMahan
Vodka is many things, but boring isn’t one of them. Esteban McMahan, Spirit Guide at Top of the Hill Distillery, shares his passion for this versatile spirit and the many...
Cucalorus Connect 2018 is presented by the UNCW Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship and tekMountain and hosted at Union Station Conference Center.
PRESS:
- Cucalorus Festival Gets State Economic Development Funds
- Cucalorus Connect Forms Executive Board, Names President
- 2017 CEA Winner In Film: Cucalorus Connect
For more information or to get involved, contact:
- Rachel Taylor, Programming Coordinator: programming@cucalorus.org
- Jennifer Salter, Connect Coordinator: connect@cucalorus.org
Connect Founding Partners
