InnovateCO Forum and data challenge coming to Colorado

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office is kicking off new events for the nonprofit, business, entrepreneur, government and tech communities — Innovate CO Forum, and InnovateCO Data Challenge.

The idea is to bring together those communities to share ideas and issues that could be addressed using public data.

The InnovateCO Forum on May 19 is a one-day event with leading data authorities and front-line data practitioners sharing their experience in educational sessions, along with discussions on best practices to turn public data into business efficiencies.

The Forum will include the InnovateCO Data Challenge final competition and networking event. The challenge will ask competitors to develop solutions that address key Colorado business issues. This year, the competition will be a single track, sustainability-, environmental-, green-themed data-analytics competition. Teams will compete to integrate Colorado’s public data into analytics useful for Colorado’s business decisionmakers.

The InnovateCO Data Challenge will begin in late March and end with a pitch battle hosted as the capstone event to the InnovateCO Forum on May 19. The InnovateCO Data Challenge will be a new, slimmed down and more targeted version of the former Go Code Colorado competition.

The InnovateCO Forum and Data Challenge run as a series of virtual and in-person events:

• March 30: InnovateCO Data Challenge Kick-Off
• April 15: Mentor Workshop #1
• April 26: Mentor Workshop #2
• May 3: Submissions due
• May 19: Final Pitch Competition and Awards Event

The event is completely free to enter.

• Register beginning February 1 for the InnovateCO Forum
• Register for the InnovateCO Data Challenge Launch Event
• Register for the InnovateCO Data Challenge Final Pitch and Awards Event

From the Secretary of State’s Office: If you or your organization would like to be involved in this year’s InnovateCO Forum & Data Challenge without participating in the competition, there are several partnership opportunities available. To learn more, visit bic.coloradosos.gov.