The Capital Technology Management Hub’s first “Capital Startup Challenge” drew quite a crowd on Tuesday, August 11. With more than 70 attendees, including technology management professionals, venture capitalists, and George Mason School of Management dean Jorge Haddock, the audience served as judge for the competition and provided the five teams who presented their technology-oriented business concepts with insightful evaluations.

A group of enterprising MS in Technology Management (TechMan) alumni from George Mason’s School of Management formed the Capital Technology Management Hub (CTMH) to provide a networking and information sharing platform for technology professionals in the Washington, D.C., area. CTMH aims to bring together TechMan alumni and technology management professionals throughout the area by hosting a monthly event that showcases relevant guest speakers.

“Technology management is increasingly important not only for George Mason but also for the entire Washington, D.C., business community,” says Haddock, who joined the School of Management as dean this past July.

CTMH co-founder and TechMan alumnus Dov Gorman was pleased with the quality of the presentations noting that winning team HailCab was approached by venture capitalists at the event. While the five business plans represented a wide range of business propositions, two of the five challengers’ concepts were borne out of ideas during the presenters’ days as students in the School of Management’s TechMan program.

CTMH plans to turn “Capital Startup Challenge” into an annual event and eventually secure sponsorships to award future winners with modest startup capital.

The concepts presented included:
Screen Gems
High-tech meets high-fashion in this patent pending use of sensor and e-paper technologies to create real-time customizable costume jewelry. Presenters: Rima Ruhman and Chuck Gahun (2009 TechMan Capstone co-winner)

v6-Ready
This asset management system provides the automated software tool large corporations will need to bring their networks into IP6 compliance. Presenter:  Ralph Wallace (2009 TechMan Capstone co-winner)

Planphoria Boost
Automating previously manual business processes, Planphoria Boost puts critical corporate and project management data at users finger tips by creating a cloud environment to collect, process, and integrate data within existing enterprise systems. Presenters: Dick Davies

HailCab
Chivalry isn’t dead…it’s just gone digital with this cell phone-based service that provides the safety and security of calling a taxi –and knowing exactly when it’s arriving—to your exact location at any time from any place. Presenter: Andrew Weyrich, ‘02 MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from George Mason

ProfPages.com
What LinkedIn does for business professionals, ProfPages will do for professors and other academic researchers. Partnering with Datatel, ProfPages.com enables professors to create an exclusive community of academic experts who will be able to collaborate and keep abreast of the latest, most credible research in their fields. Presenters: Eric Smeby, ’05 TechMan, and Chris Mauck

Join CTMH for their next event “Introduction to Agile Methodologies – An Interactive Discussion” on September 8 at Brio in Tyson’s Corner Center.

Click here for more details.