Saint Louis University to Host Events on Campus Throughout STL TechWeek

ST. LOUIS – The second St. Louis Tech Week, an event highlighting the St. Louis technology sector, is April 8-12 and Saint Louis University will host several events throughout the week.

The week is put on by industry group TechSTL. SLU is one of 15 local institutions serving as a disrupter level sponsor of the event. This year there will be 50 events at 30 different venues in the St. Louis Metro area.

“It is a great time to be an entrepreneur at SLU,” said Lewis Sheats, executive director of the Chaifetz Center for Entrepreneurship. “We are excited to partner with TechSTL and host several TechWeek events on campus, including our spring STL REE pitch competition.”

Three teams of students from the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business will participate Monday in the STL REE Regional Collegiate Pitch Competition. The event, hosted by the St. Louis Regional Entrepreneurship Educator Consortium, features students from St. Louis area colleges and universities presenting their business ideas in a poster format.

The STL REE Annual Pitch Competition is designed to encourage and demonstrate collaboration across the St. Louis regional higher ed entrepreneurship programs. The goal is to increase student engagement and awareness of entrepreneurial opportunities. Participating institutions include SLU, Harris Stowe State University, Lindenwood University, McKendree University, Missouri Baptist University, Principia College, Souther Illinois University Edwardsville, University of Missouri St. Louis, and Washington University. 

“The opportunities for our students to engage and embed themselves in the STL entrepreneurship ecosystem is rewarding and so important for their development,” Sheats said.

The Pitch Competition begins at 5 p.m. and will be held at COLLAB @ Cortex, 4220 Duncan Avenue.

The events on campus at SLU include:

Wednesday, April 10

Consumer Product Innovation

The Consumer Production Innovation Expo will explore the leading trends in making, packaging, distributing, and selling products in the St. Louis region. The event will include an onsite Expo for locally owned companies that have a consumer product to sell.

This will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Anheuser Busch Auditorium at the Chaifetz School of Business.

Thursday, April 11

TGI Career Guide Series, featuring Ronda Schrenk of USGIF

The Taylor Geospatial Career Guide Series connects successful geospatial professionals with students and job seekers from across the Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI) consortium interested in geospatial or geospatial-adjacent careers. The featured speaker for this session is Ronda Schrenk, the Chief Executive Officer for the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation.

Schrenk leads the Foundation in its mission to promote the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and develop a stronger GEOINT community among government, industry, academia, professional organizations and individuals whose mission focus is the development and application of geospatial intelligence to address national security objectives. 

Schrenk is a recognized leader in the field of Geospatial Intelligence and has been on the leading edge of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft for most of her career, including 25+ years in a variety of leadership and analytic positions at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), private industry, non-profit, and even academia.

The event will be held at 12 p.m. in Griesedieck Hall. 

Direct to Consumer Summit

The St. Louis community already has sizable footprint in the direct-to-consumer world with a long history of small scale manufacturing. This event will feature some of the largest players and thought leaders in the online sales community exploring what is on the horizon for 2024.

The event will be held from 1-5 p.m. in the Anheuser Busch Auditorium at the Chaifetz School of Business, located in Cook Hall.

Friday, April 12

Driving the Future of Food Tech

St. Louis is home to several global leaders in food and beverage production and is a hotbed for small scale manufacturing of value-added food products. As an epicenter for food production innovation, the St. Louis community serves as fertile testing ground for emerging technology around our food companies.

This event will feature a discussion of the role of tech integration and production innovation within food manufacturing, and how things like AI and data security are shaping those trends. The lineup will include some of the largest corporate players in St. Louis, as well as the most disruptive “up and coming” manufacturing companies to explore the future of Food Tech in America.

After the program, there will be an Expo of Food and Beverage companies, to showcase the manufacturing leaders in St. Louis.

The event will be from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Anheuser Busch Auditorium at the Chaifetz School of Business, located in Cook Hall.

---

TechSTL began in 2022 as a membership-based technology council focusing on providing the metro area with a forum to advance St. Louis’ technology and innovation sectors.

All events are free and open to the public, but registration is required due to seating constraints at many locations. A full agenda of St. Louis TechWeek events is available online.