Another successful Gathering, VenCaf Community! This Corporate & Community Partnerships was absolutely jam-packed with information and amazing speakers. You definitely missed a showstopper if you weren’t able to attend, but, no worries! As always I’m here to let you know what you might’ve missed with a VenCaf Recap, so let’s get into it!

Kicking us off was, Starting From Square One, this monthly program spearheaded by the Cortex Innovation Community aims to showcase the success of their hands-on training program designed to provide support to early-stage and first-time business owners in the St. Louis region actively engaged in the development. This month they brought Heartland Black, Hispanic & Afghan Chambers of Commerce to our building to share insights & resources and how your small business can benefit from networking opportunities.

Following that amazing panel, we had FOUR, that’s right count ’em, FOUR different sessions happening all at the same time. Brandon Wilkes from the St. Louis Reconciliation Network was so kind to bring Andrew Stern, Director of Restore St. Louis. A volunteering organization that handles, issues of food security, literacy and economic development to our Gathering that evening. Simultaneously, Mike LaBozzetta, from Faro Law LLC was able to make another appearance to discuss Small Business Law with some of our entrepreneurs and budding professionals!

At the same time, Emily Hemingway with TechSTL had come by and brought along her friends Candera Thompson — Founder and CEO of Bask & Bloom — and Danielle Deavens — Co-Founder & COO of Bold Xchange — to lead Emily’s Session FoundHER. FoundHER hopes to be a safe space for women entrepreneurs, business owners or frontline workers to share their experiences, and create a community for one another. Lastly, we had the amazing Strengths University‘s very own Anne Brackett & Alicia Wojciuch join us to show off Strength Universities capabilities in identifying and highlighting the skills and strengths of your team, with their specialized skills test they are able to accurately pinpoint how your team should be utilized within their aptitudes.

As you can see we had a PACKED night here at Venture Cafe, and we look forward to many more with our phenomenal partners here in our ecosystem. Thank you to each and everyone who came out to support them and us here at Venture. Next week we are back to our Serendipitious Collisions, so bring a friend and learn all about Venture Cafe! See you there!