Robert Latorre headlines conference Oct. 23

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A. Sue Weisler

Robert Latorre

Award-winning photographer Robert Latorre, noted for engineering a camera system called The Big Freeze, is the keynote speaker at the RIT Entrepreneurs Conference at Rochester Institute of Technology on Oct. 23. The RIT alumnus ’75 (photography) earned the Clio award for special effects for his large metal truss system with up to 360 cameras that captures a frozen scene in an instant. It has been used at The Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Emmys and hundreds of television commercials, live concerts, music festivals and sporting events all over the world.

The 12^th annual conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the RIT Campus Center; Latorre’s keynote address is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in Ingle Auditorium. Tiger Tank will be held from 10:15 to 11:30 a.m. in Ingle Auditorium. The event is sponsored by Saunders College of Business and hosted by RIT’s Albert J. Simone Center for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Tiger Tank features five student teams competing before a panel of judges for nearly $5,000 in cash prizes and a full scholarship to attend one of the graduate degree programs at Saunders College.

Tiger Tank teams and their products in the competition:

• Body Cool—Designed for the 2.5 million people suffering from multiple sclerosis, a clothing product with a cooling ability to discreetly control their symptoms during warm weather;
• FlickShare—A feature with a one-click interface that allows users from any location to simultaneously watch the same media whether it is a video clip, movie, or live stream event;
• Free Roam—An “invisible leash” smart phone application that connects a dog collar through Bluetooth to signal the animal with a whistle when it drifts away;
• ShoRaq—An intuitive interface that allows users to purchase specialty clothing from merchandise seen in their favorite shows and movies;
• Univent—A mobile and desktop solution for universities and local businesses to track events from a centralized single resource.

Multiple interactive sessions held throughout the day include: Bitcoin: The Future is Built on the Blockchain, Joining a Startup, Curating the Successful Social Experience, Funding Your Venture, Experience of Student Entrepreneurs, Legal Issues-Incorporated and IP, Technology Commercialization, Design Thinking and the Entrepreneur, Creating a Digital Business and Customer Discovery.

Guest speakers for the event are: T.C. Pellett, social media strategist and founder of Initial Here Creative Services; Melanie Shapiro, founder and CEO of Case Wallet Inc.; Cindy Cooper, corporate secretary/treasurer of Applied Physics Development Corp.; RIT alumni John Dvorak ’15 (computational mathematics), Alex Reid ’14 (computer engineering), Josaphat Valdivia ’15 (computer engineering) at Case Wallet Inc.; Theresa Mazzullo, CEO of Excell Partners; Joseph Miller, assistant professor of marketing at Saunders College; David Fuehrer, founder and president of Emerging Space and adjunct professor in design thinking and digital entrepreneurship at Saunders College; and Matthew Ray, relationship manager at M&T Bank.

The event is open to the public and parking is available in Lot N. The cost, including a boxed lunch, is $25; free for RIT alumni, students, faculty and staff—with a box lunch fee of $10. Online registration is available at the RIT Entrepreneurs Conference website or call Dana Pierce at 585-475-2199 or dpierce@saunders.rit.edu.