Venture Café Monterrey: a global initiative for innovation

Connecting innovators to make things happen is the vision of Venture Café, an international initiative that has come to Monterrey with the aim of bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, government, companies, universities, and civil society organizations.

In partnership with Tecnológico de Monterrey, they will officially launch on May 26 with meetings on Thursdays to unite the city’s entrepreneurial community.

The flagship event of this initiative, called the “Thursday Gathering,” can be attended by anyone, whether they’re involved in the innovation ecosystem or want to start a business.

“This is going to help us a lot to connect with entrepreneurs, startups, investors, scientists, professors, students, companies, and corporations that are very interested in innovation and entrepreneurship.

“It’ll be a neutral organization that will help the different stakeholders in innovation and entrepreneurship to meet up on a regular basis,” said Mario Adrián Flores, Vice President of the Monterrey Region.

Venture Café will strengthen the entrepreneurship ecosystem at the Tec and in the city, said Hugo Garza, Vice President of Strategic Projects at Tec de Monterrey.

“It’s a watershed moment for developing the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Monterrey.

“This will be a meeting point for all the stakeholders in the ecosystem to connect, interact, and collaborate with the aim of co-creating solutions to humanity’s challenges,” he said.

“It’ll be a neutral organization that will help the different stakeholders in innovation and entrepreneurship to meet up.” - Mario Adrián Flores

What is Venture Café Monterrey?

Venture Café was founded in 2009 by Tim Rowe at the Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC) in Boston.

It is a global NGO that aims to boost the local innovation ecosystem of the cities where it is established.

Monterrey is the first city in Latin America where this global initiative will have a presence. Currently, it has been established in ten cities on four different continents.

“The main objective is to improve the city’s ecosystem, but since it will take place inside the Tec, this will help our community of students and teachers to benefit from it,” said Flores.

The idea of choosing Monterrey as the venue arose in 2018, when the city joined a regional entrepreneurship acceleration program (MIT REAP), said Alejandra Buendía, Director of Venture Café Monterrey.

“We conducted a study, which shows that the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem has evolved and is at a point where there are many stakeholders working to support innovation and entrepreneurship in various sectors, including government, academia, and investors,” she said.

“But the problem is that everyone works on their own. Sometimes, they don’t know each other, they don’t connect, or they don’t collaborate even though they’re working towards the same goal,” she added.

Thursday Gatherings

Venture Café’s flagship is the weekly themed event called the “Thursday Gathering,” which helps all the stakeholders in the innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem to connect and collaborate.

Sessions can last from three to five hours and are intended to be interactive and innovative.

“They’re like mini festivals with simultaneous activities and a theme. Each month, there’s a general theme and every Thursday, there’s a sub-theme. These general themes are co-created by the community,” explained Buendía.

They consist of various activities, which will require prior registration to participate.

“There will be networking areas at all times for spontaneous conversations with drinks service available.

“There are other more structured and scheduled activities such as workshops and interactive panels. The panels, for example, start with questions from the audience; they aren’t left until the end. The questions come first,” said Buendía.

Click on this link to register: https://venturecafemonterrey.org/event/lanzamiento-venture-cafe-mty/

Another activity will be “drinking storytelling,” where the participants will be taught how to prepare drinks with regional ingredients while a story is told.

This event will be held every other Thursday in the months of June and July, after which it will be weekly.

The Monterrey initiative is looking for volunteers, who can register on the website.

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