On Tuesday morning, local digital health strategy firm Sonic Health and Costa Mesa based incubator Alchemy Factory held an innovation workshop for the marketing team of a major Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company at the Cove. Traveling from out of state for the workshop, the team participated in storytelling exercises which included pitching, hacking, and gaming among other exploratory activities. The team also participated as judges in a storytelling competition including a diverse cross-section of Cove Share startups and also some from the surrounding biotech community.
Before the storytelling competition began, Matt Bailey, Director of Collaborative Venturing for Applied Innovation provided a brief overview of the Cove and gave the team a tour. Afterward, the startups began with their pitches, with each person allotted five minutes each and judged based on the power of their stories. Participating startups included Syntr Health Tech, DocBot, Velox Biosystems, CARBo, and Strokology. After the judges deliberated and tallied their scores, Strokology came out the winner.
“The Cove represents an aggregation of the best ideas in biomedical, engineering, life sciences, and health tech innovation taking place under one roof. This space not only has the intellect, but it also serves as a place of inspiration for those who spend time here. Bringing our client’s team here was an opportunity to expose them to the innovation taking place and an opportunity for us to help support the local community. It’s important to us that we are driving innovation forward. I think what’s happening here at the Cove and UCI is wonderful. I think today’s event was a success.” said Fabio Gratton, co-founder of Sonic Health and Chief Alchemist at Alchemy.