Next Monday, April 9th, at 7pm, two great events will join forces for an evening of tech and fun. Bloomtech, a monthly meetup that curates entrepreneurship and startups here in Bloomington/Indiana, and Ignite Bloomington. If you’ve never attended an Ignite event, then you honestly don’t know how to have fun. Ignite is an event where presenters talk about any topic they choose for exactly 5 minutes. Presentations have 20 slides, with each slide advancing after 15 seconds. In the past, presenters have spoken about chickens, magic, lock picking, world music, time travel and even startups. For this special edition of Ignite, all presentations will be tech-related.

Monday’s event will give you the chance to network, hear about some local upcoming tech events and news, and even learn a thing or two from the Ignite speakers. The event will be held at KRC Catering. Some finger foods and a cash bar will be available for your enjoyment. So come on out, bring a friend or seven, and have some fun on a Monday night.

Oh and if you haven’t joined the Bloomtech meetup do it here and rsvp!

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Our journey to Austin for SXSW started last night. Today we’ll join thousands of fellow geeks, developers, marketers, entrepreneurs, and investors for the biggest tech gathering. Bring on the fun!

The SproutBoxers will be all over Austin attending panels, events, meetings, and parties. The first and most important event is our own, SproutBox Ballers Lounge at SXSW. We’ll also be attending the Annual Indy Invasion Crawfish Boil, Jay Baer’s panel, and various other exciting events.

If you are planning to attend, just curious as to what we’ll be up to, or in need of suggestions of events to attend, we’ve put together a quick guide of our favorite events!

Friday at 11am:

SproutBox Ballers Lounge at SXSW:

With IU Basketball kicking butt and taking names again, we’ll be hitting up Trifecta on 3rd to watch the second round games of the Big Ten Tournament. Come join us for some bball and beer. The Lounge is sponsored by SproutBox and Sprouts: CheddarGetter, StoryAmp, Cause.it, TeamMash, and VaultWorthy.

Friday at 8pm:

5th Annual Indy Invasion Crawfish Boil:

The 5th annual Indy Invasion Crawfish Boil at The Boiling Pot hosted by KA+A. This is the place to be to catch up with fellow Hoosier SXSWers. We’ll be there, you should too! RSVP here!

Saturday at 4pm:

Cause.It:

Cause.It is being featured as one of the top 6 new apps at SXSW by App.net! Come check them out at the Beauty Bar on East 7th Street, as they look to push Cause.It out to become the guide for Social Good at SXSW!

Download the Cause.It App Today!

Saturday at 6pm:

Tech Cocktail’s SXSW #StartupLife Celebration 2012:

33 amazing startups will be features in the Tech Coctail’s SXSW #StartupLife Celebration. SproutBox’s own, Mike Trotzke, will be one of the judges helping decide which startups are the cream of the crop. Come hear the pitches and learn more about these great startups.

Monday at 3:30pm:

Panel: Collaboration over Competition:

One of our good friends, Jay Baer, will be participating on the Collaboration over Competition panel, so you can bet we’ll be there listening to what he has to say.

“The old way of thinking tells small businesses to worry about competitors. Worrying takes the focus off the business. By collaborating with competitors the focus remains on the client and business goals.”

Tuesday at 12pm:

StoryAmp at The SoundCloud Open House

Our Sprout, StoryAmp, will be showcasing their lovely app at the SoundCloud Open House. Founder, Dmitri Vietze, will be demoing StoryAmp at noon on the stage. This event is taking place at Former Treehouse Pub, 501 E. 6th Street.

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A few weekends ago we had the first Selection Weekend of 2012. Words cannot describe the amount of talent we had on hand for the event. From an overwhelming amount of applications, we narrowed it down to seven lucky companies who became our finalists. These companies ranged from a video sharing software to virtual waiters for bars. The founders came from all over. Some from Bloomington; the others traveled from California, New York/New Jersey, DC, and Indy. Each and every one of these founders were very excited for the opportunity to become our next Sprout.

A meet and greet held here at the Box started off Selection Weekend Thursday. Finalists were able to check out our awesome space and meet some of the staff. We had the Upland beer taps flowing and thankfully, Trotzke’s wife spoiled us with her delicious food.

After a good night’s rest, our selection committee and finalists arrived to The Box early in the morning. Everyone filled their bellies with some of Bloomington’s finest breakfast goods, an assortment of bagels from Bloomington Bagel Company with three different type of schmears, and wide variety of donuts from Cresent Donuts. Once everyone settled in, Brad welcomed everyone to the day of presentations and explained how the day would unfold.

The presentations in the morning set a high bar for the afternoon presenters to hit. Lunch break gave finalists a chance to mingle with the selection committee and taste another staple of Btown, Bloomington Sandwich Company. Our afternoon finalists ended the day with a bang. The group had a short break before dinner at The Irish Lion and a night out on the town.

We like to take Selection Weekend as an opportunity to show out-of-towners why Bloomington is so kick-ass. If you ask just about anyone who has lived in Bloomington for an extended amount of time, most people would say that they miss/crave the food. Bloomington has such a wide variety of great restaurants, so we try to offer some of the best to our group. We also like to show them what Bloomington has to offer. In the past we’ve toured the new end zone at the football stadium, toured local breweries, visited the IU Art Museum, and networked with some of the most valuable people of Bloomington’s tech world.

I think it would be fair to say that our selection committee has their hands full with this decision. All seven finalist companies have great ideas and presentations. Their founders are passionate about their ideas which is a necessity for startups. We thank everyone for making the trip to SproutBox, sharing their ideas, hanging out, and taking a chance. We wish you all good luck and hope we can help you all in some way.

If you or someone you know are interested in applying for our next application round, apply here!

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