The SproutBox Sprout #6 Selection Committee event this past weekend was a great success. The application finalists pitched their ideas to the selection committee followed by a weekend of networking and fun.

Following a full day of great pitches and updates from entrepreneurs, selection committee members and finalists joined the SproutBox team for dinner and drinks at some of Bloomington’s quintessential spots, tours and tasting at two fantastic local breweries, and wrapped-up with a trip to an IU basketball game.

To see a glimpse of the event click through the photo above or checkout this flickr photo set. Keep a lookout. We’ll be announcing the selection of the next Sprout soon!

The Herald Times newspaper ran a front page article today about the draw downtown Bloomington has for tech companies. The story highlighted the downtown tech park, technology partnership, B-Line Trail, and the vibrant mix of restaurants and stores downtown. In addition to SproutBox, The HT also talked with a number of our favorite Bloomington tech companies like Information In Place and Envisage and threw in a plug for Bloomington Geek Dinner this Thursday at SproutBox. The timing of the coverage is great with us coming up on our first application deadline in just a week.

The Article (Downtown area a high-tech draw) requires a subscription, but they also shot this embedable ‘video visit’ to SproutBox you should check out even if you aren’t an HT subscriber.

Thanks to Ariel Tung for the article and David Snodgress for the photos and video!

In conjunction with sponsoring a couple of events in the Midwest, we’ve extended the deadline for new applications until August 15th. So, if you haven’t already, you still have time to submit your application to be the next Sprout! Just visit http://www.sproutbox.com/apply. TECH cocktail and Geek Dinner are two great events for the tech community and we wanted to lend them our support, but realized anyone we’ve met at the events would narrowly miss our deadline. We’ve received applications from entrepreneurs in over 20 states and 6 different countries, but we really wanted to give entrepreneurs at these events a chance to meet with us, ask questions, and still have time to submit a great application.

SproutBox is excited to be sponsoring TECH cocktail on August 6th in Chicago. Enthusiasts from all over the country will be in Chicago to continue to light the technology fire in the Midwest. TECH cocktail helps amplify the technology signal in under served markets and they have fun doing it! http://techcocktail.com

We’ll also be opening our doors to the Bloomington community and hosting Bloomington Geek Dinner on August 13th at the “Box”. Come by for pizza, drinks and tech talk with all the geeks of Bloomington! http://www.bloomingtongeekdinners.com/