It was a chilly but eventful Monday in the Valley for our MichAGAIN team. After visiting many coffee shops, some owned by Michiganders (shout out to Good Karma Cafe), speaking with students in the Society of Computer Engineering at San Jose State University, and learning about the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View (stay tuned for tomorrow’s update) it was time for our CEO to CEO dinner. No, there is no free parking in San Jose either! It was highly attended by technology leaders, companies who have a presence both in Michigan and California as well as local economic development officials from Ann Arbor SPARK, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Oakland County and the University of Michigan. After hearing and seeing the facts of Michigan’s economic turnaround, impressive rankings (second fastest recovering state in the Nation) and Paul Krutko’s, President and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK, personal account of making the move back to MichAGAIN attendees were all reminiscing about the quality of life in Pure Michigan. We now have 30 new ambassadors of Michigan in Silicon Valley! Today is another packed day filled with a breakfast with venture capitalists, meetings with local IT talent and our evening MichAGAIN alumni networking reception. Wish me luck!
