Mayor Blackwell to address summer camp

Maple Heights Mayor Annette Blackwell will be keynote speak at the inaugural Lowekey Lab, a week-long camp designed to equip high school students with mobile technology and entrepreneurship skills, in Cleveland on Aug. 11.

This is a week-long camp hosted by Lowekey, a New Your City-based firm, with partner, IBM will be held from August 8-13 at John F. Kennedy Elementary School to provide twenty high school students from Maple Heights City Schools with hands-on experience in mobile application development and business development while working side-by-side with industry leaders, budding entrepreneurs and IBM developers.

“I am extremely pleased to share that I have been invited to speak at this camp being held at John F. Kennedy Elementary School,” Blackwell stated.

Over the camp, students will be divided into teams focusing on one of five emerging technology categories including Internet of Things, bots, messaging, music and wearable technology. Throughout the course of six days, students will work together to create an iOS mobile application using the Swift programming language from start to finish leveraging IBM Bluemix. Student teams will be partnered with mentors from Lowekey, IBM and legal firm Goodwin Proctor throughout the camp to focus on real-world technology skills such as user experience and user interface design and business skills such as principles of building a business, an introduction to intellectual property and presentation skills.

At the conclusion of the camp, one team will win the opportunity to participate in a year long incubation and development program under Lowekey along with business development and legal assistance for their app from Goodwin Proctor.

"Lowekey Lab was created to inspire future generations to create mobile-based businesses, and encourage combining technology with entrepreneurship to align passion with potential," said Lowekey CEO Gregory Lowe II. ''Lowekey Lab will give a blueprint to students wanting to change the way the world works through technology. We're deeply passionate about empowering the next generation of entrepreneurs, app developers, engineers and innovators, starting right here in my hometown of Cleveland. Our core values are: cutting-edge curriculum, personalized instruction, 'Positively Amazing Service,' and a deep belief in philanthropy."

"Today's high-schoolers, part of Generation Z are more inclined towards entrepreneurship rather than traditional career paths. In fact, 72 percent of current high school students want to start a business and expect to have access to information at their fingertips, making them one of the largest users of mobile apps. IBM is excited to partner with Lowekey Lab to teach the next generation of entrepreneurs how to develop and create new business ideas powered by cloud and mobile technologies," said Alisa Maclin, Vice President of Mobile Enterprise Marketing, IBM.

Founder Gregory Lowe II is an award winning mobile entrepreneur. He has created applications for fortune 500 companies, and has been recognized by Forbes Magazine and CNN as a trailblazer in the mobile industry.

In 2014, he was included in Fast Company Magazine's "Most Creative People in Business" list, and is best known for founding SongBooth, the social music video-making app that has amassed over 8+ million downloads worldwide. Lowe has built technology for Grammy winning artists including Beyonce and Ne-Yo, and is currently working on Fitbox, a new monthly subscription service app for fashion forward athletic wear.