KEC’s 2023 Year in Review

2023 has been a BIG year for KEC We kicked off the year with a new team member, Kelsi Walker, who is our new Communications and Marketing Coordinator. We had another great What’s The Big Idea Pitch Competition with six highly engaged and dedicated teams. We celebrated 10 Years of KEC in April with a […]
Growth & Grit 2023

Growth & Grit | Celebrating East TN’s Inc. 5000 Listed Companies Southern Railway Station | Tuesday, November 14th, 2023 Event Program Location: Southern Railway Station, 306 W Depot Ave, Knoxville, TN 37917 5:00 PM Event Opens 5:30 PM Opening Remarks & Introduction of Companies 5:45 PM Keynote Speaker: Harry Boston 6:00 PM Round table Discussion […]
Raising + Rising 2023

Meet the Raising + Rising 2023 Participants As a special part of Innov865 week, Raising + Rising will showcase seven entrepreneurs’ businesses in a room full of investors, industry experts, and local Knoxville companies. The Knoxville Entrepreneur Center is excited to announce the seven participating companies in the 2023 Raising and Rising showcase! Raising […]
Brandcamp 2023 Recap

Brandcamp 2023 Recap This past month, 13 entrepreneurs and founders participated in Brandcamp, a KEC program which provides entrepreneurs with the tools and knowledge necessary to develop a successful brand plan. The business owners and founders heard from a variety of guest speakers and panelists, who imparted their knowledge while candidly discussing branding topics with […]
Big Ideas Welcome Season Two!

Season Two of the Big Ideas Welcome Podcast launches today! Since 2022, the Big Ideas Welcome Podcast has shared over 50 episodes of stories from entrepreneurs. Heading into the next season of the podcast, host, Chris McAdoo, wanted to do something different. Up until now, episodes existed as long-form interviews and conversations. The newest season of the […]
Happy 10th Birthday KEC!

Happy Birthday KEC! As April comes to a close we want to look back on how much fun we had celebrating our 10th birthday earlier this month. It has been 10 years of the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center and team KEC threw a big party to celebrate. So many familiar faces came to say hello as […]
What’s the Big Idea Pitch Competition 2023

7 BIG TEAMS. 7 IDEAS. $10,000 ON THE LINE. Over the last few weeks, 28 pitch videos were submitted, over 6000 public votes were cast and 7 finalists moved forward to participate in the Shark Tank/ Accelerator-style competition. Each finalist had 5-minutes to “pitch” their big idea, and another 3-minutes to answer questions from the judges. […]
What’s the Big Idea Pitch Competition 2023 Program

7 BIG TEAMS. 7 IDEAS. $10,000 ON THE LINE. Over the last few weeks, 28 pitch videos were submitted, over 6000 public votes were cast and 7 finalists moved forward to participate in the Shark Tank/ Accelerator-style competition. Each finalist will have 5-minutes to “pitch” their big idea, and another 3-minutes to answer questions from the […]
100Knoxville Winter 2022 Cohort

December 15, 2021, KNOXVILLE, TN The Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC) is excited to announce the next cohort of 100Knoxville founders. Five founders will be matched with an all-star team of mentors for a 5-week sprint beginning in mid-January 2022 to clarify strategy, make connections across the entrepreneurial community, improve operations, and, most importantly, increase sales. […]
Courtney Hendricks joins KEC as Director of Maker Initiatives

(January 19, 2022, Knoxville, Tenn.) Courtney Hendricks has been named Director of Maker Initiatives for the Knoxville Entrepreneur Center (KEC.) Courtney is a versatile marketing and design veteran with extensive leadership and event planning experience. For more than ten years, she has brought her wide-ranging expertise to a variety of creative businesses, both supporting their […]