UCI Beall Applied Innovation Grand Opening Party (Photos)
UCI Beall Applied Innovation celebrated its 5 year anniversary and the Grand Opening of its new building!
On a typically beautiful Orange County evening hundreds of guests recently gathered on the UC-Irvine campus for the grand opening of the new and improved UCI Applied Innovation at the Cove building.
The new 100,000-plus-square-foot facility is in the UCI Research Park in buildings that formerly housed the corporate headquarters of Broadcom. It offers specially-designed spaces to accommodate entrepreneurs, inventors, investors, startups and Orange County’s vibrant business and innovation communities.
The standing room only crowd was treated to tours of the new facility, videos on the massive video wall, snacks, and of course lots of mingling.
The activities and resources available at the new Cove were explored in speeches from Richard Sudek, Chief Innovation Officer of UC Irvine, Howard Gillman, the Chancellor of the campus, and Don Beall of the Beall Family which has donated so generously to support innovation and entrepreneurship activities at UCI.
The building includes the new non-profit University Lab Partners, the first wet lab co-working style incubator space in Orange County for life sciences companies. It is also home to the Wayfinder startup incubator for UCI student ventures and the regular meeting place of Orange County's well-known Tech Coast Angels startup investing group.
Visitors to the new building were pleased and impressed. Everything was shiny and new and there was obviously a lot of thought given to accommodating the needs of young companies and their supporters. This includes offices and meeting rooms of many sizes and the very impressive event space called "The Beach".
The Cove's "Beach" theme was showcased in decor throughout the building, as well as by giving guests the opportunity to sign a commemorative surf board.
Highlights of the new 100,000 square foot innovation hub:
The Beach: A purpose-built event space that can accommodate over 300 guests and features 180 degrees of seamless display technology that can easily play content in any configuration.
Venture Cove (formerly the Screening Room): A dedicated pitching, screening and presentation space that features a high-resolution, wall-size screen and seating for up to 200 guests, combined.
Longboard Lounge and Tiki Bar: A relaxed space that can be used to entertain guests or serve as a space for poster sessions, complete with a wet bar and indoor and outdoor seating.
Makerspace: The Cove offers entrepreneurs the space and equipment to build prototypes. From 3D printers and laser cutters to soldering equipment and power tools.
Wayfinder Workspace: A large open coworking space – complete with desks and lounge seating designed to accommodate the 40-plus Wayfinder teams that conduct startup-related activities at the Cove @ UCI.
It was great a great party that highlighted how UCI is supporting our local innovation ecosystem.
Thanks to UCI Applied Innovation Executive Director Richard Sudek and his team for opening the building to the public for this gala event, and to the Beall family for its on-going generous support of entrepreneurship at UC-Irvine.