A full set of events is on the plate for the University of North Carolina Wilmington Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CIE), which had its grand opening September 5.

The CIE begins its existence as a resource for entrepreneurs and small business owners with an event by two of North Carolina’s most successful entrepreneurs, Tom Lotrecchiano and Joe Schmidt. The pair, co-founders of Art.com and Canvas on Demand, were finalists for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2008.  Canvas on Demand ranks among Inc.com’s  top 500 fastest-growing private companies.

Schmidt and Lotrecchiano also started a website called entremanureship.com, which gives advice to entrepreneurs and startup businesses.

Lotrecchiano and Schmidt will speak on September 19, while the North Carolina Technology Association (NCTA) will hold an all-day event with the CIE on September 25. 

The CIE all-day event with NCTA will highlight innovation and technology in the state and in the Wilmington area. The event is a part of the NCTA’s “tech tour” to celebrate the association’s 20th year of existence as “the statewide membership association for the tech sector.”

NCTA's statewide membership includes tech firms of all sizes, said Jim Roberts, CIE executive director, “Meaning the biggest IT firms to the smallest start-ups."

One of the newest members of the NCTA is startup Next Glass, which is also a finalist for an NCTA 21 award. Roberts described the company as "basically a Pandora for wine."

Next Glass is one of the eight business that has moved in to do business at the CIE building at its 803 S. College Rd. location. Five of the businesses located in the building have their own space, while Next Glass and two other companies occupy the coworking space.

“The coworking area is a large open room with no individual walls where the three companies share the space,” said Roberts.

The companies that have moved in to the CIE location are Logic Bay, Powerplay Mobile, Go2 LLC, Sircle, SPS App, Next Glass, Deacon Technologies and Wired Wizards. Deacon and Wired Wizards, like Next Glass, are located in the coworking space.

At the center’s grand opening, the executive director of the N.C. Board of Science & Technology emphasized the need for the state to focus on improving and enhancing innovation.

Resources like the CIE are essential to promoting regional and state emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship, said Dr. John Hardin. Hardin concluded that "North Carolina’s innovation ecosystem is moderately healthy and not improving much, and performance across indicators is mixed."

He added, however, that North Carolina and Wilmington alike have “strong potential” and that the CIE is a great way to maximize this potential.

To learn more about upcoming events at the CIE, click here.