Next Gen Luncheon 2019

Columbus' commitment to building a talented workforce of the future means celebrating the excellence of the young people already striving to make our community exceptional. The Columbus Young Professionals (CYP) and the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce are proud to host the NextGen Awards in an effort to raise the visibility of emerging talent and highlight individual achievement this year at the NextGen Awards Ceremony Luncheon. The awards will recognize six deserving individuals and one business.  

The keynote speaker will be Ellie Symes, CEO of The Bee Corp. Ellie is an ambitious entrepreneur and an influential thought leader pioneering patented technologies and other innovative IoT solutions in an industry devoid of tech adoption. Ellie's company, The Bee Corp., is an Indiana internet of things and data analytics start-up founded in 2016. Launched while she and her co-founders were undergraduates at Indiana University, Ellie has grown the company from a winning idea in a business competition into a prominent start-up in the tech scene, and a growing presence in the beekeeping industry.

The Indiana tech industry Mira Awards judges noted Ellie's many accomplishments in 2017, but her uncanny ability to secure investment and non-dilutive grant funding for her start-up as a 20-something female founder in the cutting-edge Internet of Things, ag-tech and data science spaces is both impressive and inspiring.