Connecting the region’s start-up and tech companies to our well-established arts community has been a goal of LISNR co-founder Chris Ostoich since he joined ArtsWave’s Board of Directors six years ago. He believed that everyone’s creative energy and professional networks could be exponentially multiplied — if only we could authentically make these worlds collide. From that vision emerged ArtsWave Arts x Tech, brought to you by Fifth Third Bank. On October 19-21, the event returns for the third year, sourcing creative solutions to challenges that our region's arts sector faces.

ArtsWave's annual collaboration between the arts, startup and innovation communities brings together strategists, developers, artists, marketers and many more to put their entrepreneurial skills to work on behalf of Cincinnati's arts sector. In addition to sponsor Fifth Third Bank, Cintrifuse partners with ArtsWave to promote and present the event.

The event also gives ArtsWave a reason to collaborate with different kinds of visionaries in our community. On the event’s first night, we’ll welcome Doug Hall, founder of Eureka! Ranch Innovation Engineering Institute and Brain Brew Custom Whisk(e)y, to a fireside chat with Chris Ostoich. The conversation will undoubtedly leave us thinking differently about everything from problem-solving to bourbon-brewing. We’ll also welcome a guest tech partner, SmartLINK of Covington, KY, which will loan our event participants their digital kiosk technology to imagine a new interactive Cincy Arts “smart” machine.

Anyone can register to participate in ArtsWave Arts x Tech! All talents are needed to hack the challenges. And, the stakes are high: the team that is judged by a panel of arts and business experts on Sunday afternoon will receive Apple iPhone X’s as prizes. Here is what teams will be working on, as developed by a cross-section of the region's arts groups:

1. Event Calendars and Data Entry: Arts Organizations
Arts organizations often must enter the same information into multiple calendars, creating a huge workload that they don't typically have the resources to take on. How can ArtsWave Guide, the sector's largest events calendar, automatically share event information with other local event calendars?

2. Recruiting a Diverse Talent Base
How can arts organizations literally change the face of their staffs and audiences? Where should jobs be shared to reach diverse candidates? How can ArtsWave.org/Jobs, the region's most comprehensive job database for the arts, be used as to share job listings more broadly? Aside from technology, how can you help we build diverse and inclusive arts organizations?

3. Creating a Smart Kiosk
How might you use SmartLINK's SmartKiosk technology to raise awareness and funds for the region's arts and culture organizations? What interactions (quizzes, maps, ticket sales, coupon codes) would you build into these street corner digital billboards to generate revenue, activity, awareness and buzz? How might you encourage social media sharing? What would success for this venture look like?

4. Arts Ecosystem Communication
ArtsWave supports hundreds of arts organizations in Cincinnati, but there is no single place where they can all collaborate spontaneously. What system could be used or developed to help arts organizations communicate more effectively? How should it be organized? How would this be implemented and communicated so it's not labor-intensive?

At the end of the weekend, a winning team will be chosen and each team member will receive an Apple iPhone X as a prize. Additional event and technological giveaways will be available throughout the weekend.

Our long-standing arts sector combined with the growing tech-entrepreneurial sector puts Cincinnati on the map — drawing top talent, new jobs and tourists to our region. ArtsWave is excited to bring these two parts of our region's economy together.

ArtsWave Arts X Tech will be held at Over-the-Rhine's Union Hall, located at 1311 Vine St. Registration opens at 6 p.m. on Friday, October 19, with the fireside chat and presentation of the challenges starting at 6:30 p.m. It wraps up Sunday evening by 7:30 p.m. There is no cost to participate, though ArtsWave welcomes donations of $20 to help make more great things like this possible. It’s one more way we deepen the roots of talented, creative and dedicated people in our region and use the arts to bring us together.

For more information or to register to participate, visit ArtsWave.org/ArtsxTech.