On Wednesday evening, Jim Roberts and the Network for Entrepreneurs in Wilmington (aka NEW) hosted folks from around the Wilmington and broader North Carolina entrepreneurial ecosystem for the second annual #910 Day. The event took place at Ironclad Brewery and was packed to capacity.
#910 Day is designed to bring together entrepreneurs, leaders, and other change-makers to both highlight existing innovation in the Wilmington area and spur more. Building on a successful debut in 2024, this year’s event featured presentations from three local startups, Emmy-nominated television host Gary Bredow (who filmed portions of his show “Start Up” in Wilmington) as emcee, and multiple speaking sessions from bestselling author Coach Micheal Burt.
Startup presentations at 910 Day
Following welcome remarks from Jim Roberts, the program got rolling with the first of the three startup presentations. This was by Robin Cowie, Founder and CEO of Skillmaker.AI (and, famously, a producer of The Blair Witch Project).
Touting Wilmington as a great place for a founder—and noting that a similar NEW event two years ago helped him make some of the connections that got Skillmaker.AI started—Robin discussed his startup’s work using AI and extended reality to make skilled job training faster and more intuitive. (See GrepBeat’s write-up on Skillmaker.AI here, and listen to Robin Cowie on In The Soup.)
The second startup presentation came from OpiAID, which was represented on Wednesday night by Dino Miliotis, a spokesperson for the startup. For those not familiar, OpiAID is working to make addiction treatment safer and more effective through various forms of support technology, including wearable monitors.
Miliotis provided numerous positive updates about the startup’s traction and discussed how the 24/7 data gathering users take advantage of provides a psychological lift and makes people want to stay in recovery. (See GrepBeat’s article on OpiAID here, and listen to Founder and CEO David Reeser on The Friday Nooner.)
The evening’s final startup presentation was given by Rob Cooley for his company Nuream. Founded in part due to Cooley’s first-hand experience having trouble sleeping during and after a long career of military service, Nuream is pioneering “fabric-as-a-sensor” technology to collect data that can lead to improved sleep.
Touting sleep as “the first window into the brain,” Cooley discussed not only how his startup’s technology can lead to better sleep, but also how invaluable sleep data can be regarding implications for broader health concerns. As was noted by Coach Micheal Burt immediately following the presentation, Cooley brought the passion. (See GrepBeat’s past story on Nuream here.)
Coach’s keynote(s)
In between the above-listed startup presentations, #910 Day was highlighted by three sessions from keynote speaker Coach Micheal Burt. A one-time basketball coach turned author, speaker, and business/life coach, Burt delivered remarks largely revolving around the concept of activating and taking advantage of one’s “prey drive”—which he defined as an ability to see and pursue a goal.
Burt’s first speaking session revolved around leadership (which he defined largely as seeing potential in others and instilling confidence in them to see it themselves) and activating the “prey drive.”
His second session focused on the issue of complacency (which he defined as “gradual settling into a place of mediocrity,” noting amusingly that he does not send his children off to school telling them that today they’re going to gradually settle into a place of mediocrity). The solution he offered was to learn how to “flip the switch,” feeding the body, mind, heart, and spirit to, again, activate that prey drive. (I swear he’s not a wolf. I saw him; real human.)
The final speaking session concerned how to become a “person of interest” in your working environment. His recipe is to have a message and a mission, be in motion, and be able to monetize your talent.
That about did it for a long but high-energy night in Wilmington. As Jim Roberts wrote in his own recap on LinkedIn, this was a “big swing to activate new leaders at the North Carolina coast.”
The large crowd at Ironclad was certainly engaged with that process.
See more photos from the event below (with some assists from Phrayz founder and relentless photojournalist Jack Fleming).
