OCTANe Sees Record Attendance at Technology Innovation Forum and Ophthalmology Technology Summit

ALISO VIEJO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 6, 2017) -  OCTANe, the Orange County startup accelerator dedicated to driving innovation and growth by connecting people, resources and capital, is pleased to announce the continued growth of its signature forums, Technology Innovation Forum (TIF) and Ophthalmology Technology Summit (OTS). The conferences were attended by industry leaders, entrepreneurs and investors who came to learn about current investment trends and to see the latest innovations originating from Orange County's technology hub.

"We're thrilled to consistently have such a fantastic group of innovative and unique companies taking part in TIF and OTS," said Bill Carpou, CEO of OCTANe. "We're excited to continue to see growth and success stemming from these conferences. The feedback we've received from both attendees and our partners has been overwhelmingly positive and we are eager to see the results of MTIF this fall."

TIF 2017 was flooded with over 750 attendees. TIF is the largest conference in Southern California focusing on high growth and innovation technology investments. The technology forum featured keynote speaker, Dave Meltzer, CEO of Sports 1 Marketing, panels on using AR/VR in business and entertainment, investing resources and capital in Southern California, and disruptive transportation and infrastructure as well as a discussion on cybersecurity and data privacy with Gary Sorrentino, CTO of JP Morgan. The event also featured nine presentations by OCTANe's Launchpad companies showcasing new ideas and technology.

The nine LaunchPad companies that presented at TIF included:

• Activbody, maker of Activ5, an application that allows anyone at any fitness level to exercise anywhere through five-minute full body workouts.
• Ceeable, developer of a patented mobile digital health analyzer for detecting and diagnosing eye disorders.
• CritiqueIt, an annotation technology that connects people to the knowledge, ideas and perspectives that shape their work.
• Evasyst, inventor of an innovative gaming platform that gives gamers a real-time multi-view team experience
• Enevate, advanced rechargeable battery company focused on next generation electric vehicles and mobile devices.
• Matrix Sensors, creator of both a CO2 sensor for home and building IoT and a methane sensor for smart grids.
• My Mobile Watchdog, developer of a patent protected technology platform that provides parents mobile security tools for keeping their children safe on smartphones.
• Turnoutt, a social discovery application that enables users to interact with other users around them.
• Veracity Industrial SDN, a resilient, secure industrial network that provides an on premise, centralized control and monitoring solution.

My Mobile Watchdog was named the winner of the LaunchPad award.

OTS 2017 also saw significant growth with over 300 attendees at the ophthalmology specific summit, a growth of over 50 percent year-over-year. The purpose of OTS is to create a local forum where leading ophthalmology experts and entrepreneurs can come together to discuss ground-breaking ophthalmic technologies and new business opportunities fueled by the Orange County ophthalmology ecosystem. The ophthalmology summit featured keynote speaker, Alex Gorsky, CEO of Johnson & Johnson, panels on customer connections, the data connection, building blocks for practices of the future, the role of private equity and future of eye care delivery and private pay, products and regulations. OTS also featured presentations from Alcon, Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Allergan, Carl Zeiss, Meditech and Johnson & Johnson Vision. Also present were the five companies that Visionary Ventures has invested in during the past year. Visionary is an integral part of OCTANe's capital access strategy. A special tribute to Dr. Roger F. Steinert, chair, Department of Ophthalmology, and director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute was also part of the conference.

Since January 2017, OCTANe has increased capital raised from $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion. Additionally, total capital plus liquidity has increased from $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion. LaunchPad companies, specifically those who presented at TIF, have raised a total of $647 million since 2010.

The date for the 2017 Medical Technology Innovation Forum (MTIF) is now finalized. Business leaders will have access to the latest in innovation coming from Southern California on October 30-31, 2017 at the Newport Beach Marriott located at 900 Newport Center Dr. 

Additionally, OCTANe has released dates for all three signature events in 2018. The Technology Innovation Forum will be held on May 31 - June 1 at the Newport Beach Marriott, Ophthalmology Technology Summit June 29-30 at the Island Hotel and Medical Technology Innovation Forum October 29-30 at the Newport Beach Marriott. 

About OCTANe:

OCTANe drives innovation and growth by connecting people, resources and capital to fuel technology growth in Southern California. Its members represent technology executive leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists, academicians, and strategic advisors, all working together to fuel innovation. The organization has helped more than 800 companies via the LaunchPad™ SBDC accelerator. LaunchPad™ companies have received more than $2.1 billion in investment and equity exits. OCTANe annually welcomes more than 7,000 people to its programs and events. More than 2,000 business leaders throughout the region are OCTANe members. For more information, visit www.octaneoc.org.