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White House celebrates tech diversity with entrepreneurs, venture capitalists in first Demo Day

By Tomas Monzon
President Barack Obama unveils his new Clean Power Plan aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by nearly a third within 15 years, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 3, 2015. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
President Barack Obama unveils his new Clean Power Plan aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by nearly a third within 15 years, in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 3, 2015. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- Venture capitalists and entrepreneurs are slated to meet at the White House Tuesday for its first-ever "Demo Day," which aims to increase minority representation in entrepreneurship.

The event will be broadcast live at 3:40 p.m. EST/12:40 p.m. PST. It follows its June announcement of the "Startup in a Day" initiative and its Tech Meetup event held in April.

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The White House stressed that their event will be unlike private-sector demo days.

The White House's "Demo Day" will host various innovators who will highlight their successful projects. One of these is Oregon-based Onboard Dynamics, whose technology turns natural gas into an affordable alternative to gasolines for cars and trucks. It is aimed at "welcoming startup founders from diverse walks of life" and will feature President Obama's announcement of "new public- and private-sector commitments that promise to provide more Americans with the opportunity to pursue their bold, game-changing ideas."

One of these commitments involves the California Public Employees Retirement System, which plans to spend more than $11 billion to increase manager diversity along with other institutional investors. Currently only 3 percent of U.S. startups backed by venture capital are spearheaded by women; only 1 percent by blacks.

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Intel's Chief Diversity Officer Rosalind Hudnell, KIND Healthy Snacks CEO Daniel Lubetzky and Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp will be part of the event. Other companies such as electronics recycling firm BlueOak (which extracts gold ore from recycled smartphones), industry supplier PartPic (which allows a user to snap a picture of an industrial part that needs replacing instead of verifying its part number) and Boston-based Bounce Imaging (which developed a throwable camera aimed at helping first responders) will also be in attendance.

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