Having all of them under one roof at the same time excited Brad Proctor, the center’s director.
“We’re reaching beyond our borders,” Proctor said, referring to the center’s attention from beyond Dayton.
While the center was open to the public in the afternoon, invited guests to a morning event had tickets embedded with RFID tags. The center could “monitor” as guests arrived and dropped tickets off.
Among the center’s first tenants are Lackawanna Logistics Inc., founded by a Brooklyn, N.Y. entrepreneur, and RES RFID Enabled Solutions of Dublin, Ohio.
Asked what he wanted most from his company’s involvement with the Dayton center, Ryan Jones, in charge of business development for RES, said, “Help us with sales. Help us generate leads to connect into sales.”
Jones believes his company has technology that will aid oversight of retail logistics and ticket sales. Now, he needs customers.
“I think RFID is ripe over here,” said Benson Chanowitz, chief executive for Lackawanna, which is developing a way to quickly measure how completely radio frequencies are detected. “The people are hungry. I think the worst thing to do is throw in the towel.”
That’s the kind of business Proctor believes can best be helped by the center. . Proctor wants “pre-revenue” start-ups with RFID intellectual property and at least the start of a solid business plan — and a need for help to that next step.
The center is meant to help “great technologists” who may not yet be great entrepreneurs, he said.
The center has four more possible tenants “in the pipeline,” he added.
Said Proctor, “They’re all converging here. That’s what we are — a convergence center.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2390 or tgnau@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author
