Queens Tech + Innovation Challenge Helps Local Entrepreneurs Launch, Grow Successful Businesses
Contestants Take Classes, Network, and Vie for Up to $20,000 in Prizes
(Kew Gardens, NY) — Do you want to learn more about AI, branding, and financing? Would you like to meet other entrepreneurs? Are you looking for $20,000 to grow your Queens business or get a new one off the ground?
The Queens Tech + Innovation Challenge 2027 (QTIC), a six-month instruction-and-funding competition, launches during a special kickoff event at The Local at 13-02 44th Ave. in Long Island City on Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 6 pm to 8:30 pm.
Admission is free, and attendees will learn that QTIC participants take courses on such topics as agentic AI, AI-assisted Go-to-Market Strategy, and Financial Planning while also receiving one-on-one consultations with experts. In late February 2027, participants will submit their online applications in one of four categories -- Digital Innovation, Food + Consumer Products, Community, and Sustainability + Social Good -- to a panel of experts, who choose several finalists in each category. Then in April, those finalists will make live pitches to a second panel as they compete for four grants of as much as $20,000 each.
