2024 Hoover Innovation Summit to focus on health technology, life sciences

Photo by Jon Anderson Daniel Senko, a lab technician for BioHorizons Impant Systems, polishes and removes imperfections from a piece of a custom dental prosthetic at the company’s offices in the Riverchase Office Park in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2018. The 2024 Hoover Innovation Summit is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 29, at the Hoover Library Theatre and will focus on health technology and life sciences. The goal is to draw professionals, industry leaders and innovators in those industries from across the region to Hoover. “Our goal for this event is very simple: to convene our innovation ecosystem around a key industry theme each year,” said Jackson Pruett, the city of Hoover’s economic development coordinator. “Technology ecosystems grow when great ideas and people collide. That’s what we’re trying to do with this event.” Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato will begin the event with opening remarks before a panel of industry leaders will offer diverse perspectives on the challenges and opportunities facing the health tech and life sciences fields today. “There is tremendous momentum around innovation and health technology in Hoover and our region right now,” Pruett said. “We believe a health technology ecosystem can be created in Hoover with Riverchase being an anchor. Most of our health tech companies are already based in Riverchase, such as BioCryst, BioHorizons, Evonik, and Blue Cross [and] Blue Shield of Alabama. Events like the Hoover Innovation Summit can convene this emerging ecosystem.” The keynote speaker for the summit is Dr. John Croushorn, the founder of medical device company Compression Works. Other scheduled speakers include Steve Boggan, CEO of BioHorizons, and Luke Allen, president of OHD. Boggan and Allen will speak during the first panel, entitled “Stories of Scaling Success.” “We also felt it was important to elevate younger voices as a part of this emerging ecosystem, so we’ve brought together a panel of young professionals living or working in Hoover from several health software and pharmaceutical companies,” Pruett said. The final portion of the event will feature the development team behind the Riverwalk Village project, including Robert Simon of Corporate Realty and city leaders such as Alan Paquette, chairman of the Hoover Health Care Authority, and Hoover Councilwoman Khristi Driver. Riverwalk Village is a planned 91-acre mixed-use center in the Riverchase Office Park that is proposed to be anchored by an ambulatory surgery center and medical diagnostics center, but also include up to 134,000 square feet of new commercial buildings, 375 age-restricted multi-family residential units (for ages 55 and older), 120 unrestricted multi-family residential units, 102 single-family residential units and a hotel with up to 135 rooms. Pruett said city officials hope this event will give attendees a new perspective on the city of Hoover and its innovation ecosystem. “Our hope is that you will meet someone new and learn something new,” he said. The summit is scheduled to take place from 8 a.m. to noon at the Hoover Library Theatre at 200 Municipal Drive.