Fairfield County Business Journal 082216

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3 | SUNNY OUTLOOK August 22, 2016 | VOL. 52, No. 34

YOUR ONLY SOURCE FOR REGIONAL BUSINESS NEWS

4 | 'WICKED FRESH' westfaironline.com

Couple's board invention aligns spines BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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arried chiropractors Beverley Marr and Chris Sova have high hopes for their patented product, PurePosture, a custom-sized device that, when laid upon, aligns the spine using one’s own body weight and gravity. “I’ve always had pain issues between my shoulder blades, from bending over patients, doing paperwork and so on,” Sova said. “Beverley would give me adjustments, but I would always stiffen up. I thought there was a real need to find something that helped promote greater flexibility

in the spine, but there was really nothing out there.” Sova took to the workshop in the basement of the couple’s Monroe home to experiment with various equipment, including tennis balls and yoga mats as well as 2 by 4s and wood wedges. The last turned out to be “solid but with enough resistance to do the trick,” he said. Introducing the prototypes to patients at their Stamford Healthcare Associates office at 1177 High Ridge Road, the couple continued to fine-tune the device over a period of nearly five years. In the meantime, Marr had developed the trademarked “SOAR » SPINE, page 6

Chris Sova with his patented product, Pure Posture. Photo by Bob Rozycki.

Stamford Innovation Center wants to make ‘bigger noise’ BUILDS ON PREVIOUS HACKATHONS TO EXPAND ITS REACH

BY KEVIN ZIMMERMAN kzimmerman@westfairinc.com

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iming to capitalize and broaden Stamford’s growing reputation as a technology hub, the Stamford Innovation Center (SIC)

is rolling out both its first-ever Stamford Technology Week Sept. 14-18 and its inaugural Northeast Hackathon series Sept. 16 to Nov. 13. According to the driving force behind the events, SIC Vice President of Operations Hugh Seaton, the goal is to draw togeth-

er technologists, government and business leaders, as well as the general public in an effort to promote what’s currently happening in the tech world as well as what the future might hold. “When entrepreneurs go looking for tech talent, they’re finding it’s not so easy to do because it’s very diffuse,” Seaton said. “We’re trying to address that. When we did our first hackathons last September and this past February, we found there was not really enough scale to them to be considered something beyond ‘just another event.’ Now we’re

doing it on a scale that will make a much bigger noise.” “Hugh joined us about a year ago and has had a tremendous impact,” said Barry Schwimmer, SIC founder and managing partner. “We got a great reception from the tech community on our last two hackathons. For us, this is building on that success.” Stamford Technology Week will begin on Sept. 14 with the Smart Cities Summit, involving how sensors, data and analytics can be used to better understand how a given city’s buildings, roads and sidewalks are actually

used. The summit will include industry and government panels, the latter including state Reps. Caroline Simmons (D-Stamford) and William Tong (D-Stamford). “Events like this really speak to Connecticut’s ongoing efforts to build a competitive edge,” said Tong in a statement. The Northeast JavaScript Conference will follow on Sept. 15-16, providing opportunities for engineers and developers to learn about how JavaScript’s everevolving frameworks are used. Speakers from IBM, Priceline. » SIC, page 6


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