The inaugural Bloch Talks will bring together an inspiring lineup of entrepreneurial voices from Kansas City and beyond for an evening of insight, storytelling, and bold ideas. Designed to empower and engage the next generation of entrepreneurs and business leaders, Bloch Talks will showcase founders and innovators who are using creativity, resilience, and fresh thinking to make an impact.
Developed in collaboration with the Regnier Venture Creation Challenge – one of the region’s premier entrepreneurship competitions – this event will feature five dynamic speakers who will share their entrepreneurial journeys and perspectives on some of the most pressing global challenges facing our world today. Through their experiences, attendees will gain insight into how entrepreneurs think differently, identify opportunities, and build solutions that drive meaningful change.
Schedule:
- 7:00 pm – Registration Opens
- 7:30 pm – Bloch Talk Program
Tickets:
- $0 – Student Price (with Promo Code: RooUp)
- $15 – Alumni & Community Members
- Attendees will have free parking in museum garage
Contact
For questions, please contact:
Entrepreneurship@umkc.edu
Event Speakers
Emily Brown, Co-founder & CEO (Health, Wellness & Medical Track)
Emily is the Co-founder and CEO of Attane Health, a digital health company advancing the “food is medicine” movement to improve health outcomes. Inspired by her own experience managing chronic conditions with limited resources, she previously founded the Food Equality Initiative (FEI), growing it into a seven-figure nonprofit that expands access to nutritious food. A national patient advocate, Emily has provided testimony to the FDA and USDA and serves on the 2025 Child and Adult Core Set Annual Review Workgroup. Her work and research focus on food systems, health disparities, and patient-centered care, and she is a published co-author of peer-reviewed research in allergic disease.
Andrew Clark (Products, Services, Retail & Experiences Track)
Most people leave and don’t look back. Andrew Clark has done it twice.
He studied architecture and literature, and has spent his career weaving between structures and stories. Bruce Mau Design took a chance on him — an architect with no business doing graphic design — surrounded him with multidisciplinary teams, and let design become play. He also jumped on a trampoline with Bruce.
At Minimal he helped turn a record-breaking Kickstarter into a $15M product business in Apple Stores. At Sonos he built a brand team from scratch, two identities, and caught the digital bug. So he left for a place very few designers would look — H&R Block — to solve people’s emotional relationship with money through software and product design. He built a 40-person team and provoked something classically routine into satisfying, helpful and expertise-filled.
He lives in Kansas City, too often overlooked, with his wife Ann and three kids who remind him of the power of plain language and vivid imagination.
Now he’s back at Sonos, wrestling the hard creative again. Because Sonos, like music, is awesome.
Wendy Doyle (Community Track)
During her 13-year tenure at United WE, Wendy has led the organization to invest in research, advocacy, and policy solutions that remove economic barriers for women. Under her leadership, United WE has conducted more than 38 original research studies, advanced over 67 policy actions, and equipped more than 5,500 women for leadership— including supporting hundreds of women in securing civic appointments through the Appointments Project. Wendy champions policy reforms that advance equal pay, paid family leave, affordable child and elder care, and reduced occupational licensing barriers, translating data into practical, bipartisan solutions.
Bryan Shannon (Tech & Digital Innovation Track)
Bryan Shannon is an entrepreneur, author, and growth-focused executive who founded and successfully exited the Kansas City–based legal-technology company TicketRX. He currently serves as Managing Director at TreviPay, where he helps lead global expansion and advance strategic sales and operational performance. A University of Missouri–Kansas City graduate, Bryan is an active investor, advisor, and mentor to emerging businesses, and the author of Bootstrap to Exit, a practical roadmap for entrepreneurs building and scaling companies. He is driven by a simple philosophy: you control your destiny.
Tiffany Meesha Thompson (Arts & Culture Track)
Tiffany Meesha Thompson, EMBA, is the Founding Director of Petrichor Projects, a cultural strategy and curatorial practice that embeds artists in projects shaping cities, institutions, and public life. She built the practice by starting with independent artists, identifying their need for business development and strategic guidance, and scaling to work with governments, institutions, and cultural leaders globally. She currently serves as curatorial consultant for Barney Allis Plaza, where she is bringing to life Kansas City Spirit: Memory and Resilience, a monumental installation celebrating the city’s legacy of collective perseverance. Her work spans the globe, including projects for the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, the Mayo Clinic, Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission, and cultural programming for the French Embassy and United Nations. Named one of CODAworx’s “2025 Creative Revolutionaries,” Tiffany exemplifies how entrepreneurs can harness creativity to generate human connection, economic opportunity, and lasting community resilience.
