You don’t need me to tell you that the world changed rapidly last week! Personally, I’m on immersion overload from reading and listening to news and announcements about the global pandemic and its impact on our everyday lives. To give us all a short break, I’m not going to mention the “C” word in this week’s post!

As you likely already know, nearly all public events have been cancelled for the time being, including founder-focused workshops, seminars, and networking gatherings. But true to form, our startup community has turned on a dime and moved many of this week’s in-person events to an online, interactive format. There are just five this week but I’m expecting more next week after everyone has a chance to pivot!

1 Million Cups will have a live interactive ZOOM meeting every Wednesday morning at 9 :00 a.m. featuring presentations from two Startup founders. StartupSac will hold its monthly Office Hours online on Wednesday afternoon. Code For Sac has a virtual Hack Night on Wednesday evening. The SBDC is planning to go virtual with all of its training workshops as well. There is one this Thursday — Traction Testing — and expect more to be available next week. UC Davis Venture Catalyst has changed the format for its monthly educational series to an online webinar as well.  Check out the details of these events in this week’s Startup Digest.

In-person events may be scarce but opportunities to advance your business are not! Hacker Lab is accepting applications through March 31 for its Regional Maker Space Pathways program, which provides an 8-month scholarship to Hacker Lab, along with classes, one-on-one mentorship, and special cohort-specific workshops. Their goal is to provide a hands-on learning environment to help low-income participants start or grow a business, get a job, or discover a college program. Learn more and apply here.

NSF Innovation Corp and UC Davis Venture Catalyst are joining forces to offer an Immersive Short Course training focused on helping early-stage teams who have a fundamental technology, engineering, or business model innovation learn how to search for a scalable business model through the Customer Discovery process. The course entails 3 classroom meetings and about 20-30 hours of course work during April. Apply by March 20 for consideration. Full details here.

BONUS CONTENT: Here’s a video gem for your viewing pleasure — Cowo Campus founder Kuks Singh was last month’s Creative Mornings Sacramento speaker. He shares his story including why he launched Cowo Campus and the Cowo Campus accelerator. You can watch the video of his talk here.

Since it’s difficult to meet in person right now, stay connected by joining our online community! The StartupSac Community Facebook Group has over 600 members–now we need you!  Request to join here.

If you’d like to receive the Startup Digest in your inbox every Monday morning, sign up for free here. And for even more startup information, happenings and resources, browse  the  StartupSac Website.

If you’ve organized (or know about) an event you think belongs in the Startup Digest, please submit it here for consideration.