The Small Box Cleveland project has now achieved critical mass, with three retail tenants officially open for business. Now the retailers and organizers behind the project are ready to celebrate, and you're invited to join the festivities.

The Historic Warehouse District Development Corporation, Cleveland Browns, Banyan Box and The Wardrobe are hosting a grand opening party on Thursday, November 6th from 4:30-6 p.m.

Small Box is a marketplace featuring shops made from converted shipping containers. The creative project is located at West 6th Street and St. Clair Avenue. Small Box also features a unique green space called The Lawn.

The grand opening event will feature live music by the Shivering Timbers, shopping, snacks and refreshments. Find out more information here.
 

Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute, the French restaurant at Shaker Square that employs ex-convicts and gives them on-the-job training and a foothold in the industry in an upscale restaurant, celebrated its first birthday on November 1st.

Founder and chef Brandon Chrostowski sees many reasons to celebrate with the success the restaurant has seen in its first year. Forty-four students have graduated from the program and 40 have gone on to work in fine dining establishments in the region. In the first class, 100 percent of the graduates had jobs within 30 days of graduation and 85 percent of the graduates still were working in their jobs six months later.
 
Edwins took in $1.4 million last year, which covered roughly 73% of the school portion of the restaurant’s model, which teaches its student employees virtually every aspect of running a restaurant. Edwins also has a long list of sponsors and supporters who believe in second chances.
 
Goals for Edwins’ second year include 75 graduates with 80 percent job retention after a year; 81 percent of total expenses covered by restaurant sales and diner contributions; and a less than five percent recidivism rate.
 
Chrostowski says the restaurant has learned some lessons in the first year as well. Smaller classes of 12 to 15 accepted every six weeks instead of 55 students starting all at once result in a higher graduation rate. “You’re going to get better results with a smaller class because you’re going to get to know the students more,” explains Chrostowski.
 
Housing, transportation and childcare are the biggest issues for Edwins students to overcome. Those issues are being resolved through the kindness of patrons and friends. A group of Ruffing Montessori School parents and teachers recently walked in to Edwins to offer their help. That group now provides childcare five days a week. Chrostowski was able to secure 30 beds on E. 130^th Street and St. Clair Avenue for those employees who need a place to stay. And he recently brought on a case manager to help with additional support needs.
 
“We’re all working as hard as we can for each other to get on with the next phase of their lives,” says Chrostowski, who also credits his staff of three managers with providing guidance and support. Chrostowski is always looking for volunteers to help continue Edwins’ success.
 

As part of the Lockwood Thompson Dialogues, LAND Studio and Cleveland Public Library invite you to a weekend filled with dance workshops, discussions about dance and a nighttime community dance party.

The event, which is called "STEP OUT, Cleveland ... SHAKE OFF THE RUST!", takes place November 8th-9th at the Global Center for Health Innovation.

Presenters, workshop leaders and performers include DJ FreQ Nasty, an electronic music producer and developer of The Yoga of Bass, a study of the spiritual connection between yoga and dance; Ana Rokafella Garcia, a B-girl and filmmaker who broke into dance in New York City during the early days of the hip hop scene; and Ragen Chastain, a dancer, marathoner and Health at Every Size advocate who travels, speaks and blogs at danceswithfat.org about self-esteem and body image.

Clevelanders who will be presenting include Jasmine Dragons, Cleveland Exotic Dance, and DJ Red-I and Daniel Gray-Kontar of Sanctuary Cleveland.

All events are free. In a press release, LAND Studio invites participants to:

"SPEAK UP at a live, interactive discussion with experts who will open up about struggles, successes, and finding their voice through dance.

SHAKE LOOSE with free public classes at varying levels, aimed at letting the inner dancer – experienced or not – break out.

GET DOWN with a nighttime dance party that's open to all!"

There will also be a cash bar and food trucks on site. C'mon down and shake it!

In our hyperconnected, digital age, people hunger for real stories. In Cleveland and across the country, storytelling nights are growing thanks to the popularity of The Moth, This American Life and other programs that elevate life into art.

Young people born in Cleveland in the 90s don't feel a sense of nostalgia for the city's heyday. Instead, they see an increasingly vibrant city as a place of opportunity, provided we stay on our current path.

The premier healthcare gathering in the country takes place this week at the Cleveland Convention Center. Here are four Cleveland healthcare innovators being featured at the conference.

Using the local food scene as a launch pad, craft food startups are growing quickly. We caught up with a fresh batch to learn the recipes behind their success.

The Shark Tank style competition, now in its second year, is designed to give new businesses financial assistance and expert advice to get off the ground.

In September, innovators from around the country convened in Detroit to exchange their ideas for building better cities and stronger communities. For three days, Detroit was transformed into a marketplace for ideas for cities.

EveryKey, creator of a high-tech wristband that wirelessly syncs with various electronic devices, was the winner of the Incubator at MAGNET's first product-focused pitch contest.

EveryKey was pitted against five other hardware-creating entrepreneurs during the ProtoTech competition held Oct. 21 at the Ariel International Center in Cleveland. The nascent Case Western Reserve University-based company took home $12,000, funds that will be sunk into an invention that holds all of the wearer's online passwords and is designed to lock and unlock doors.

Chris Wentz, CEO of EveryKey, was thankful for the opportunity to put his product before a panel of investors, development specialists and peers interested in supporting physical technology. Now that the contest is over, the startup will concentrate on its Kickstarter campaign, set to launch Oct. 29.

"This competition meant so much to us," says Wentz, 23. "There were a lot of great companies here with some great ideas."
The ProtoTech pitch contest, co-sponsored by NASA Glenn Research Center, concentrated on tech-driven wares and the startups aiming to bring those products to market. The competition was introduced in July by MAGNET executive director Dave Crain with the intention of highlighting manufactured creations rather than IT or service-based ventures.

ProtoTech's second-place winner was RoboNail, designer of an app-operated robotic roofing installation machine.

The other ProtoTech finalists were:

* Advanced BioSensors-Ohio, creator of a "Continuous Glucose Monitor" for diabetic patients.

* Axenic, maker of non-toxic liquid-based solutions that clean organic waste.

* FGC Plasma Solutions, creator of a fuel nozzle designed to save money and reduce emissions.
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* Real Time Imaging Technologies, designer of a low-dose dental x-ray imaging system.
 

With fireworks and smoke machines, and science experiments galore, CWRU officials on Thursday officially broke ground on the new home to thinkbox, a collaboration and innovation center housed in the former Lincoln Storage Building, now known as the Richey-Mixon Building.
 
The CWRU board of trustees voted unanimously last Sunday, October 12 to approve the renovations with the $25 million out of a $30 million goal. Phase I is due to be completed in August 2015.
 
Phase I includes renovations to the first four floors. A glass skyway will connect the athletic center to the thinkbox entrance. The first floor will be a community floor with a bike station. “It will be a younger-feeling creative space that suits our students’ lifestyle,” explains thinkbox manager Ian Charnas. “The second floor will be the ideation floor with amenities such as whiteboards and meeting rooms modeled after Stanford d. School in California.”
 
Floors three and four are dedicated to some real hands-on innovation. Three will house a prototyping floor and a small metal shop, will offer tools for nearly every metal project conceivable. “We’re sending an email out, saying 'come enjoy several thousand square feel to do your projects and get messy.'”
 
Charnas expects thinkbox to both attract and retain innovative thinkers to Cleveland. “This is helping to build industry in the region,” he says. “Most of our students are recruited from outside of Cleveland, and even Ohio. This is a big golden carrot to keep these folks in the area.”
 
The announcement was made during Case’s homecoming celebration. Case president Barbara Snyder was accompanied by the major donors to make the announcement amid smoke machines and fireworks displays on monitors. Instead of a ribbon-cutting, the group flipped a giant old-fashioned power switch.
 
Students dressed in white lab coats embroidered with thinkbox and blue hard hats made commemorative chocolate coins using liquid nitrogen, with the help of Sweet Designs Chocolatier and Piccadilly Creamery. A laminar flow fountain – the kind where the liquid leaps about – dispensed punch that shot from a white display case into guests’ glasses.
 
Charnas says they hope to raise the remaining funds in the next year and shoot straight into phase II renovations, which will include the remaining top three floors.