Matt Patane, technology and innovation reporter for the Des Moines Register and Geoff Wood, community builder at Gravitate, sit down for an in-depth discussion of the companies, events and ideas making news in the Iowa innovation community.

Topics discussed on this episode: Governor's STEM Council, Young African Leaders Initiative, Paul Singh's Iowa Tech Tour, NewBoCo & EntreFEST, Ag Startup Engine & Iowa State entrepreneurial programs, MERGE coworking space and prototype lab in Iowa City

Feedback, thoughts or suggestions? Hit us up on Twitter or email the show at mvp@gravitatedsm.com

A few weeks ago I was invited to speak at the Indianola STEM Symposium and Appreciate Night about why STEM is important (particularly to the audience of mostly high school kids). Hmm — why is STEM important? Why is it important to high school kids? I *accept* that STEM is important — we hear that all the time — but its hard to delineate exactly why its STEM is important.