Transforming Events, Contests, and Grant Operations for Black Tech Saturdays

Black Tech Saturdays is a growing innovation and entrepreneurship community that brings Detroit founders, creators, students, and investors together to learn, build, and collaborate. Their events support local entrepreneurs through education, resources, and opportunities to compete for funding and visibility.

As the community expanded, Black Tech Saturdays began running a wide range of programs including pitch competitions, creative contests, grant cycles, workshops, panels, and industry sessions. Managing all of these moving parts across hundreds of participants quickly became time intensive.

Think Technologies partnered with Black Tech Saturdays to build a modern, automated operations system powered by OpenAI, Airtable, Zapier, and HubSpot that simplifies the work behind the scenes and delivers a smoother experience for everyone.

Managing Over One Million Dollars in Grants and Competitions

During the partnership, Think Technologies supported Black Tech Saturdays in managing more than one million dollars in pitch competitions, grant programs, youth innovation contests, and creator challenges. This included:

• Startup pitch competitions

• Youth and college innovation challenges

• Creative and content based competitions

• Corporate and community grant programs

• Internal and external judging

• Public voting and scoring systems

• Application intake and qualification

Our operational layer enabled BTS to run these programs at scale without overwhelming staff or volunteers.

Integrated Tech Stack for Seamless Operations

We combined the strengths of four powerful tools to automate and simplify the entire lifecycle.

OpenAI

We integrated OpenAI to support tasks such as

• Automated message generation

• Participant communication drafts

• Content classification and tagging

• Quick review notes for internal teams

OpenAI reduced manual writing time and supported faster decision making.

Airtable

Airtable served as the central command center for

• Application storage

• Content uploads

• Judge scoring sheets

• Program tracking

• Event schedules

• Participant records

Everything stayed organized, searchable, and easy to manage.

Zapier

Zapier acted as the automation engine for

• Status updates

• Email notifications

• Judge assignments

• Score syncing

• Data transfer between systems

This eliminated repetitive work and ensured no steps were missed.

HubSpot

HubSpot powered

• Contact management

• Campaign messages

• Program segmentation

• Outreach to finalists, speakers, and vendors

It helped keep communication consistent and professional.

How Think Technologies Structured the Programs

Application Intake

We built structured and branded forms for

• Pitch applications

• Contest submissions

• Grant requests

• Speaker and vendor intake

• Eligibility checks

All entries fed directly into Airtable with automated sorting and categorization.

Judging and Voting

We created automated workflows for

• Reviewing submissions

• Internal judging

• Weighted scoring systems

• External voting

• Public voting pages

• Final scoring rollups

This removed manual reconciliation and made judging more transparent.

Participant and Program Communication

Automated flows delivered

• Confirmation messages

• Deadline reminders

• Finalist announcements

• Day of instructions

• Award notifications

• Post event follow ups

OpenAI helped craft clear and consistent messages when needed.

Event Day Coordination

Think Technologies supported event execution through

• Speaker onboarding flows

• Vendor and partner management

• Structured content collection

• Organized schedules

• Automated reminders for presentations and submissions

This ensured that complex events ran smoothly and on time.

Impact on Black Tech Saturdays

Significant Time Savings

By integrating OpenAI, Airtable, Zapier, and HubSpot, the BTS team saved

• Dozens of hours each month in operational work

• Time previously spent managing judges and reviews

• Time searching for files, content, and submissions

• Time spent writing manual follow ups and communications

This allowed the team to focus on community impact instead of administration.

Better Experience for Participants

Founders, creators, youth participants, judges, vendors, and speakers all benefited from

• Clear instructions

• Faster updates

• Simple submission processes

• Transparent judging

• Organized communication

• A professional and consistent program format

This improved satisfaction and increased engagement across all programs.

A System Built for Growth

The infrastructure created by Think Technologies gives Black Tech Saturdays the ability to

• Add more competitions

• Scale to larger applicant pools

• Grow grant programs

• Onboard more corporate partners

• Run more events with the same team size

This operational backbone sets BTS up for long term growth.