Quest for tech talent, crucial to regional success, gets boost from merger, expansion of resources
Big Top 15 kicked off the second Moogfest in downtown Durham. 10 companies pitched or presented their companies at the event, which drew more than 400 attendees.
Job seekers and companies in urgent need of talent will now have a one stop shop to find and fill jobs as well as to find out the latest news and trends driving North Carolina's innovation economy.
The American Underground-a Google for Entrepreneurs tech hub-has acquired Big Top, the umbrella brand for a career management platform founded in 2011 that includes a popular series of colorful career events and a robust online resource for jobs and talent recruitment.
ExitEvent, a statewide startup and tech-focused media company (owned by American Underground), will manage Big Top's portfolio of services and expand its offerings, working closely with Big Top founder Chris Heivly.
All three parties share the same vision: in order for the region to effectively compete nationally and internationally, it must work harder and smarter to ensure that tech companies have ready access to top talent.
Talent is Mission Critical
Big Top is a key part of our strategy to move the Triangle startup ecosystem to the next level. We know to get there, efficiently matching talent with fast growing startups is critical-and ensures founders know they will find the best talent for open roles. Talent is mission critical, says Adam Klein, chief strategist, American Underground.
In addition to events, Big Top has accumulated a massive database of more than 4,000 local job seekers that they line up - via a proprietary digital job placement platform - to more than 80 companies in the Triangle. This service will become a part of ExitEvent's digital offerings, but remain under the Big Top brand for the foreseeable future.
Keeping in mind that a more economically robust North Carolina is in everyone's interest, the group has their eyes set on a footprint that eventually could be larger than the Triangle. ExitEvent has successfully hosted networking and topic-driven events in Greensboro, Wilmington and Winston-Salem. Editor Laura Baverman foresees Big Top's offerings eventually meeting needs in those markets and others, perhaps beyond North Carolina's borders.
Big Top is engaging, helpful and fun and fits so nicely into the suite of events we host to support the growth of startup communities, says Baverman.
In addition to producing more Big Top events, ExitEvent will put compelling stories and information about growing companies in front of jobseekers.
We're excited to build up the collective ExitEvent-Big Top digital platform to serve even more individuals and companies, adds Baverman, and to add more storytelling around career opportunities.
The Highlights: Big Top at Moogfest from ExitEvent on Vimeo.
One Stop Shop
Since its founding by Heivly, Big Top has earned a glowing reputation, in large part due to the creativity and energy of its events, many of which employ a circus concept. Big Top has so far hosted 15 events in the region. Heivly will remain involved in the evolution of Big Top's portfolio.
Talent and the acquisition of talent is one of the key pieces of what makes a thriving community and, to that end, we need the kind of products and services that help us and our companies acquire that talent as easily as possible, says Heivly. ExitEvent, Big Top and American Underground will provide a one stop shop for entrepreneurs and job seekers in our community to keep their operations running strong.
The next Big Top is slated for July 6, 6-8 p.m. at The Frontier at Research Triangle Park. More information at ExitEvent.com.
Thanks to ATC's Laura Baverman for this capcom story & for these capcom photos. Photo credits to Jonny Underwood & Brian Livingstone.
Find out more:
Check out the ExitEvent blogpost by Laura Baverman all about the big get : Big Top Gets Acquired . By Us
SLIDESHOW: Pix from Moogfest event in May
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Quest for tech talent, crucial to regional success, gets boost from merger, expansion of resources
