Organizers of Dallas Startup Week are planning to expand the event series beyond downtown in 2018.

The free, five-day celebration of all things startup is geared toward bringing area entrepreneurs and local leaders together for educational workshops and discussions around building the community. The 2017 event brought out 5,513 people throughout 118 total events.

“It allows us to reach out into communities that are doing great things, but aren’t being highlighted as we think they should.”
Trey Bowles

Next year, the conference will be held April 2-6. It’s part of a nationwide series of volunteer-run events spearheaded by Techstars.

In its fourth year, Dallas Startup Week attendees can expect events to sprawl all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area from Frisco and Denton to Fort Worth and Addison.

“I think what we need to do to effectively showcase and highlight who we are as a region and what our companies are doing, we need to recognize we’re not just one city of entrepreneurs. We’re a 9,200-square-mile region of entrepreneurs,” said Trey Bowles, co-founder and CEO of The Dallas Entrepreneur Center and lead organizer for Dallas Startup Week.

He said basecamp still will be located somewhere in downtown Dallas, but spreading out happenings across the area will bring more accessibility for those that may not be able to make it to that part of the city. It’ll also get more players of the entrepreneurial ecosystem involved by partnering with local organizations in each city.

“It allows us to reach out into communities that are doing great things, but aren’t being highlighted as we think they should,” Bowles said.

2018 ALSO WILL BRING NEW DISCUSSION TRACKS

There will be a few new discussion topics this year. Tracks haven’t been finalized, but Bowles said they’re planning to have sessions on artificial intelligence, corporate innovation, sales and growth, funding and investing, and emerging technologies such as virtual reality, blockchain, and cybersecurity along with the mainstays of health care, hospitality, and legal.

“The reason we picked the new ones is because we think it effectively reflects what’s going on in the marketplace not only on a national level, but specifically in our community.”

Trey Bowles

“The reason we picked the new ones is because we think it effectively reflects what’s going on in the marketplace not only on a national level, but specifically in our community,” Bowles said.

He said organizers will strive to have at least one female and one minority leader on each panel.

“Last year, we had the No. 1 most-diverse audience percentage wise in the country and we had more female attendees percentage wise than any other Startup Week in the country,” Bowles said. “We want to make sure we continue to be very intentional about making a Startup Week that more closely represents the makeup of our communities.”

To get involved and stay up-to-date with the latest details about Dallas Startup Week, visit dallas.startupweek.co.

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