The seven-day event will be smaller than in 2015 with about one-third fewer individual sessions, said Jess Knox, who founded the annual event in 2014. Knox said this year’s Maine Startup and Create Week was designed with networking in mind.
“We’re much more focused on creating an intimate experience,” he said. “We heard from our attendees that they wanted more opportunities to interact with people.”
Still, it is by far the largest event of the year in Maine focusing on entrepreneurs and startup companies. In 2015, more than 4,000 people from 24 states attended, Knox said.
Rather than dividing up the dozens of lectures and workshops into separate tracks as in previous years, the events are grouped together more loosely around a variety of different themes. On Monday, for example, there are sessions on educational technology, corporate innovation, building and maintaining websites, and the future of space exploration, along with several others. A full schedule of events, along with ticket sales and other information is available at mainestartupandcreateweek.com.
There will be related events known as affiliate events in the mornings and evenings, including the Maine Technology Institute Tech Walk on Wednesday evening at The Westin Portland Harborview hotel at 157 High St., and the Maine Startup and Create Week Food Show on Thursday evening at the Portland Company marine complex at 58 Fore St. Affiliate events require separate registration that also can be accessed through the event’s main website.
The scores of speakers and panelists scheduled to appear include representatives of large and small companies and institutions in Maine and across the U.S. Unum, Tom’s of Maine, CashStar, L.L. Bean, Disney, Google, Amazon and Allagash Brewing Co. are just a few of the many organizations that will be represented.
“We have speakers coming from 29 states,” Knox said.
©2016 the Portland Press Herald (Portland, Maine). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
