The technology, entrepreneurship and innovation community of Delaware needs a rallying cry.
The inaugural year of Delaware Innovation Week, presented by 1313 Innovation and organized by Technical.ly, took place Nov. 13-21 throughout the state as timed with Global Entrepreneurship Week.
The weeklong celebration of technology and innovation was the start of that rallying cry.
Amid a growing collection of regular events, a stronger network of supporters and broader awareness of the importance of developing the future of Delaware’s economy, we aimed to bring all the parts together to make the loudest collective shout. Delaware Innovation Week is the showcase for Delaware’s technologists, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Across nearly 25 events, we had more than 2,000 attendees, with the help of 30 partners — event organizers, media supporters and sponsors. We’re proud of the starting point.
(Get it on your calendar now, #DIW16 will take place Nov. 11-19, 2016.)
Here are a few outcomes from the week:
- We gave out the inaugural Delaware Innovation Awards, as part of our big closing party at the Hercules Building in Wilmington.
- We hosted 70 technologists on Wilmington’s North Market Street for an afternoon of high-level coding case studies.
- The second-annual Tech2Gether brought more than 200 people to the Queen to hear how the state is changing.
- Wilmington City Councilman Darius Brown made the case for a more responsive city.
- Noted local investor Mike Bowman talked about how to approach him and other venture capitalists for a still green local startup scene.
- At #Failfest, we pushed the idea that we need more comfort with risk.
- We pushed a group of community leaders to think about how Delaware’s innovation conversation can move forward.
- Marketers got the best of what’s changing in digital marketing.
- We offered real, practical lessons for new entrepreneurs in a bootcamp. (The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce hosted one of its own, too.)
- A local school held a STEM open house.
- The early civic hacking community got a call to start scraping government websites from noted open gov thought-leader Mark Headd.
- At least one new software product launched with #DIW15 as the expressed deadline.
- Former Delaware residents saw #DIW15 as something that needs to grow.
- The tech community garnered some wider news coverage to spread awareness.
