Technical.ly’s annual can’t-miss series of events attracts some pretty cool people — entrepreneurial high-schoolers included.

Since, as of now, I have no idea exactly where in the country I’ll end up for college next year, I try to enjoy Delaware as much as I can, whenever and however I can. When I travel and meet people from across the country and they ask about what Delaware is like, I take great pride in telling them about the innovation, entrepreneurship and technology community that Delaware is growing each and every day. This is one of the many reasons why I’m proud to be a Delawarean.

When I first heard about Delaware Innovation Week during the summer, I immediately put it on the list of potential fall field trips for my school’s entrepreneurship club.

The Entrepreneurship Club at the Charter School of Wilmington (CSW) is devoted to inspiring young business-builders and promoting entrepreneurial thinking among today’s youth. During the school year, we have meetings on Fridays that include local guest entrepreneurs and business leaders. We also do seasonal field trips, including participation in the Diamond Challenge, visits to coworking spaces like 1313 Innovation and participation in the annual Youth Entrepreneurship Summit.

(By the way, if anyone reading this would like to be a guest speaker or help us meet our mentorship goals, please use this form to reach us.)

The Entrepreneurship Club was able to get approval from school administrators to allow us to get out of school to participate in Delaware Innovation Week 2017. Awesome, right?

Here are three of the events that we can’t wait to attend:

1. Small Business Owner’s Bootcamp

My club members and I are preparing for the annual Diamond Challenge for High School Entrepreneurs, so I thought that this bootcamp would be a great experience and opportunity to learn from experienced business experts about the both challenging and rewarding journey of starting a small business or startup.

I’m sure all of us will gain valuable and practical skills and knowledge from these experts and from interacting with other fellow entrepreneurs. I personally want to take what I learn and apply the skills and knowledge I gain to my goal of making OpportuniME and The MIRACLE Organization successful ventures.

2. Dev Talks & Dev Workshops

The marriage of technology and business is a union that is important today and will be even more important as “the future” becomes the present. That’s because technology has the power to solve consumer problems and make life easier, more efficient and more exciting.

I’m especially excited to attend this event because I would really like to develop (no pun intended) my coding skills and take them to the next level. We’ll be there — laptops in hand!

3. Innovation Celebration & HipHoponomics Competition

I selected this event because 1.) who doesn’t like parties? and 2.) who doesn’t like to celebrate innovation?

The club and I hope to have not only have great time, but also use this opportunity to network and make meaningful connections with business professionals, entrepreneurs and various members of the Delaware innovation community. I also can’t wait to hear some econ rappers spit bars on why learning economics important!

Let the countdown to #DIW17 begin!