DC’s top technologists come together to launch a free local startup conference

When Nafisa Rawji began her first post-grad job at Deloitte nearly a decade ago, people told her starting her tech journey in DC was a bad idea. She ignored them and took that job anyway. 

She ultimately saw the region’s strengths and wants to help other technologists and founders see them, too. That desire spurred Rawji and others to launch a brand new tech conference in DC, whose main programming starts Monday, and lessen the barriers for these innovation scene professionals to learn and network. 

DC Tech Week is a mostly free series of events across the city, Maryland and Virginia. It’s put on by Rawji and fellow cofounders of Techsgiving, an annual summit and group connecting underrepresented communities to careers in tech. She cocreated DC Tech Week with Ayo Duyile, a senior product manager at Google and fellow Techsgiving cofounder who she credited with the idea for the series. Together, they work with a planning committee on coordination and administrative components.

Rawji, a principal product manager at the California-based startup software consulting firm Artium, said this new initiative is separate from but related to Techsgiving (which costs money to attend). 

“I think of it as an open-source conference, in a way, because it’s still knowledge sharing, it’s still networking,” Rawji told Technical.ly. “It’s just over a larger window of time. And it’s free.”

What to expect from the new series

DC Tech Week landed prominent partners including Google, Salesforce and Silicon Valley Bank — the beleaguered startup- and tech-focused bank that melted down in 2023, but is now under new management. 

There are plenty of networking opportunities planned, including an LGBTQ+-focused happy hour at Shakers and a specific mixer for government tech workers. Salesforce is hosting a panel about ethical AI use, and NASA is screening a movie all about Black women astronauts at the Kennedy Center. 

Rawji and her team are not planning the individual events, but called on companies and leaders to plan, execute and front the costs. DC Tech Week doesn’t charge a fee to be labeled as a part of the week either. 

The goal is to share knowledge, not generate revenue, Rawji said.  

Twenty-five people submitted event applications and 19 were accepted, per Rawji. A lot of the organizers have hosted events before, and the hope is to spread the word about their work.

“It can be hard to really get your isolated, small event traction, and we especially resonate with that,” she said. 

Local conference organizers working together

Rawji and her team started planning DC Tech Week in the spring and formally announced it in October, around the same time the nine-year-old and recently rebranded DC Startup and Tech Week held its annual conference. 

Despite the similar names, Rawji sees DC Tech Week standing on its own. It’s less formal than a traditional conference, for example, and is mostly free of cost, she said. 

Rachel Koretsky, the director of DC Startup and Tech Week, told Technical.ly that she sees these conferences as a joint effort. She’s a “big supporter” of the new series, she said. 

She and DC Startup and Tech Week co-chair Seema Alexander are involved, too: Alexander is in the process of curating a panel of founders for DC Tech Week and will be one of the pitch competition judges at Techsgiving, she said. 

“We are proud to partner with DC Tech Week and the Techsgiving Summit, as we share a mutual commitment to establishing the DMV region as a leading hub for innovation, startups and tech,” Koretsky said in a statement. “By showcasing and supporting startups through our own initiatives and at DC Startup and Tech Week, we are excited to support DC Tech Week to fuel growth and strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial and tech ecosystem together.”

How DC’s people make its ecosystem 

Planning and executing this conference comes as Rawji moves out of DC for about a year to Chicago, where she will be closer to her Artium colleagues at Artium. But she already has three trips planned to DC in the first half of 2025, and will still be closely involved with DC Tech Week and Techsgiving next year, she said. 

Despite leaving, Rawji said she still attests to DMV’s tech and innovation scene. She credits its energy to the people who live here and their passionate convictions. 

The region is ideal for people pursuing several different careers, too, including the obvious public sector trajectory, but also tech firms and nonprofit work.

“We’re close to innovation, we’re close to dual-use exploration, we’re close to a global community,” Rawji said, “and we’re close to people who are very much so mission-minded.”