Coming soon: Inaugural Des Moines Tech Week slated for Oct. 8-17

It’s not often an entire community gets together to celebrate its collective accomplishments, but come October central Iowa community members are hoping to do just that.

It’s not often an entire community gets together to celebrate its collective accomplishments, but come October central Iowa community members are hoping to do just that.

With the inaugural Des Moines Tech Week, the same group of community members organizing the I/OWA conference hope to bring together companies and individuals of all types to celebrate the ecosystem growing in central Iowa.

“Des Moines Tech Week is a great way for any business involved or interested in technology to help celebrate the community we have in central Iowa,” Geoff Wood, one of the event’s organizers, told SPN. “Technology startups tend to get a lot of the press and excitement, and Des Moines Tech Week is a great way to extend that coverage and support to a much wider group community-wide.

“It doesn’t matter if they’ve been around six months or 60 years, Des Moines Tech Week is for anyone who wants to celebrate technology in this region.”

Des Moines Tech Week will kick off the evening of Oct. 8 with Startup Weekend Des Moines, beginning the evening of Oct. 10, and culminate a week later with the second-annual I/OWA conference.

Right now, the schedule for Des Moines Tech Week is pretty sparse—including Startup Weekend, 1 Million Cups and the I/OWA conference—but organizers hope to fill the week with a variety of activities celebrating the entrepreneurial community.

“Anyone and everyone who wants to do a technology-themed event is invited to participate and there is no fee for doing so,” Wood said.

If you’re interested in hosting or planning an event during Des Moines Tech Week, simply submit your event online and an organizer will be in touch shortly.

See a complete schedule of events on the Des Moines Tech Week website

Grab a ticket to the I/OWA conference

The second-annual I/OWA conference will serve as the capstone for Des Moines Tech Week, Oct. 16-17.

As of Monday morning, tickets for the two-day event are on sale for $99.

Similar to last year’s I/OWA conference, the first day of the event will be free to the public and include a number of breakout sessions on various topics as well as open co-working at Gravitate. Currently, the conference’s organizers are looking for individuals to present during Thursday’s breakout sessions. If you’re interested or know someone who would be a good fit, submit an idea online.

On the last day of the conference, attendees with gather at the Kirkwood to hear a variety of speakers, typically from both local and national backgrounds. While a lineup of speakers has yet to be announced, last year’s slate included Entrepreneurial Technologies’ Erin Rollenhagen, Zapier’s Mike Knoop and 5by’s Greg Isenberg, to name a few.

 

Stay tuned for more on Des Moines Tech Week and the I/OWA conference in the coming weeks. 

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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