In its second year, attendance at Milwaukee Startup Week increased by 57 percent.
The event attracted 4,100 attendees, up from 2,600 last year. There were more than 50 free programs as part of this year’s Startup Week, which ran from Nov. 6 to 12 at a variety of venues in southeastern Wisconsin.
According to Milwaukee Startup Week’s organizers, there were entrepreneurs from at least 35 states in attendance at Milwaukee Startup Week, and at least six of them were evaluating moving their companies from other states to southeastern Wisconsin.
“We are incredibly proud of the work our community partners and sponsors put in to make Milwaukee Startup Week a tremendous success this year,” said Matt Cordio, co-founder of Milwaukee Startup Week. “Milwaukee Startup Week continues to be an event that creates a lot of positive momentum in the southeast Wisconsin startup community.”
This year, the event was also expanded to include 10 cities across the state and was dubbed Wisconsin Startup Week. In total, more than 200 events were held.
Cordio, who leads several talent communities related to technology and startups in the area, established umbrella company Skills Pipeline Group LLC in August. Skills Pipeline is a technology talent recruitment company. It operates Wisconsin Startup Week; the Startup Milwaukee community; a monthly Emerge series highlighting Milwaukee-area startup companies; a quarterly Showcase, a demonstration expo for startups; and Code + Craft Brews, which is aimed at attracting and retaining technology talent in Milwaukee.
“We certainly think building the community is good for our business,” Cordio said.
Now, Skills Pipeline Group is planning to launch a new technology event in the spring, similar to Milwaukee Startup Week.
The event would be open sourced, and would allow community partners to showcase their work to the community. It would include networking events, an awards ceremony and presentations from a national slate of keynote speakers.
Skills Pipeline is currently planning the unnamed event and determining which community partners would participate.
“We have a larger technology community than most realize; an event like this will be a key catalyst in helping to attract and retain technology workers in southeast Wisconsin,” Cordio said. “The region has a history of technology innovation in traditional industries such as manufacturing and financial services, as well as emerging industries such as enterprise software and e-commerce. We aim to tell this story and better connect the key players and talent in the tech space with each other through this event.”
