Tech, art, gaming and music festival Fall Experiment will return to Milwaukee next month, bringing an expanded lineup of more than 60 keynote speakers, interactive gaming, workshops and a headlining performance by DJ Steve Aoki.
Now in its second year, the two-day event is set for Friday, Oct. 4 and Saturday, Oct. 5 at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee. The festival debuted last year with one day of programming at UW-Milwaukee’s Peck School of the Arts.
This year, Fall X includes tracks focused on developer and user experience, product management, startups, tech and art, e-sports and gaming and music.
The festival promises a roster of notable speakers including Aaron Hawkins, former head of Amazon Prime Global and Nancy Wang, head of data protection product management team for Amazon Web Services; Searit Huluf, story/edit coordinator at Pixar Animation Studios; Charles Adler, co-founder of crowdfunding platform Kickstarter; George Jeng, head of internal product for VICE Media; and, from the Milwaukee Bucks, Robert Cordova, chief technology and strategy officer and Jim Paschke, play-by-play announcer.
“Fall Experiment provides a great opportunity for individuals to connect, collaborate and celebrate the skills and ideas that are transforming our region daily,” said Karl Gouverneur, vice president of digital workplace, corporate solutions and head of digital innovation at Northwestern Mutual. “Different backgrounds help to fuel these ideas and we’re thrilled to bring the second Fall Experiment to Milwaukee. Events like this continue to unite our community and drive Milwaukee forward as a tech hub.”
As part of the startup track, Fall X includes a reverse pitch competition hosted by Advocate Aurora Health subsidiary 83 Tech Harbor in which five finalist startups will compete for a $200,000 investment.
That track will also include Fall X PITCH, a pitch competition through which Rock River Capital Partners and Northwestern Mutual’s Cream City Venture Capital will invest $250,000 in a local startup or a startup relocating to the Milwaukee region.
There will also be programming geared toward younger generations. Northwestern Mutual and Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design on Friday will host a design challenge for about 100 Milwaukee-area middle and high school students.
Fall X culminates on Saturday with Steve Aoki’s performance, featuring songwriter and rapper Arabian Prince, scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Aoki returns to Milwaukee just months after headlining at Summerfest in June.
Tickets for Fall X range from $30 to $65 and can be purchased through the festival’s website.
