Frisco will be an epicenter for discussions around the startup industry during the week of Sept. 10.
This year, Dallas Startup Week is heading to Sports City USA for the annual event that brings together area entrepreneurs, investors, industry professionals and students. The event includes a kickoff party, panel discussions, keynote speakers and more.
This year’s lineup of keynote speakers includes Hall of Fame Cowboys Quarterback Troy Aikman, rapper Chamillionaire, AOL Co-Founder Steve Case, Next Door Co-Founder Nirav Tolia and Buzzballz CEO Merrilee Kick.
The event is produced by The DEC Network, a nonprofit focused on supporting entrepreneurs.
“We’ll have over 200 speakers, 100 events, we’ll have 11 tracks which kind of cover a wide range of topics, technology, investment, marketing, legal,” said Kendall Castillo, senior manager of events and operations at The DEC Network and lead organizer for Dallas Startup Week. “I mean you name it, we really try and cover all of our bases, so it’s a busy, busy week but it’s one you just definitely don’t want to miss out on.”
Castillo said attendance for last year’s event was at around 3,000. The hope is to welcome 3,000 to 5,000 attendees this year, she said.
“You can come every single day, you can come one of the days, you can come just half of a day, whatever,” she said. “The door is open, it’s a completely free event.”
The event schedule runs front Sept. 10-14 and will be hosted at the University of North Texas at Frisco campus in Hall Park.
“So much business innovation, so much growth has been happening there,” Castillo said of Frisco. “You think of the PGA, you think of the Academy of Country Music awards that was there, you think of Universal Studios coming, it just made a lot of sense for us to go and be in Frisco, because these are some new cool connections that can happen organically just from having it at Frisco.”
Castillo said she hopes the week-long event will provide a space for founders, entrepreneurs and anyone who is part of the startup ecosystem to connect.
“Really it’s an encouraging week, but it just fosters so much community, so many connections and it’s just honestly super fun too, so we just get to highlight so many people and just give space for everyone to be together,” Castillo said.
Registration information and more details are at dallasstartupweek.com.