For the first time, Dallas Startup Week is coming to Collin County at UNT at Frisco-Hall Park for a five-day event dedicated to celebrating and connecting North Texas entrepreneurs. Last year’s attendance at the event was around 3,000 and organizers hope to bring that number up to 5,000 for the 2023 gathering.
This year’s stellar speaker lineup includes football hall-of-famer Troy Aikman, AOL Co-Founder Steve Case, Next Door Co-Founder Nirav Tolia, Rapper Chamillionaire and Buzzballz CEO Merrilee Kick who will be sharing their business journey.
The 8th annual event coincides with the 10th anniversary of The DEC Network, the 501c3 nonprofit organization behind Dallas Startup Week. Since its inception in 2013, The DEC Network provided entrepreneurs across Dallas-Fort Worth expert education and access to mentors to help them start, build and grow their businesses.
“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,” Kendall Castillo, senior manager of events and operations at The DEC Network and lead organizer for Dallas Startup Week told Star Local Media. “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.”
Before heading for Frisco, the 7 previous events were held at several venues in Dallas. From being hosted at several venues across downtown Dallas during its first years, as the networking gathering grew it moved its base camp to Dallas Ross Tower in 2018 until the pandemic stroke in 2020, forcing guests and speakers to meet online. In Aug. 2022 the event made a comeback at SMU Business School of Cox.
Now, for 5 days, entrepreneurs, investors, industry professionals and UNT Frisco students will be able to participate in over 100 events, more than 200 speakers and 11 tracks ranging from marketing to AI to automation and emerging technologies to investment strategies and legal agreements. Among the events, guests will have the opportunity to ask questions at panel discussions and connect with professionals at networking events.
In addition to representing a learning and networking opportunity, Dallas Startup Week will also host pitch competitions awarding the seven winning businesses cash prizes totaling $50,000 altogether.
Click here to register for the Dallas Startup Week.
