Some people measure their calendar year from January to January; others might go from April tax season to the following April. However, we here at Tech.Co do things a bit differently: we live from October to October.
Regional Competitions Culminate in Annual Event
Throughout the course of the year we send our team members to travel all around the country to visit tech ecosystems and connect with the local entrepreneurs who have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into their passions. To showcase their entrepreneurial spirit, we host our Startup of the Year Competition & Mixer events.
During these events, we serve cocktails and let the crowd network together before taking the stage and kicking off the crowning glory to the event: the pitch competition. Each participating startup gets one minute to pitch their idea or company to the crowd, who in turn vote on the pitch they like best.
But beyond that we also open the voting up to our loyal readers, who chime in via online polls to select a Reader’s Choice winner. When everything wraps up at the end of the night we thus have two winners.
Celebrate Promises a Startup Journey
Not only do they get the victory and all bragging rights that go along with it, they also get an invitation to compete at our annual Celebrate Conference. When the calendar hits October, the month we live for, our entire Tech.Co team welcomes startup founders, entrepreneurs, innovators, creators, and pitch competition winners to Downtown Las Vegas to celebrate entrepreneurship.
Celebrate 2015 is not your average sit-and-listen-to-panels type of conference. This year, we present to you an immersive, three-day startup journey.
Celebrate 2015 acts as a hybrid incubator and conference that we will be holding from October 4 to 6 in Downtown Las Vegas. All of the people who attend will learn, discover, and engage directly with advisors, coaches, influencers, investors, founders, and startup experts from around the globe.
This year is the third time we’ve hosted Celebrate Conference, and every year we’ve been working to make it better than last year’s. It comes as little surprise then that this year promises to be exciting.
Tickets start at $199, and with it you’ll get access to our mentor sessions, panels, keynote speeches, parties, and your choice of one workshop plus two free Downtown Project excursions. As the price goes up, so do the perks.
For example, with a $249 ticket you’ll get two workshops, four Downtown Project excursions, all the rest, plus access to our Epic Office hours – a one on one 30 minute meeting with a high profile tech mentor.
First Mentors and Speakers Announced
We’re packing the roster full of high-caliber talent, so without further adieu, we announce the first mentors and workshop leaders for Celebrate 2015:
Stacy Parson is an executive coach for leaders at Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, and other major tech firms. She will be leading a workshop at Celebrate 2015 on ‘Teams and Talent: Next Level Results for Startups’.
One of Stacy’s proudest achievements is leading the implementation of the Career Development @ Yahoo! Workshop that was delivered globally in 15 countries, reached approximately 2,000 global participants in 2011, and contributed to a 7% increase in career engagement in six months.
This coaching session will focus on teams and talent, and removing the friction that gets in the way of accelerated performance.
Don Dodge is a Developer Advocate at Google who specifically helps developers build new applications for the Google platform and technology suite. Don will participate in Epic Office Hours, offering direct one-on-one coaching and mentorship for attendees.
Don has spent time as a startup evangelist for Microsoft, he’s a veteran of five successful startups, and he’s been active in the software business for over 25 years at this point.
Gabriella Draney Zielke is the CEO and cofounder of Tech Wildcatters. Gabriella will also participate in Epic Office Hours, bringing her entrepreneurial skills to startup founders at all stages. She is best known for having developed the Tech Wildcatters b2b accelerator, which is now ranked one of the top 10 seed accelerators in the country as a direct result of her efforts.
We’re going to be bringing some other heavy hitters, and there will be a diverse representation of market niches to ensure that you get the most out of your time at our Epic Office Hours at Celebrate 2015.
“At Tech.Co we take pride in offering startups, founders, and entrepreneurs the very best of the tech world with our annual Celebrate Conference,” says Tech.Co CEO Frank Gruber. “This year we’re rolling out the red carpet for the high quality mentors at our Epic Office Hours to ensure our attendees get the most out of their experience. And we’ve only announced a sliver of the powerhouse talent we’re bringing to Downtown Las Vegas this year. Simply put, Celebrate is the place to be if you’re in the industry.”
Startups Encouraged to Apply for Competitions – First Prizes Announced
You’ll also be front-and-center for our global pitch competition. Every winner from our local Startup of the Year Competition & Mixer events, Reader’s Choice Polls, and Online Startup Competitions comes to Celebrate wholly for this moment, and the competition is always fierce as they vie for the title of Tech.Co Startup of the Year.
But that’s not all they will be vying for. Startups who showcase at the Celebrate Competition will have the chance to be accepted into a top U.S.-based accelerator. And CEA will be searching among the entries in order to award a Consumer Electronics Startup Prize Package to the best Consumer Electronics startup competitor at Celebrate. This prize includes hotel and travel stipend to Las Vegas, floor space at Eureka Park, and 10 CES exhibitor badges! This is amazing. Startups, you know what to do. Check this list for a regional competition near you and apply now!
As an attendee you can expect to run into investors, attorneys, mentors, tech luminaries, technologists, influencers, startup coaches, and advisors. But more importantly, you can expect to witness the power of the entrepreneurial spirit.
It takes something very poignant to bring people from all over the world together in one location to celebrate each other. All we want is the chance to show you just how meaningful that is and how it’s bigger than any one of us. #Celebrate2015
