What’s Next for Startup Week PHX?

Wow! Can you believe we’re already into the monsoon season here in PHX? And it’s been an epic one already.

And the epic 2018 iteration of Techstars Startup Week PHX is already 4 months in the rearview mirror. Time flies when things are heating up for the endless PHX summer.

Speaking of heating up — we’re getting things cooking for 2019’s SUWPHX. Here’s an update on all things SUWPHX:

INTRODUCING…KATE ROGERS AS CO-LEAD

There’s already been awesome movement behind the scenes for SUWPHX 2019, not least being Kate Rogers taking on the Co-Leader role on our organizing team. I’m so stoked to be working together with Kate to put together a remarkable team and then plan and execute SUWPHX 2019. Kate and I worked together on the organizing team last year and the continuity of experience and camaraderie is super exciting!

I hope that Kate is familiar to many — as she was super involved in last year’s SUWPHX (as well as the 4 years prior, as well) — putting together an amazing lineup of speakers, panels, and workshops. But for those who don’t know her well, here’s a bit more about Kate:

Kate is passionate about people, building companies & communities and inspiring others to harness their unique strengths and potential, both in and out of the office. She has been working with startups since 2005 and has served as the Head of Talent and People for companies based in Silicon Valley, Boston, Austin, Denver, New York and Phoenix. In February she launched her new startup: CoVibe, where she and her team partner with Founders/Co-Founders/CEOs to build their startups with a people-first mindset. She prides herself in building and shaping companies through culture, developing and enhancing programs that empower people, building authentic teams and coaching new managers/founders as their businesses scale and grow.

Along those same lines, Kate lends her time and talent to supporting many local nonprofit and community organizations for entrepreneurs, (not least being Startup Week PHX). Outside of her work, she’s also the proud mother of a 5-year-old who is a constant reminder of the importance of inspiring the next generation of future leaders and innovators and celebrating the daily joys of life. She’s known for her approachability, authenticity, enthusiasm and natural ability to bring out “the fun” in groups she’s leading.

I’ll also add that Kate is a passionate cheerleader for our entrepreneurial community here in Arizona. I’ve personally seen her joyfully give of her talents and sacrifice her time to make our community better. I can’t wait to see even more of her passion pour out through SUWPHX 2019!

Okay, what else is going down?

A VISION FOR SUWPHX 2019

Kate and I have been together working hard to develop a core vision for this next iteration of Startup Week PHX. We’ve both talked with a number of you in our entrepreneurial community for your feedback about SUWPHX — especially the experience in 2018. We asked what you liked and didn’t like: What challenges did you face? What would make it better? What are we doing (or not doing) that is keeping people from being involved (in any kind of way? And we’ve studied the data we collected from attendees from this last year to see where we’re hitting the mark as well as missing it.

At the end of the day, we’ve found one consistent theme that we believe should be absolutely central to the next Startup Week PHX:

Empowered Diversity

Our city is diverse — we are, as a community of communities, made up of a multitude of different people and cultures. We have a plurality of experiences informed from our diverse identities found in our families, ethnicities, genders, skills, educational backgrounds, interests, and industries.

And our entrepreneurial communities are no less diverse.

Our vision for SUWPHX 2019 is to create a week-long series of events and experiences that empower our community to express the diversity we find in our entrepreneurs, startup teams, and the people that support them. Really, its a callback to our #yesPHX roots — giving the whole startup community a platform to connect, celebrate, and learn from each other. It’s always been a community-led, community-oriented, community-building event. Our vision is to further develop that

So what does this mean practically?

Well, we’re still fleshing out the details (and we’ll need help from our core organizing team and the whole community at large to do this effectively) but here are a few ideas of where we can take this:

1. Certainly, we want to give opportunities for as many entrepreneurial individuals, startups, groups, events, and communities to participate in SUWPHX. This has always been at the heart of Startup Week and Kate and I both want to continue to grow and expand those opportunities — as much as our team and community can support.
2. Increase the diversity represented by our attendees, speakers, organizers, volunteers, and sponsors. This won’t be simple work. It will require us to work hard to reach as many communities as possible; to have clear guidelines when selecting team members, speakers, and sponsors; and it will require all our various entrepreneurial communities in the PHX area to commit to contributing to the event, for the betterment of the whole.
3. Showcase the wide diversity of industries and types of business that the PHX metro area is supporting. We have so many hidden gems. It’s time for our community to recognize the many entrepreneurs and startup organizations planting and growing in our midst.
4. Help each other solve the wide diversity of challenges we face as a community of entrepreneurs, startups, and supporters through the programming of the event.

Help us — give feedback and ideas!

These are only a few, high-level ideas of how we can build on the theme of Empowered Diversity at Startup Week PHX. We want to hear yours as well. If you have an idea for how we can deliver on this vision for SUWPHX 2019, we want to hear it: send it to us via the feedback form.

Advisory Team

As an extension of our D+I vision, we’ve put together the first SUWPHX Advisory Team. This all-volunteer group of past SUWPHX organizers will provide much-needed continuity of experience and knowledge from previous years’ events as we plan out the 2019 version of SUWPHX. We’ve already had our first Advisory Team meeting in June and it was a great opportunity for Kate and me to get a lot of feedback and a ton of amazing ideas from our past organizers. Our hope is that this Advisory Team will grow in future years and provide much-needed continuity between each year’s event.

WHAT’S NEXT?

1. Putting the Core Organizing Team together.

Kate and I are currently looking for members of our community to volunteer to join our Core Organizing Team. Last year, this team consisted of 11 people who handled the core planning and execution of the event. This year, we’re looking to at least double the size of the core team (to better distribute responsibilities across more people). As well, we’re breaking the core team into 5 distinct sub-teams:

• Marketing
• Sponsorships
• Programming
• Operations
• Volunteers
• Mentorship

Apply to Join:

If you’re even the slightest bit interested in joining the Core Organizing Team (or even just finding out more), let us know. We’ve got a quick application form to get the process started.

We’re building a diverse team with different backgrounds, experiences, skills, and levels of involvement. A passion for the PHX startup community, a ‘can do’ attitude, and the ability to work well on a team are the real ‘musts’. If this sounds like you (or someone you know), sign up!

(Applying is not a formal commitment to be on the Core Organizing Team — it’s simply you saying, ‘I’m interested. How can I help? Tell me more. That said, we need you to raise your hand if we all want to make this an event that reflects our generous and diverse community.)

Nominate a Community Member:

And if there’s someone you think should consider joining the Core Organizing Team, nominate them here.

Our goal is to finalize the Core Organizing Team by the end of August. So nominate someone (or two, or ten) soon!

2. Partnering with Local Companies and Organizations

Startup Week PHX would not be possible without an amazing mix of local companies and organizations who sponsor the event with cash, in-kind donations, and simply spreading the word. Seriously — this is community-led, all-volunteer event with no revenue model. Without this kind of support from some awesome local organizations, this event would not be possible.

If you or your organization have a passion for developing the entrepreneurial community in PHX, we want to chat with you and see if we can partner together. Please contact Kate and I so we can chat with you about sponsorship and partnership opportunities.

Onward!

Whew! That was quite the whirlwind of updates! Glad you stuck around for all of them. Now let’s get to work! We’re getting super excited for Startup Week PHX 2019.

And if you’re not on the email list — there’s no better time than now. 😉

Originally published at phxstartupweek.com on July 19, 2018.