Denver Startup Week zeroes in on AI
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Denver Startup Week kicks off Monday for its 13th year and is again expected to draw more than 10,000 people to downtown.
Why it matters: The startup celebration, which runs Sept. 16-20, is considered the largest free event of its kind and an indicator of the city's innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
- Local leaders say they have seen a direct correlation between the growth of Startup Week and the development of the entrepreneurial and tech sectors in Denver.
The big picture: This year, organizers with the Downtown Denver Partnership have condensed the schedule down from one week to three days and consolidated the number of events to help attendees make the most of their time.
The latest: All eyes will be on Thursday's inaugural DenAI Summit, which dubs itself the "first major city-led convening of the artificial intelligence community" focused on using the technology "for good."
- Headline speakers include LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
- Top Denver-based speakers include Ibotta CEO Bryan Leach and Guild CEO Bijal Shah.
The intrigue: For the first time, Denver Startup Week will feature "community events" where participants can create meetups across the city at places like coffee shops, breweries and local parks.
- Those meetups are meant to be "for the community, by the community," DDP spokesperson Kate Barton tells us.
By the numbers: More than 170 community-led events and 70 sessions and panel discussions are scheduled.
Flashback: Last year's event drew more than 11,000 attendees, representing 42 U.S. states, roughly a dozen countries and nearly 5,000 companies.
What we're watching: Organizers say attendee registration is tracking to exceed last year's, though totals won't be finalized until after the conference.
If you go: Don't miss a special conversation with Axios co-founder and publisher Nick Johnston and Axios Denver's Alayna Alvarez (hey, that's me!).
- The discussion will focus on the changing face of news media at a time when information is more prevalent and more important than ever.
- The event is from 2-2:50pm Tuesday at the McNichols Building.