NOLATech Week was launched last year as the first weeklong technology-focused event, created by the people for the people. Local nonprofits, businesses, organizations and community groups banded together to make it a historical, annual event, and it was a huge success.
The second annual event kicked off last week with a mission to foster a dialogue between city leaders, business leaders, tech industry leaders, and the community on how the community can exploit technology to have a positive economical and social impact on our city.
“Everybody gets to do whatever they think is most fun and most relevant to them,” said Tech Week director Jason Seidman on the flexibility and openness of the conference. “The technology ecosystem really is everybody.”
The week was host to more than 40 events such as Nola.io, a part storytelling, part pitch event, Operation Spark’s demo day to show off what the participating kids who code are learning, and the resurrection of one of the local entrepreneurial groups, NOLA Meetup.
The inaugural NOLATech Week came together last year in just about six weeks with only 15 volunteers organizing the over 40 events. Prior to the October 6th, 2014 launch date, Seidman expected at least double the number of volunteers, many of whom gathered last week for the initial planning meeting, and definitely many more attendees throughout the week.