Starting next Monday, more than 500 people are expected to attend Detroit Week, dedicated to uniting the region’s entrepreneurial community.
The week-long event, that runs through Feb. 23, and organized by Delane Parnell and Hajj Flemings of Brand Camp University — a Detroit-based firm that produces events centered on branding, entrepreneurial thinking, and technology — will bring together Detroit-based organizations such as Atomic Object and D:Hive.
“We want to highlight all of the cool things entrepreneurs are doing in the region, and we saw a real need to bring everyone together,” Flemings says. “Some of the groups play in their own sandbox, and our goal is to link people. We’re better off working together than in separate silos.”
The inaugural Detroit Week will include panels and mixers, as well as “Detroit’s Largest Selfie,” Flemings says. The effort seeks “to use our relationships and resources to rebrand Detroit as a place of doers.”
Parnell expects to see large turnouts at the Fifty Founders event on Feb. 20 at Bamboo Detroit, and at Demo Day at Grand Circus on Feb. 19, when startups will showcase their products and pitches as they compete for a chance to pitch their enterprises during a Google-hosted Demo Day in Silicon Valley.
Other venues include Cliff Bells, Great Lakes Coffee, and Wayne State University.
“This year, it’s our trial run to unify support organizations,” says Parnell. “Next year, we will use data from this year, and put on something larger.”
For more information about the event, visit detroitweek.com.
