Building Milwaukee to be tech-centric city
Milwaukee can grow as a technologycentric city if it can link its disjointed parts and people, according to startup champion and community builder Matt Cordio.
Cordio’s company, Skills Pipeline Group, is exploring convening a techcentric event this spring similar to Milwaukee Startup Week. The idea came after attendance grew 57% for Milwaukee Startup Week events this year.
Cordio is the lead organizer and cofounder of Milwaukee Startup Week.
More than 4,100 people went to the educational workshops, networking events, pitch competitions and hackathons held Nov. 6-12. The congregation was the second annual week dedicated to high-growth entrepreneurship in southeastern Wisconsin.
Skills Pipeline is looking into launching an open-sourced event focused on technology that will have networking, awards and presentations from national players outside the region.
“For southeast Wisconsin’s economy to thrive in the 21st century, a concerted effort must be made to make our region a destination for technology talent,” Cordio said.
Cordio said Milwaukee needs an event devoted to providing the tech companies and people in the region a platform to connect and collaborate.
Skills Pipeline launched a tech community building series, Code + Craft Brews, this fall. The next event in the series is Nov. 28, featuring Melissa Owens, senior vice president of application engineering at Aurora Health Care.
Milwaukee’s tech community recently has been boosted from the support of local corporations. In October, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Aurora Health Care announced each company would commit $5 million to venture funds to invest in Milwaukee startups.
“We have a larger technology community than most realize. An event like this will be a key catalyst in helping to attract and retain technology workers in southeast Wisconsin,” Cordio said in a release. “The region has a history of technology innovation in traditional industries such as manufacturing and financial services, as well as emerging industries such as enterprise software and e-commerce. We aim to tell this story and better connect the key players and talent in the tech space with each other through this event.”