07 Aug WisBusiness: the Podcast with Laura Strong, Forward Festival
This week’s episode of “WisBusiness: the Podcast” is with returning guest Laura Strong, board member for Forward Festival and founder and CEO of Valency Fund.
The show previews the upcoming event series, which organizers tout as the state’s largest celebration of technology and entrepreneurship.
It’s being held Aug. 18-22 in Madison, with more than 60 events taking place across the city that week.
“It’s really driven by entrepreneurs, but it’s really inclusive of everyone in the community, even people that are just curious about entrepreneurship and maybe don’t have any plans to be entrepreneurs themselves,” she said. “We as the festival provide an umbrella that allows people to plan their events during this week … every year we’re excited to see what people have come up with.”
This year’s Forward Festival will have more individual events than ever before, and more than two-thirds of those are new to the festival, Strong notes.
Along with the longstanding Badger Startup Summit, Forward Festival features the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce’s Pressure Chamber pitch competition, seminars on growing a business and other topics, social gatherings, as well as numerous programs focused on AI, cybersecurity and much more.