Techweek makes intro to Kansas City

It only seems fitting that bass-thumping techno music would introduce Kansas City’s most anticipated technology conference.

National tech conference Techweek — which will be in Kansas City from Sept. 14 to Sept. 20 — made its official introduction into the Kansas City community Monday evening with a party at the Sprint Accelerator. After arriving in Kansas City only six hours earlier, Techweek CEO Katy Lynch welcomed more than 100 people at the event, which featured an array of technologists, entrepreneurs and other businesspeople.

Lynch said that her brief time in Kansas City has already been welcoming and fruitful.

“It’s been wonderful,” Lynch told Startland News. “The people here are so welcoming and so friendly; there’s a lot of enthusiasm and charisma. Hearing people’s stories has been great and everyone is so collaborative. Everyone I’ve met has introduced me to another person who does this and that, and that’s really cool. There’s something really special about the startup ecosystem here.”

The conference will begin with a kickoff party Sept. 14 at the Boulevard Brewery, and will feature other events including a pitch competition, job fair, concert and hackathon. Here’s a rough version of the schedule, provided by Techweek.

LaunchKC — an initiative to attract 10 tech firms to relocate to Kansas City — partnered with Techweek to present a demo day competition during Techweek, which is expected to attract hundreds of attendees.

In addition to revealing the conference schedule, Lynch also introduced eight additional speakers to Techweek’s roster.

Speakers include:

• Kristin Smith, CEO of Code Fellows
• John Fein, managing director of Techstars
• Boland Jones, CEO of PGi
• Chris Jeffrey, CEO of OrderUp
• Jim McKelvey, co-founder of Square
• Teffanie Stanard, CEO of MENT
• Anand Sanwal, CEO of CB Insights
• Blake Miller, a partner at Think Big Partners
• John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing
• Claude Aldridge, CEO of Trellie
• Patrick Stuart, senior product manager at Skycatch
• Jonathan Badeen, co-founder of Tinder