Get out those calendars: The first Triangle Innovation Week will kick off this Oct. 3-12. The week-plus consists of seven individual events held throughout the Triangle revolving around technology and innovation and is being hosted by Paradigm, a Raleigh-HQ’d design and development agency.
Paola Amparan, Paradigm’s Director of Social Innovation, said many of these events already happen around the same time every year, but no one had the time and resources to pull them collectively under one umbrella before.
With the events all together in one week, attendees will be able to bundle tickets and expand their interests across different areas.
The year’s events include the eighth annual Innovate Raleigh Summit (which is now sold out), Paradigm’s own 2019 Global Innovation Summit, and Startup Summit 2019.
The overall goal of Triangle Innovation Week is to grow each year and eventually become a standalone non-profit organization, Amparan said.
The main focuses of the week are to broaden people’s awarenesses regarding the different things happening in the Triangle in tech and innovation, and to make the various events more accessible.
Paradigm’s event, the 2019 Global Innovation Summit, will be held for the second consecutive year and will be centered around sustainability.
Instead of using sustainability as simply a buzzword, Amparan said, the summit hopes to inspire people to actually walk the walk by working toward it outside the four walls of the conference.
“I’m tired of hearing everyone talk about it and pat themselves on the back and then say ‘good job everyone, see you next year,’” she said.
The company also wants to represent different voices in the sustainability conversation beyond those who are often heard already. They have partnered with Wake Technical Community College to give small businesses and students a chance to participate.
The summit will consist of workshops, question and answer sessions, a salon track and a design track. The hope is to cater to all different learning styles, Amparan said. Paradigm wants people to come away with something tangible from their experience.
The summit will be held on Oct. 4 from 9 a.m-4 p.m at HQ Gateway in Raleigh. Around 80 attendees are expected to attend, and general admission tickets range from $75 to $150.
The event will also be not-for-profit and will be donating 50% of its revenue to local nonprofits, including Trees For The Triangle and 321 Coffee. The other 50% of the proceeds will be dedicated to putting on the same event next year.
Part of the mission statement of the summit is that understanding comes first in collaboration. There’s currently bubbles of people not looking outside their comfort zone, Amparan said. These bubbles include a corporate bubble, generational bubbles and regional bubbles.
“We really want to break down echo chambers,” Amparan said. “I see a real need to burst bubbles and break down barriers.”
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