7th Annual EntreFEST
Downtown Iowa City—May 14-16
EntreFEST—Iowa’s annual celebration of entrepreneurship—will take place in Iowa City for the first time this year.
As the state’s biggest entrepreneur conference, the event is part summit, part festival and part resource hub. It aims to bring Iowa innovators together to celebrate and foster entrepreneurship.
The University of Northern Iowa is the event’s primary sponsor (the UNI Regional Business Center Entrepreneurship Outreach team was responsible for developing the idea and getting the festival off the ground in 2008), but for the second year running Cedar Rapids-based Seed Here Studio has been contracted to take the lead on managing the event.
The organizers have stacked the three-day lineup with over 40 speakers as well as exhibits, interactive discussions, resource consultations and parties. Hawkeye legend, former NFL kicker and current owner of Short’s Burgers and Shine, Nate Kaeding is one of the festival’s keynote speakers. Along with Kaeding, Templeton Rye Founder and President Scott Bush will be speaking, as well as Carl Blake, an Iowa farmer who has been featured in the The New York Times and on The Colbert Report for creating “The World’s Perfect Pig.” Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds will emcee the 2014 Dream Big Grow Here Finals, a statewide grant contest for current and future business owners.
EntreFEST will be held at various venues downtown, including the Sheraton Hotel, hotelVetro, Iowa City Public Library, FilmScene and the Englert Theatre.
For more information visit entrefest.com.
