TechfestNW (TFNW) was an annual technology conference in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

that ran from 2012 to 2021. It was founded by ''

Willamette Week ''Willamette Week'' (''WW'') is an alternative weekly newspaper and a website published in Portland, Oregon, United States, since 1974. It features reports on local news, politics, sports, business, and culture. History Early history '' ...

'' editor Mark Zusman, and was the sister festival to MusicfestNW, which ran from 2001 to 2018. The event included innovators, entrepreneurs, tech companies and investors from around the world. It featured main stage speakers, workshops, a startup pitch competition, exhibitor booths, networking opportunities and parties. In 2012, '' Fortune'' magazine called it the next

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

(SXSW). TechfestNW was held in several different venues, including the Portland Art Museum, OMSI, the Armory, and Left Bank Annex. In both 2020 and 2021, it was held online as a "virtual conference" due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

TechfestNW 2018: April 5-6

In 2018, TechfestNW moved venues to Portland State University's Viking Pavilion, which enabled the increase in size and scope of the conference. The themes, which drive speaker and workshop content, were Smart Cities/Smart Transit, Food Tech, Health Tech, and Inclusivity in Tech Culture. Seventy-five companies from all over the world participated in PitchfestNW, the startup competition within TechfestNW. The top 5 finalists presented on the main stage to a special panel of judges, before the winner, Goodnuss, was ultimately chosen. International startups were judged separately and the 2018 winner was Moduu from

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

TechfestNW website
Annual events in Portland, Oregon Technology conferences 2012 establishments in Oregon 2021 disestablishments in Oregon