TechfestNW (TFNW) was an annual technology conference in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

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 ''Willame ...

'' editor

Mark Zusman Mark Zusman (born 1954) is the editor in chief, editor and publisher of ''Willamette Week'', an alternative newspaper and media company based in Portland, Oregon. He has been the paper's editor since 1983,Nicholas, Jonathan (January 9, 1984). "Fr ...

, and was the sister festival to

MusicfestNW MusicfestNW (MFNW) was a multi-venue music festival that took place every fall in Portland, Oregon from 2001 to 2018. In 2014 the format of the festival changed to a two-day waterfront music festival. The festival was organized by the alternative we ...

, 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, ''

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'' magazine called it the next

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

(SXSW). TechfestNW was held in several different venues, including the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it one of the oldest art museums on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the US. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum becam ...

OMSI The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI, ) is a science and technology museum in Portland, Oregon, United States. It contains three auditoriums, including a large-screen theatre, planetarium, and exhibition halls with a variety of hands- ...

, 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, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

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 (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

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