Irvine Tech Week Takes Off

Irvine Councilmember and Vice Mayor Tammy Kim discussed her commitment Irvine Tech Week and its importance to Irvine’s future. Photo credit Cindy Lin

In its sophomore year, Irvine Tech Week will once again serve as a platform for investors and founders to forge valuable connections. Today the festival's organizers and partners convened for a press conference at the headquarters of Sunstone Management, Inc., one of the host of Irvine Tech Week, to discuss why the week-long festival is beneficial for not just its participants, but also for the city as a whole.

Irvine City Councilmember and Vice Mayor Tammy Kim kicked things off by recalling how Irvine Tech Week came into existence.

“As a Councilmember you meet all kinds of really amazing people doing all kinds really wonderful things,” said Kim, “but how do you bring that all together?”

Kim worked with a variety of private and public partners to create the festival last year. Seeing hundreds of participants flock to Irvine Tech Week’s programming confirmed Kim’s hunch that there was strong need for this event. Looking ahead to the return of Irvine Tech Week from April 16 - 21, Kim said she sees fostering start ups as crucial to Irvine’s future success.

“Development is really going to hinge upon these founder-driven companies finding a home here in Irvine,” Kim said. “When good ideas start in Irvine, they can stay in Irvine by having an ecosystem surrounding them and nurturing them. These early stage companies will not be able to reach their full potential without an ecosystem supporting them.”

Irvine Tech Hub Executive Director Melinda Pang echoed Kim’s commitment to foster innovation. Pang expressed confidence that Irvine Tech Week will offer participants tremendous opportunity.

“We have put together over 25 events for the next six days,” said Pang. “Our goal is really simple. We want to empower our founders. We want them to launch. We want them to build. We want them to start companies.”

Pang provided an overview of Irvine Tech Week’s various events, including a venture capital investors panel, a founders panel, an investor-founder mixer, a 5K Dream Run, and a startup showcase that serves as a kind of founder bootcamp. The showcase, called Techstars Startup Weekend, will push participants to experience the entire startup process at record speed.

“Founders pitch, build, and launch an idea within a three-day period,” said Pang, who has been studying tech communities for the past decade. She said that Irvine’s resources make it the right city for burgeoning tech companies to succeed.

Sunstone founding partner John Shen, who currently serves on Irvine’s Innovation Council, sees a parallel between striving for a company’s success and participating in Irvine Tech Week’s 5K. He has coined the race, scheduled for Saturday, April 20, as the Dream Run.

“We wanted to have something to show the dream of Irvine,” Shen said. “The dream of Irvine to me is part of the American dream.”

Shen shared that he likes to make the 6.6k run twice a week from his home to work. He described he jogs past his neighborhood, across UCI’s campus, through the San Joaquin Marsh, and finally into his business’s headquarters, and thinks about the city and its future. As a relatively young city, he said he recognizes that most of Irvine’s residents did not grow up here.

“They chose to come over here because they believe the future is here,” said Shen. “This is the dream for everybody here.”

Sunstone CEO and Managing Partner John Keisler closed out the press conference by describing the three things that are critical to the success of fledgling tech companies: capital, education, and community. With support, technical assistance, and welcoming resources for newcomers, Keisler said he sees Irvine as the perfect greenhouse where these businesses can thrive.

“Irvine is a welcoming community to the best and brightest people and communities and intellectual property from all over the world,” said Keisler. “Building great educational institutions, building a community open to diversity and immigrants, and now with Irvine Tech Week, we’re bringing those things together and saying that everybody is welcome. These resources are available to you and you can become part of this community.”

The official Tech Week Irvine kick-off event is on Tuesday, April 16, at 6 pm at City Hall. See the full Irvine Tech Week schedule online.