Portland’s Startup Week runs between Feb. 2 and Feb. 6.

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Malia Spencer
Staff Reporter- Portland Business Journal

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Portland startups are getting their own celebration next week with the first of what organizers hope to be an annual event.

Portland Startup Week, which runs between Feb. 2 and Feb. 6, will include such events as hackathons and open houses under an umbrella program created by Seattle nonprofit Up Global. Such events have already been held in cities including Seattle, Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colorado.

A complete list of events is expected to posted on the Portland Startup Week website this week. Several events are already listed on the community calendar site Calagator.

“It’s designed for people in the startup scene or people curious about what is happening,” said Rick Turoczy, founder of the Portland Incubator Experiment and one of the organizers of Portland Startup Week.

The week is an opportunity to bring together a number of startup focused events such as the Demolicious pitch competition, or the Ignite program. Ignite brings together speakers to, in a fast-paced setting, talk about ideas and topics about which they’re passionate.

“There was an idea of bringing back some events that are important to the startup community as this generation started to grow,” Turoczy said.

The event is set to feature panel discussions at eBay’s new community space, a hackathon at CrowdCompass’ new office and a Built Oregon panel discussing entrepreneurship around the state

Turoczy noted that many, but not all, events are free and open to everyone.

Portland is home to several events catering to similar audiences, including TechFestNW and Design Week Portland. Turoczy noted Startup Week is still a new event but it could eventually draw people to the city the way Design Week Portland does. For this first year, organizers are expecting hundreds of community members to participate.