TENWEST Festival October 14 - 22
TENWEST Festival is a weeklong celebration of arts, entrepreneurship, technology, and communities. Join culture-makers, technologists, professionals & community builders alike in being a part of what inspires our next Tucson.
The long-term goal of the TENWEST Festival is to explore the diverse attributes of Tucson to attract and retain talent in Southern Arizona. As we move forward, we strive to be identified with Tucson and Southern Arizona, internationally.
WHAT IS TENWEST FESTIVAL?
TENWEST Festival is an opportunity to discover what your next Tucson looks like. Experience a weeklong celebration of the best and most unique that Tucson has to offer. Through panels, talks, performances, mixers, and workshops, TENWEST Festival will help you connect and explore things not available in your daily life.
WHEN & WHERE IS TENWEST FESTIVAL?
TENWEST Festival happens in and near Downtown Tucson. This year’s festival is October 14th – 22nd, 2017. Venues in 2017 include: Pennington Street (closed to automotive traffic), UA Downtown, Tucson Convention Center, and UA Student Union Memorial Center.
WHAT ARE TENWEST PATHS?
Imagine crossing paths with something you’ve never seen before; the awe and intrigue you might experience. Or crossing paths with someone who is different from you; the things you might learn from one another. TENWEST created Paths to provide anchor points to facilitate discovery for festival-goers.
The Paths are: Arts, Entrepreneurship, Technology, & Communities.
HISTORY OF TENWEST
TENWEST Festival (formerly 10West Festival) was created by Startup Tucson in 2015. The festival is central to the mission of Startup Tucson: driving economic development in Southern Arizona by fostering the entrepreneurial ecosystem, creating an environment where technologist and innovators can develop their ideas into real businesses, and holding events that reflect these goals.
The TENWEST 2015 festival was seven days long with 3300 attendees and featured 18 events with 90 sessions within three key tracks: technology, entrepreneurship, and creative. The technology track offered workshops, panels, and talks on cutting-edge topics including the internet of things. The entrepreneurship track had sessions on building a company, accessing capital, and the many skills essential to every entrepreneur’s toolbox. The creative track addressed the live part of live-work with network mixers, music and entertainment, as well as programming on the business of entertainment. We’ve grown since and can’t wait to see what the future has in store.
SOUTHERN ARIZONA & BUSINESS
Southern Arizona is just the place to achieve life-work balance, build careers, and chase entrepreneurial dreams. The area features a renowned university with a technology transfer agenda, a vibrant downtown scene, community support for the arts, formation capital, and, of course, sunshine – all important factors in attracting and retaining businesses and talent. The food’s not so bad either. In fact, in 2016 Tucson became the first city in the United States to be recognized as an UNESCO World City of Gastronomy, boasting a wide array of culinary wonders. Also unique to the Southern Arizona city is the proximity and access to Mexico and their startup culture.
TENWEST is right at the epicenter of it all and provides the business community an opportunity to engage with upcoming leaders in Southern Arizona.