The Inside/Outside Innovation Summit is back for its third year, and it will once again be in a new location.
The conference that focuses on connecting startups, entrepreneurs and large companies will be held this year in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's new Johnny Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts at 13th and Q streets, which opened in August.
Brian Ardinger started the conference in 2017 when he was running his own consulting business and held it at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Last year, despite getting bigger, the conference was held at a smaller venue, the Graduate Hotel.
Ardinger, who is now director of innovation at Nelnet, said Megan Elliott, head of the Carson Center, spoke at last year’s summit and talked about the center that was under construction and the innovative programs that would be based there.
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"With the new center launching at this time, we thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight it and combine it with all the other innovation initiatives happening in the city," he said in an email.
This year's summit, which runs Sunday through Tuesday, is slightly larger than last year's but will be similar, with more than two dozen speakers, a startup showcase and pitch contest.
Among the speakers are current and former employees of Airbnb, Facebook, Nike and Hudl.
Ardinger said there are 59 startups signed up for the summit, which is 20 more than last year. As many as 10 of those will be chosen for the pitch contest on Tuesday, with a chance to win a $25,000 LNK Launch Grant from the Lincoln Partnership for Economic Development.
As it was last year, the summit is being held during Startup Week Lincoln, a weeklong celebration of entrepreneurship.
The two events have a joint kickoff party at 8 p.m. Sunday at Longwells in The Railyard, which is free and open to the public.
Unlike the summit, which has most of its events in one place, Startup Week events are spread out among coworking spaces, coffee shops, public libraries and other locations.
You can find a schedule of events for Startup Week at
For a schedule of events at the Inside/Outside Innovation Summit, go to: