Springfield Tech Week and Squared Recap
What a week! Thank you to all our sponsors, exhibitors, members, students, guests and even the mayor for an outstanding week.
First, he will not like this, but I’d like to give an extra special thank you to STC Board Member and Pitt Technology Group’s General Manager Kevin Waterland. The annual conference has grown exponentially year after year. PTG has served as the presenting sponsor of the event for three years and without their support and involvement, Squared would not be the success that it is. The momentum from the conference led to the exciting addition of Springfield Tech Week this year, including an official proclamation by the City of Springfield’s mayor - more on that in a minute.
Next, thank you to our Squared sponsors and exhibitors. Literally every single exhibitor spot and sponsor opportunity was sold for the conference. Selling out this conference goes a long, long way to help ensure the financial future of the organization. It will be difficult to judge a winner for Best Booth/Table for the Excellence in Tech Awards this fall.
Not to mention the incredible speakers! Obviously, without them we would not have anything, but this year we were overwhelmed with outstanding submissions. While I have not read all the reviews yet, what I have seen has been overwhelmingly positive. Stay tuned for finalists for the EIT Award for Best Speaker at Squared!
To the local tech community: YOU WERE AWESOME! Here are the top three reasons:
1. All Springfield Tech Week events, aside from Squared, were run and financed outside of STC. We may have helped with ideas, registration, and marketing, but those events belonged to the partner organizations and took place because they value the Springfield tech community. Thank you, Pitt Technology Group, Business Solutions, Tier One, Women in Tech, MSU, SGF Devs, Open SGF, Verkada, Ruckus, efactory, WON Communications, The History Museum, JMARK, Bluebird Fiber, CoxHealth, MCCoE, Sensory Integration, and TechTree. Your involvement made SGF Tech Week!
2. You showed up, part 1. Each event had a great turnout, and the good times were evident on the faces in the photos. Frankly, for our first attempt at SGF Tech Week, we would have been thrilled if anyone showed up to these events, but our community once again exceeded all our expectations.
3. You showed up, part 2. Once again, we surpassed the record number of registrations with 700+ at Squared. Membership has grown since 2024 and accounted for the majority of attendees this year. We added a small fee on non-member registrations after the first 200 for the first time to help drive value in membership and help with the event’s budget, at the risk of slowing down registrations. As anticipated, it may have slowed nonmember registration some but, overall, it was packed at the DoubleTree once again. We’re pumped for next year and value conference feedback as we continually strive to improve event execution!
I also want to thank the Squared Planning Committee, the STC Committee Members that volunteered on the day of the event, the DoubleTree staff, and my wife, Rebekah, who, once again, donated her time on her birthday to better our tech community. We did disappear for a long weekend to celebrate and recover, though!
Finally, thank you to STC’s Board of Directors and Executive Director for continuing to trust me to lead this organization. With your support and guidance and the community’s support, we have elevated tech and built a community in our area that we could not even fathom just a few years ago.
Here’s to you, Springfield Tech Community!
Sincerely,
Dan
