Maine Startup and Create Week is no longer Maine Startup and Create Week. The group of volunteer organizers behind the week-long event have announced that, as a result of the sexual misconduct allegations against Jess Knox, one of the event’s co-founders, they would be changing the event’s name and its organizational structure.
The group announced the changes on Wednesday in an open letter to the community, which it shared with Maine Startups Insider.
After confirming that the group had severed ties with Knox and expressing support for the women affected, the letter went on to reiterate the group’s plan to hold an event this year and laid out its vision for the future.
“We are committed to organizing an event in 2018 and beyond,” it reads.
The most visible change is that the event is being rebranded as Startup Maine, but they also announced changes that will take place behind the scenes, most notably embarking on a path to become a nonprofit under the same name.
“Since its inception, Maine Startup & Create Week has been run by a group of volunteers loosely organized as a ‘steering committee,'” the letter reads. “Reflective of the evolution of the event and the desire to ensure that, going forward, the event is structured in a way to ensure its success—open governance and succession among volunteers coming and going—the steering committee has decided to formally incorporate as a Maine nonprofit corporation.”
Taking the inaugural reins of Startup Maine will be Katie Shorey, who will assume the position of president and chairwoman of the board. Shorey leads community relations and business development efforts in Maine for People’s United Bank.
Shorey told Maine Startups Insider that the process of incorporating as a nonprofit has only just begun, so the details—like how many board members there will be—are still being worked out.
“As of right now, it’s open for discussion,” Shorey told Maine Startups Insider. “We may even need to take applications since so many people have expressed interest.”
One detail that has been decided is the makeup of the board. It will have gender parity.
The announcement and changes were prompted by the resignation of Knox from the event’s steering committee after he admitted in January to inappropriate behavior with two female colleagues, one of whom was the point person at a major corporate sponsor of Maine Startup and Create Week. Knox helped found the event in 2014. He not only resigned from the conference’s steering committee, but also from his role as president of Venture Hall, a nonprofit that supported entrepreneurship and innovation in Maine.
While Startup Maine’s major focus will be organizing its annual conference in June, Shorey said the hope is that the organization will be branching out and becoming involved in other efforts.
“My hope is that we will collaborate and partner with other organizations and groups across Maine and offer more programming and events—more than just this one conference—throughout the year,” she said. “We are open to partnerships and helping to elevate the good work that is happening across the state, so we want to be seen as a resource, a network and a partner.”
For now, though, the newly christened Startup Maine event is the group’s focus. While the event had in the past spanned the entire week, the all-volunteer steering committee has decided to shorten the event and pack all the content into a condensed time frame of three days, from Thursday to Saturday. In addition, programming will be offered on Thursday and Friday evenings, which will provide people who work full-time more opportunities to take part in the event.
“The program team is hard at work putting together the themes and topics, and we will have more hands-on, practical learning and application sessions (compared to panels), and will continue to have inspirational keynotes,” Shorey said. “We will be accepting applications for workshop submissions soon.”
