This past summer, a few weeks before Maine Startup & Create Week, a group of the event’s organizers traveled to Boston to talk up Maine and forge stronger ties with our southern neighbor’s entrepreneurial community.

The reception, hosted in Verrill Dana’s Boston office, proved successful at bringing together Maine’s cheerleaders with various members of the Boston startup community who have ties to Maine, or want to.

Attending last June's Boston-Maine reception were (L to R) Owen McCarthy, a UMaine graduate and president of MedRhythms, a healthcare startup with a foot in both Boston and Portland; Dustin Dubay, a Husson University grad and an associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston; Matt Ciampa, another UMaine grad who now works at Boston-based real estate startup Pingup; and Maria Goodman, who works at EnerNOC in Boston.
Attending last June’s Boston-Maine reception were (from the left) Owen McCarthy, a UMaine graduate and president of MedRhythms, a healthcare startup with a foot in both Boston and Portland; Dustin Dubay, a Husson University grad and an associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Boston; Matt Ciampa, another UMaine grad who now works at Boston-based real estate startup Pingup; and Maria Goodman, who works at EnerNOC in Boston.

Beginning this fall the organizers of Maine Startup and Create Week are partnering with RedThread, an office furniture company that helps companies develop innovative workspace. and its parent company, Steelcase, to host Maine receptions in Seattle, Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Dallas.

“Maine Startup and Create Week is about convening people in this great place, but it’s also about intentionally engaging folks across the country and the world about what a great place Maine is to live and work, especially on high-growth and high-impact ventures,” said Katie Shorey, co-chair of the event’s partnerships team.

RedThread, which has its local retail location on the ground floor of One City Center, has supported Maine Startup and Create Week from the beginning.

Stephanie Brock, RedThread’s local business director, said leveraging Steelcase’s national footprint to expand the company’s support of the week-long celebration of entrepreneurship was a no-brainer.

“We know that talent and networks are critical to building strong communities of innovators and startups and we’re glad to assist them in engaging folks in all these cities who have an affinity for Maine,” Brock said.

The exact dates and locations of these national receptions are expected to be released in September.

The dates for next year’s Maine Startup and Create Week are June 19-23, 2017.