Built Oregon’s annual festival is back in full swing for the first time since 2019.
Starting today, the nonprofit that works with and boosts the state’s consumer products companies will facilitate free events for founders all leading up to the festival’s main, paid event.
The festival features a variety of talks between industry founders and leaders.
“Part of this as a mental health thing too, the product founders especially leading into holidays don't like to turn off, they always like to be selling,” said founder Mitch Daugherty said. “I just want them to relax, take a moment, be in community and then get back to work afterwards.“
The pre-events all have different themes, such as the female founders event that consultant Lori Spencer and Kate Delhagen with Oregon Sports Angels have put on for the last several years and an event for companies interested in the topic of exporting.
Kicking off the main event will be Jordan brand’s head of marketplace Avery Jessup and Leatherman’s global brand marketing manager Melissa McClary, who'll detail the how iconic brand's marketing and customer engagement approach can translate to a small business.
“Smaller brands look at big brands and think ‘All I need is a budget, if I had their budget, I could do that.’ The reality is there's so much that happens before the budget on the strategy side and the execution side, the budget’s just like the final stamp,” Daugherty said. “So that talk is really focused on the strategies that they can learn from bigger brands, that you have to create an actual marketing and brand strategy before you put money behind it.”
Daugherty also said he is excited for the co-founders of Indigenize, which makes curated gift boxes from tribal and Native-owned businesses, to talk about opportunities and challenges for economic and social progress through indigenous entrepreneurship.
“Indigenous entrepreneurship feels like the least talked about when you use that acronym BIPOC,” Daugherty said.
