Forward Fest 2026: Fifty events in five days. Here's where to go.


Startup Wisconsin Blog  |  July 28 2026



Featured article

Your Field Guide to Forward Fest 2026

Fifty events in five days. Forward Fest board member Ross Larson shares the picks worth building your week around, from a sauna happy hour to a practical AI summit.

He also tells the story of the 2015 breakfast that landed him the job he's had for 10 years. You cannot schedule the classmate. You can only be in the room.

Read the field guide →


The Startup Wisconsin Blog is sponsored by

A Full-Cycle Product Studio for the AI-Native Era

AI-ready design systems, new products, and AI, built with your team. Forward deployed, built to last and adapt.


Also published recently

Launch Wisconsin 2026 semifinalists What the 52 Launch Wisconsin Semifinalists Say About Wisconsin's Startup Map
Twenty-nine of the 52 are based outside Madison and Milwaukee. Deep tech was a brand new category and filled 13 slots.
Realta Fusion announcement The Real Story Behind Realta Fusion's Wisconsin Deal Isn't the $55 Million
Realta looked at four other states and stayed. The durable win is Act 165, not the incentive package.
AI community event in Green Bay Now Anyone Can Build for Their Community. Wisconsin Already Is.
A 15-year bus hack, a Milwaukee bike app, and a Green Bay summer guide. The barrier to building has dropped.
Wisconsin Tech Summit 2026 What Are Wisconsin Companies Actually Doing with AI?
Sub-Zero, Epic, and Alliant leaders on what broke before it worked. Five lessons from the Tech Summit.
Manufacturing AI panel 3 Real AI Deployments Wisconsin Manufacturers Should Know About
350 million golf balls sorted. Six minutes cut to ten seconds. Live in production, not pilots.
Food and ag tech panel 3 Wisconsin Startups Bringing AI to Food and Ag Right Now
A 13-year crop protection cycle, barn-to-shelf traceability, and $8 billion in dairy decisions.



A lot of what happens in Wisconsin never makes it past a LinkedIn post.

So how does anything end up here? Someone tells me.

Reply with a story, a founder, or a name I should know. I read every one.

Keep building.

Jacob


Startup Wisconsin Newsletter

Helping tech founders, startups, investors, and talent get connected and discover events and programs across Wisconsin since 2017.

Read more from Startup Wisconsin Newsletter

Startup Wisconsin is organized by Headway, a digital product agency based in Green Bay, WI. Powered by our state sponsors, Nicolet National Bank and gener8tor. Hey folks! Jacob Miller here. Coming up fast, October is Wisconsin Tech Month. Launch Wisconsin on the 6th, +Venture North on the 8th, HackGB in Green Bay mid-month, and then October 21 alone has six things happening: +Venture Health, the Biohealth Summit, Founder/Fest, Code + Brews, the Madison devs meetup, and a ghost tour. Pick...

Episode 22 now available! Ep 22 - Rukmini Banerjee, Co-Founder and CEO, CuroNow How CuroNow Brings Family Caregiving Into One Shared Place Rukmini Banerjee read one article and could not put it down. Her first thought was not about her parents. It was about her sister. The article said family caregivers of aging parents, especially parents with cognitive decline, face a 40% higher chance of facing the same struggles themselves later. Her parents live in Melbourne with her older sister. Her...

Startup Wisconsin Blog | August 25 2026 Featured article The Job Is Fine. Idea Fund of La Crosse Thinks That's the Problem. A college friend cut Travis Erath off mid-conversation to say "please, find me a job." Her job was fine. That was the whole complaint, and it turned out two other people in the room felt the same way. Travis is the new Talent Partner at the Idea Fund of La Crosse. He built a prototype of the portfolio career site while he was still applying for the role, and a good chunk...