Celebrate! Innovation Week

From the ciweek website in spring of 2024: “ciLive! was born out of a conversation during the construction of the permanent Celebrate! Innovation exhibition in the DMACC West building. The incredible, interactive exhibit, which is free and open to the public, highlights American innovation and innovators from the past 200 years, including the extraordinary evolution of personal computing technologies and telecom systems. DMACC West Provost, Anthony Paustian, believed an event that featured actual innovators speaking about their experiences would attract more people to the building and exhibit.

The first ciLive! was held March 1 through 5, 2010 and featured keynote speaker Captain Alan Bean, Apollo 12 & Skylab 3 astronaut and the fourth man to walk on the moon. Working with a limited budget those first few years, Paustian still managed to bring nationally known speakers, including Steve Wozniak in 2012, to headline the annual event. Today each ciLive! hosts multiple keynote speakers and four featured speakers, all presented free of charge to the public.”