Triangle Entrepreneurship Week, Raleigh Innovation Summit, the CED Venture Conference and more are coming up over the next few days.

Are you ready?

Summaries of events from WRALTechWire Insider Joe Procopio:

  • Triangle Entrepreneurship Week

September 9th – 12th in Raleigh (Details at website)

A few years ago, TEW was a patchwork of panels and classes held at various venues around Raleigh. I remember part of it being in a basement of a church, which I think is awesome.

Now it’s still a combination of different events, but with bigger venues all over the Triangle – be advised that you may be signing up for something in Chapel Hill, or Durham, or downtown Raleigh. This year, you can register (and pay for) one event or more or get a week pass that gets you into almost everything (see below).

Co-founders Jon Leonardo and Sarah Wechsberg are still running TEW, which is aimed at early-to-mid stage startups either looking to get their company off the ground, seeking customers, or raising seed-stage investment. Go if you’re an early-stage startup or want to be.

  • Raleigh Innovation Summit 

September 11th in Raleigh ((Details at website)

If you like ideas, this is for you.

It’s the follow-up to last year’s Innovation Summit, where local civic and government leaders came together at the Convention Center for topic discussions, working groups, and presentations.

It’s a cross between brainstorming session and volunteer corps, with an emphasis on producing several initiatives that can be executed over the coming year.

Innovation Summit isn’t about building startups, it’s about building a startup support structure. It’s aimed at the feeders of the startup community (to use the leaders and feeders analogy) – which are those people who are not the entrepreneurs themselves but have a vested interest in the growth of the startup community.

It should be noted though, that participation from entrepreneurs is welcomed and sought out. It’s $50 to attend, $10 for entrepreneurs. 

  • NC Datapalooza

September 12th in Raleigh (Details at website)

Along with the Raleigh Innovation Summit, Datapalooza is listed as part of Triangle Entrepreneurship Week (running 9/9 to 9/12), but isn’t included in the week pass.

Datapalooza has been a long time in the making, first dating back to a roundtable discussion in Durham a little over a year ago, led by White House CTO Todd Park. I was a part of that discussion, which focused on how federally-collected data could help spur innovation in startups.

That led to the NC Data Jam, which I also attended, where working groups were formed around ideas for this data usage. Several idea teams came out of that session and work was begun on making those ideas and teams into products and/or companies.

Datapalooza will feature presentations from the top three teams, which have been incubated over the month of August.

Honestly, I’ve been on the fence about this program from its inception, mostly because I’m on the fence about government’s role in startups, but also because, and I’ve written about this before, I think you can make a feature out of data, but not a product. You have to bring the product to the data.

My hope is that some solid product ideas found their way into Datapalooza and will become game-changers because of Datapalooza. But I also hope I never have to say or type the word Datapalooza again. In fact, I’ll give them money if they change the name of the event for next year.

  • SparkCon

September 12th to 15th in Raleigh (Details at website)

This one is a little out there. But not every event needs to be about valuation and lean.

SparkCon is a Raleigh gathering of all things creative, with a for-the-people-by-the-people approach. Ideas, participants, and organizers are crowd-sourced during the preceding year, and in a Startup-Weekend-like manner, the top events (workshops, presentations, interactive demonstrations) happen during four days in downtown Raleigh. Events are split into about a dozen categories, including art, music, theatre, design, film, even dance and circus.

If you go to SparkCon, and you don’t go to circusSpark, you didn’t go to SparkCon.

No, this is not startup-related, but the vibe is. In fact, some years ago, SparkCon had carved out a space for startups and startup-related activity. I think at the time it was called techSpark. The closest category I could find this year is geekSpark, which will feature gaming and makering, among other startup-like niches.

Go if you need a creative slap in the face, or if you believe the left side of your brain contributes as much to your startup as the right side.

  • The ExitEvent Startup Social

September 16th in Chapel Hill (Details at website)

OK, so I’m a homer for this event, not because it’s mine, but because I believe in what it has become over the last two years. This will be the 21st iteration of the Startup Social, with each one more awesome than the last (except that one time, if you were there you know which one).

The good and the bad of the Social is that it’s entrepreneur and investor only. I feel good about it because it provides maximum value for entrepreneurs at almost no cost to them or us, and in that it’s the only one of its kind. I feel bad about it because I have to tell people no. But then, I’m giving you seven other events to go to, so I don’t feel that bad.

All that’s required to attend this event is that you’re a verified entrepreneur, meaning you’re not going to start that company some day based on that idea you had some time ago. You’ve actually got skin in the game somewhere, working on something unique, not just a service or variation of an existing.

The September version is at a top-secret location in Chapel Hill. Others are spread around downtown Durham, downtown Raleigh, downtown Charlotte, and (downtown?) Hillsborough.

Go if you’re an early-to-serial exit entrepreneur or angel or VC. Expect lots of conversation, but no nametags, no speeches, and no selling.

  • CED Venture 2013

September 17th – 19th in Raleigh (Details at website)

With your hangover from the Social firmly in place, you’ll want to go to the 29th CED Venture conference, if you have a reason to be there. However, bear in mind that you don’t necessarily have to be presenting or demoing at this conference, you just have to be raising, or thinking about raising.

True with any venture conference, the most important stuff happens on the fringes — networking events, formal and informal meetings, and chance encounters. I’ve spent entire venture conferences in the hallway outside the ballroom, casually enjoying a coffee or a soda and meeting more investors in eight hours than I do in a year.

It takes a lot of energy and an extroverted nature to pull that off, but if you can, conferences like these are invaluable.