How Tech Conferences Are Changing Together With Founders, Investors and The World

All classic tech conferences begin in a similar fashion. Early in the morning, you arrive at a warehouse building. Colourful banners, lively music, and groups of attendees with badges suggest this isn’t a scene from a crime drama. A cheerful volunteer scans your QR code pass—a small initiation ceremony—and hands you a personalised badge. The doors open, allowing you into a space full of tech enthusiasts and opportunities to explore. 

Now, when the person has officially become a part of the conference, let us pause and think: what was it that triggered the visitor to purchase a ticket and motivated to travel to this place? When the goals and expectations of startup founders, investors, and other groups of attendees become clear, we’ll get the recipe for a successful tech conference in 2024 and the key to understanding how startup events have been evolving in the last few years.

To do that, let’s rewind to 2018, the year of the first EMERGE, and set a benchmark.

A Rewind To 2018

Before the 2020s, when the economy was on the rise and the global geopolitical situation was relatively stable, classic tech conferences resembled technology-themed festivals featuring the world’s top-tier entrepreneurs as headliners, huge international audiences, and opportunities to be a bit extra. There was much fun and ease in the air, which made networking effortless and pleasant. 

The first EMERGE took place in 2018 in Minsk, when I was Head of Investor Relations. It was an attempt to launch a Slush or a Web Summit-level event in Eastern Europe, a rapidly developing emerging market reach for entrepreneurial talents and qualified tech specialists with a beneficial geographical position. The unprecedented concentration of Top Tier pros from Warner Music, Meta, TechCrunch, NASA Singularity Institute, and other companies for Minsk attracted over 1,5K attendees. Excited by the success of the first and following events, the perspectives seemed radiant.

However, like in a classic sports drama about overcoming adversity, there must have been a breaking point that turned everything on its head, and that was obviously COVID-19. The chain of events that followed the pandemic had irreversible consequences for the world, and the events industry changed accordingly. 

Back To Offline

When some doors close, others open. Back in 2020, it was hard to imagine that offline events would return at all. Our social lives moved online and gave it a significant development boost, – there was online education, movie nights, bar hopping, tech conferences, and concerts. It was the time when the largest online gaming event, PAX Online x EGX Digital, took place, gathering 13 million users.

In 2021, EMERGE also went online, attracting over 6,5K users and leaving a phantom sense of FOMO for missing the opportunity to meet everyone in real life. 

The return to offline was much anticipated but also nerve-wracking. Was it safe for people to gather live? Would they come at all? Had we unlearned how to make offline events? 

However, the world had missed the handshakes, hugs, and live networking too much. To this day, prominent tech conferences like Web Summit, Slush, Viva Tech, and CES do not offer online or hybrid options at all. 

After the initial excitement calmed down, it became clear that the events did not feel the same. Obviously, it was us who had changed, becoming more reserved, vulnerable, and self-conscious. 

The subsequent economic recession, mass layoffs, and geopolitical crises created new demands for tech conferences from startup founders and investors, and we, as organisers, tried to adapt. Today, in 2024, the recipe for a successful tech conference is based on several principles. Let’s consider them in more detail.

Cooking A Tech Conference

Authentic Location

During the first EMERGEs, we came up with the people+venue formula of a successful conference, which remains relevant in 2024. The choice of the venue will set the atmosphere for the whole event, determine whether networking will be easy-going, and influence the well-being of participants. 

Instead of dark concert halls and hackneyed industrial lofts resembling the garage-started Apple or HP, trigger the curiosity of potential attendees with creativity and authenticity. So next time, why not think of botanical gardens, an abandoned cathedral, a parking lot, or a museum? 

Mental Health Agenda

The consequences of COVID-19, wars, and economic recession have placed a serious burden on everyone’s mental state. Most entrepreneurs had to work in survival mode, leading to stress, increased anxiety, mental breakdowns, and family problems.

Tech conferences have become a safe haven for founders, whose lives are stressful by default, to find support and confirmation that their well-being matters. While it may seem inefficient, integrating mental health-related topics into the agenda and allowing founders and venture capitalists to exchange opinions at discussion panels can help raise inconvenient questions and make the industry healthier.

Side activities like breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga can help founders integrate destressing practices into their everyday routines.

Networking Aid

Content stages with public talks and discussion panels are attracting fewer and fewer attendees, as people are primarily coming to make connections. Ironically, networking has become more energy-consuming than it used to be, especially for Millennials and Gen Zs.

To facilitate the process for attendees, organisers have revised the agendas and decreased the number of talks in favor of side activities aimed at small groups of people united by similar interests. These could be thematic brunches, workshops, mentorship sessions, yoga, floristic classes, etc.

Another networking aid tool is integrating social media-like mechanics, which allow attendees to schedule meetings online without the live outreach-related stress. Apps like Pine, vFairs, and Whova have long allowed for convenient scheduling.

Well-Defined Concept and Strong Mission

In 2024, event organisers place special emphasis on original concepts. Creating a new Slush or a new Web Summit no longer works, as they already exist. Narrowing the focus to a particular market or technology gives a chance to gather strong industry experts who prefer depth and details rather than breadth of coverage. While this may limit the size of the audience, the quality of the event will significantly improve, attracting domain experts from around the world.

Great examples are SDVcon – a specialised event for the software-defined vehicles industry, or React Summit, for narrow-profile software engineers, which are must destinations for domain major players.

Conclusion

The closing ceremony has just finished, and the event is officially over. However, for the buzzing groups of old and new acquaintances, networking is likely to continue at a nearby venue over drinks. The organising team, tired yet content, is heading to the closing dinner. Tomorrow, they will enjoy a well-deserved rest. After all, you can’t start planning the next conference without a proper day off, right?

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Originally Published on Martech Zone: How Tech Conferences Are Changing Together With Founders, Investors and The World