2018 has started and much like last year it is already promising to be the best year for technology news and events. Investment in technology has never been so high and innovation is happening at a fast pace. Technology events such as tech conferences, fairs and startups events are happening all over the globe and they are the best place to get to know what is being created and what opportunities are for entrepreneurs. MyBusiness.com has compiled a list of the best tech events that you can’t miss in 2018, check them and update your agenda!
1. Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Las Vegas
CES is held in Las Vegas every year and it has been considered the best launch pad for innovation and breakthrough technologies for 50 years now. It is the place that gathers everyone who is interested about the latest consumer technologies and where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.
The event is produced by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and it attracts business leaders and thinkers from all over the globe. This year alone CES gathered 184K attendees, 1.2K speakers and 4K exhibiting companies, including manufacturers, developers and suppliers of consumer technology hardware, content, technology delivery systems, etc..
Formerly known as The International Consumer Electronics Show (International CESⓇ), CES attracts people from 150 countries. CTA, the Technology Trade Association represents $292 billion of the consumer technology industry and attracts people from this sector to discuss its issues and development.
Dates: January 9-12 | Website: www.ces.tech
2. SXSW, Austin
The SXSW Conference occurs every year in Austin, Texas, and provides an opportunity for professionals all over the globe at every level to participate, learn and create business opportunities. It features a variety of tracks that let attendees explore the future in sectors such as film, culture, music and technology.
SXSW aims to attract people from all over the world to discuss the most diversified topics. The 3-day conference spans 25 tracks of programming and SXSW Eco curated Cities Summit, offering networking opportunities, learning and discovery.
The Conference has a total of 25 tracks including “Brands & Marketing”, “Code and Programming”, Government”, “Health”, “VR/AR” and “Music Culture & Stories”. It had the participation of speakers like Ann Mack (Director of Insights Marketing of Facebook IQ), Chen Shay (Google’s Software Engineer AMP) and Keith Urban (Artist).
Dates: March 9-17 | Website: www.sxsw.com
3. China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), Guangzhou
China Import and Export Fair, commonly known as the “Canton Fair” was inaugurated in 1957. The exposition is held twice a year in the province of Guangzhou, China. Hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of Popular Republic of China and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the Fair is currently organized by the China Foreign Trade Centre.
Canton Fair is the trading event with the longest history, the largest scale, the largest buyer attendance and “the greatest business turnover in China”.
The Canton Fair will have 3 phases in 2018 and aims to enhance trade connection between China and the world, showcasing China’s image and development achievements and working as a platform for Chinese enterprises to explore the international market and also to promote China’s foreign trade.
Canton Fair in numbers:
- 122 events already happened since its beginning;
- $1.2635 trillion accumulated export volume;
- 8.03 million overseas buyers;
- 1.18 million m2 exhibition area;
- 25.000 exhibitors from China and all over the world;
- 200.000 buyers in each session from more than 210 countries.
Dates: April 15-19; April 23-27; May 1-5 | Website: www.cantonfair.org.cn
4. Smart IoT Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Smart IoT Hong Kong is an international conference where business and government meet to discuss the Internet of Things. It’s a two-day event that includes a world-class conference and a packed exhibition floor showcasing IoT technologies, senior business leaders across several industry verticals, service providers, technology innovators and leaders of North Asia cities.
The event enables access to organizations and service providers or government to showcase their products, giving them the opportunity to meet +150 leaders, innovators, tech sector visionaries, business CEOs, CISOs, CDOs and senior line of business management, academia, service providers, government leaders, city planners and analysts.
Smart IoT Hong Kong is co-located with Cloud & Cyber Security Expo, Big Data World, Smart IoT Hong Kong and Data Centre World.
Dates: May 16-17 | Website: www.smartiothk.com
5. The Next Web, Amsterdam
Taking place since 2006 in Amsterdam, Netherlands, The Next Web (TNW) is a festival that has been showcasing the development of technology events as we know them. The event uses the best technologies for engineering the perfect networking environment, attracting in the 2-day event 12.500 business leaders alone in the past year.
From marketing to music, the TNW Conference 2018 has 18 tracks of content designed to attend a wide range of specialists. The festival also offers small-group sessions that include speakers such as the founder of Foursquare, the CEO of Product Hunt and the VP of Data Science at Buzzfeed.
Each year, hundreds of startups and exhibitors make their presence in TNW Conference showcasing their latest products and explore business partnerships and opportunities.
Last year alone, in just one day, more than 3.800 meetings were booked through TNW’s matchmaking platform and more than 100.000 messages were sent using its networking app.
Dates: May 24-25 | Website: www.thenextweb.com
6. ceBIT, Hanover
CeBIT is based in Hannover, Germany and is one of the most important platforms in the technology sector, gathering top decision-makers from all digital business areas within the B2B value chain. The event, which has more than 200.000 attendees every year, is a must for all the tech entrepreneurs and corporations.
CeBIT is also strongly focused on SMEs, being a great place to engage in new business opportunities. The event features exhibitions, conferences and networking events, and covers topics such as the digitalization of business, government and society. Its four sections – d!conomy, d!tec, d!talk and d!campus – represent a new approach in variety and event layout organization.
In summary, ceBIT offers an international platform where people can learn about market trends and new technology products.
Dates: June 11-15 | Website: www.cebit.de
7. RISE, Hong Kong
RISE is a conference produced by the Web Summit organization and occurs every year in Hong Kong. The event is very similar to Web Summit, gathering organizations, startups and technology people from all over the world.
Last year, the 3-day event had the presence of companies like Twitter, Dropbox and Cisco as well as speakers such as Werner Vogels (CTO of Amazon.com), Takeshi Idezawa (CEO of Line Corporation) and Matt Mullenweg (Co-founder of WordPress).
In 2017, RISE had more than 300 speakers, 700 journalists and 20.000 attendees from more than 100 countries.
Dates: July 9-12 | Website: www.riseconf.com
8. TechCrunch Disrupt, San Francisco | New York | Berlin | London
TechCrunch is a world leading event build to showcase new and disruptive startups, game-changing technologies and tech industry’s key innovators debates. Startups have a great opportunity in TechCrunch to present themselves to the whole world, and achieve exponential growth in the marketplace.
The event that occurs in several cities around the world (San Francisco, New York, Berlin and London) attracts “the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans for on-stage interviews”. Some of the activities include a Startup Battlefield competition, a 24-hour Hackathon, Startup Alley, Hardware Alley and several After Parties.
Startup Battlefield gathers the world’s top early stage startups on one stage to compete for the Disrupt Cup, a $50.000 prize, as well as the media and investors’ attention. Startup Battlefield judges include TechCrunch editors, VCs, entrepreneurs and past winners (includes names such as Dropbox, Mint, Yammer, among others).
Other TechCrunch events:
- Battlefield Africa;
- Battlefield Australia;
- International City Events;
- Hackathon.
Dates: September 5-7 | Website: www.techcrunch.com
9. Web Summit, Lisbon
Web Summit was born in Dublin, Ireland and is currently one of the largest and most mediatiac technology conferences in the World. The organization chose Lisbon for the second consecutive year to hold its 9th edition, choosing Portugal’s capital to host its 10th edition as well.
Last year conference began on November 6th at Altice Arena with a brief presentation by Paddy Cosgrave, Web Summit Founder. Also last year, the event featured figures such as Al Gore (Chairman of Generation Investment Management), António Guterres (UN Secretary-General), François Hollande (former President of France), Paul Levesque (Vice President of WWE, better known as Triple H), Joe Sullivan (CSO of Uber), among many others.
The event features 25 different stages, such as the Center Stage at Altice Arena, AutoTech, ContentMakers or FutureSocieties. Currently held at FIL (Lisbon International Fair), the event brought the most varied themes with big personalities at the present time.
Global organizations like IBM, Google, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Siemens and Facebook made their presence in the conference, transforming Web Summit in an event one of the most marketed events in the world.
Dates: November 5-8 | Website: www.websummit.com
10. Slush, Helsinki
Slush is a Helsinki-based student-driven, non-profit movement that initially began with 300 people assembly to a world-renowned event, hosting in cities like Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo in 2016.
Slush’s goal is to facilitate founder and investor meetings and to “build a world-wide startup community”.
Held during Winter, Slush has always been characterized by a “unique energy and enthusiasm”. Its philosophy is to help the next generation of companies grow. The conference is organized by young entrepreneurs whose mission is to make a difference in today’s society.
Successful entrepreneurs such as Niklas Zennström (Skype & Atomico), Taizo Son (gungHo) and Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), among others, have already become part of the international event that is radically changing how entrepreneurship is perceived in Northern Europe, Japan and China.
Dates: December 4-5 | Website: www.slush.org
