Recently, Digital.NYC’s editor, Marcos Dinnerstein, spoke with Sebastian Tanner and Jasmine Hoffman, Event Directors, to learn what people can expect from TechDay this year.
Digital.NYC: Please give us an overview of this year’s event and what theme you might have in store.
NY TechDay is returning for the sixth installment of the US' largest startup event April 18th at Pier 94. The event will host over 575 innovative startups across all sectors and stages including IoT, On Demand, Enterprise, Social Impact, and Fashion, 20 premiere accelerators, tons of larger tech brands and resources, a live demo stage, and 35,000 members of the tech community.
Digital.NYC: How many attendees do you generally receive? Where do they come from? What sectors?
TechDay typically draws between 10,000 and 35,000 attendees. Since this is our sixth annual event in New York, we’re expecting about 35,000 attendees. The attendees come from all sectors, mostly those within the scope of technology, finance, media, and larger corporates. Attendees range from average users and consumers, to press, investors, accelerators, talent, students, founders, mentors, and corporates.
Digital.NYC: What can attendees walk away with or how will this event change the conversation around tech and social media in particular?
Attendees will hopefully walk away with a new sense of what innovation looks like today, and what startups are working on. TechDay is meant to give our community a greater awareness of some of the newest, hottest tech startups as well as to understand the impact and strength of an incredible new product or platform. Every year, more and more attendees and startups are able to interact on social media, and it creates closer bonds and relationships. We hope that by following the exhibitors, as well as connecting on LinkedIn, lasting impressions can be made within our ecosystem.
Digital.NYC: What is the panel or speaker you are most excited about and why?
We're definitely excited about the demo stage, over 100 startups will be giving short pitches to our audience! We’re all also looking forward to hearing the advice from the 30 late-stage founder and executives at Access - some companies are giving incredible insight into problems they’ve overcome as a business and how they’ve built their empires.
Digital.NYC: What sets this conference apart from other tech conferences?
TechDay is all about making connections - and including the entire community. What’s cool about it is that everyone who's interested in tech or startups can come to the event, there’s no barrier to entry. This means that we can bring users, talent, resources, investors, corporates, press, and startups all together under one roof. Everyone gets to experience the innovation and excitement that invariably takes place at each event.
Digital.NYC: What will set this year’s event apart from previous years?
We’re adding several new components to the event, but what really will set this year’s event apart is the audience. We’ve amped up our partners and outreach to ensure that the community at TechDay includes all of the right resources growing companies need. We’re also introducing a new portion of TechDay called Access. It will have experienced founders and executives speaking to mid-stage companies in an AMA format, so they will be able to share real, actionable advice.
Digital.NYC: Are there any new components or features that attendees should look forward to this year?
This is the first time featuring a section for IoT startups, so be sure to check that section out! We're also excited about how many of the companies are growing and hiring, it’s going to be a huge day for finding new team members. We’ve also introduced fireside chats - longer talks from some of our partners to give advice, so keep an eye out for those, which will be hosted on the demo stages.
We’re also introducing a new conference into TechDay called Access. It’s an exclusive ask-me-anything style conference where mid-stage founders and execs can ask direct questions and learn from successful founders tackling the challenges of scaling a rapidly growing business. The talks will include execs from WeWork, Yahoo, Casper, and Vimeo.
Digital.NYC: Is there a way for non-attendees to follow the conversation? Twitter handle? Live feed?
Yes! You can follow us on Twitter @TechDayHQ and Instagram @techdayhq, or join in on the conversation with #TechDay
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