On the surface, the Collision conference looks similar to other tech industry events: a mix of investors, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and developers gathered for two days of networking, pitching, and hearing from industry leaders. What sets the conference at the World Market Center in Las Vegas apart, however, is the engine that drives those interactions from behind the scenes. It’s a deliberate, data-driven system that aims to match attendees in a very precise way—what organizers call “engineering serendipity.”
“We hire computational physicists, applied statisticians, and engineers—folks who know a thing or two about machine learning and artificial intelligence. The algorithms they build take into account who you are and who you might benefit from being with on a pub crawl, in a meeting, or at dinner table,” said Sinead Murphy, director of live events for Web Summit, the company behind Collision that also produces Web Summit in Dublin, Rise in Hong Kong, and several other events. In May 2015, just its second year, Collision drew 7,500 attendees from 89 countries, which included representatives from 1,200 start-ups and more than 450 investors.
As a result of the data-based matchmaking, those investors received a spreadsheet with 10 suggestions of start-ups deemed relevant to their interests. Investors then met with the companies in what organizers call “Office Hours”: 15-minute meetings similar to speed dating. During the two-day conference, 600 meetings took place.
“We like to think of ourselves as a technology company, but the scenarios we are attempting to generate could not be further from bits and bytes,” Murphy said. “And while we are connected ever more closely in the digital Web of Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, it is still fundamentally important to us that we look others in the eye, shake their hand, and introduce ourselves.”
For 2016, organizers are moving the conference to New Orleans. “Collision is growing faster than any of our events, and we wanted to find a home with an incredible sense of energy that’s at least at the scale of Dublin,” Murphy said. She said they plan to launch new events in Las Vegas next year.
Previous: #2 Social Good Summit
Next: #4 Microsoft Ignite
