Conference News: What I learned this week – October 12, 2018
Losing its Momentum?: Instead of hosting the Momentum Conference in New York in 2018 The Next Web’s (TNW) team will instead run an event in London that is all about blockchain and crypto. Dubbed Hard Fork Decentralized, the gathering will bring together the world’s leading blockchain, crypto and finance companies at more than 50 venues across three days. This new conference will take place from 12 – 14 December. Info on the venues and activities may be found here.
Hopping Across the Pond: TMT Finance, a leading provider of exclusive news and events on M&A, investment, financing and advisory opportunities in telecom, media and technology, has announced that they will produce a version of their flagship M&A forum in the US for the first time next year. The group has held an M&A conference in London for almost a decade but due to “a rapid rise in interest in our news and events from our US-based TMT executives and investors” it will debut a sister event in New York on 11 April 2019. TMT will expects approximately 250 executives active in telecom and media infrastructure and services across North America to attend.
Speaking Opportunity: IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) International Leadership Conference brings together mid-to-senior, technology professionals and female and male STEM leaders from around the world who are interested in advancing women leaders. The organization is currently accepting speaker presentation proposals for the 2019 event, which will take place in Austin on 23 – 24 May. If you have a topic or speaker idea to suggest, do so via their online form by 17 November.
Lunchtime Learning: For over 30 years, Interop’s evolving conference brand has meant education, thought leadership, and networking for thousands of IT problem solvers. What initially set out to cover interoperability & IP networks now examines contemporary trends du jour, like cloud, data & analytics and how emerging technologies like blockchain and VR are affecting IT. Tune in to Interop’s keynote channel to watch a fascinating fireside chat with the City of Detroit’s CIO Beth Niblock, a keynote from an infrastructure exec with Amazon/Whole Foods, and an especially eye-opening panel on inclusion in tech, all from the 2018 program.
Coming Up Next Week: The global TV industry will divide and conquer, with well-known events in New York, LA, and Cannes this week. First up, MIPCOM attracts nearly 14,000 TV and digital content executives when it kicks off 15 October in the French city best known for its eponymous film and creative festivals. In LA, Digital Hollywood (16-18 October) convenes yet another program jam-packed with expert panels, covering issues from advertising to cannabis to VR in Hollywood. NAB NYC will run 17-18 October at the Javits Center. With keynotes from Robert De Niro and ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz, the show also offers business, technology, and creative sessions tracks to “advance the art, science, and business of content.” WIRED25, which celebrates the publication’s quarter-century mark, gets underway on 12 October in San Francisco and combines an interactive festival celebrating the cultural side of tech, a one-day business summit, and behind-the-scenes office visits of some of SF’s hottest companies. Chicago Ideas Week (15-21 October) is a seven-day festival that features more than 200 experts on wide-ranging topics and, with tickets for even some of the biggest name speakers starting at $15, delivers on its promise of open ideas.