Waterloo Tech Week is returning to Kitchener and Waterloo for its second year, from Sept. 12 to 17. The decentralized tech conference’s calendar lists nearly 60 events organized by students, venture capital companies, tech startups, and local tech organizations.
The conference is run by the same team behind Hack the North, Canada’s largest student-run hackathon. Co-director Maggie Lu said the team is building on its mission to be a connector between students, companies, and working professionals.
“The overall consensus is that students are now feeling more a part of this tech community than ever before.”
Megan Chun,
Waterloo Tech Week
“I feel like there are so many strong organizations and people who are really ambitious about building things, and if we concentrate that in one place, we think a lot of really cool things can happen,” Lu said.
Last year’s conference drew more than 1,500 people to events across the region. As word spread about this year’s conference, Lu said the organizers saw an increased interest in hosting from founders, VCs, and early-stage builders.
“[It’s] definitely more so than last year, and we’re finding that people really want to build something,” Lu said. “For us, that means putting companies in direct contact with high-signal builders.”
Lu added that these connections are fostered through workshops and panels focused on early-stage building, dinners for smaller groups of builders, and mixers where founders can meet potential co-founders or collaborators.
Co-director Megan Chun added that Waterloo’s growing pool of young tech talent is driving interest in hosting and attending events.
“The overall consensus is that students are now feeling more a part of this tech community than ever before,” Chun said.
This year’s event lineup includes the return of the Velocity Pitch Competition on Sept. 12, a tech ethics panel discussion with Gender Equity Tech Waterloo Region, and a Startups and Beer mixer at Communitech on Sept. 15.
One change from last year is a move to host more Waterloo Tech Week flagship events during the week. The organizers are again hosting the conference kickoff on Sept. 11 at the Tannery Event Centre in Kitchener, and a fireside chat with Garage Capital and Inovia Capital on Sept. 13 at the Den 1880 coworking space in Waterloo.
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Ian Korovinsky, co-director of Waterloo Tech Week and Hack the North, said there are also many non-traditional events that help create unique experiences for attendees, including a scavenger hunt.
“It’s good because you end up in places you didn’t expect as you’re searching for things,” Korovinsky said. “When you think about … something unique that other people aren’t putting on as often, I immediately go to the scavenger hunt.”
Lu added that many of this year’s new event hosts were inspired to participate after attending last year’s events at venues like the Accelerator Centre, Communitech, and Google’s Waterloo office.
“We have some hosts who attended events last year and are now hosting their own events, especially student clubs. For us, that really speaks to our mission of building community, connecting people, and inspiring them to dream big and build bigger,” Lu said.
Feature image courtesy Alex Kinsella for BetaKit.
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