With the Collision 2020 Conference Going Online Are We Witnessing the Future of Exhibitions and Conventions?

April 22, 2020 – Last year I was given media credentials to attend Collision 2019, a conference held here in Toronto that consisted of hundreds of exhibitors from across the planet, numerous talks and interviews with some of the brightest minds on the planet, all focused on shaping the future. The conference occupied the Enercare Centre at Exhibition Place, a venue that required a good set of walking shoes. I interviewed a number of interesting and innovative people, and visited with a number of startup companies that I wrote about here at 21st Century Tech blog. I’ve kept in touch with many of them since.

This year, however, because of COVID-19, Collision 2020 decided to cancel the physical event and replace it with Collision from Home on June 23rd to the 25th, a virtual conference of speakers and new business technology startups which will be broadcast and streamed to digital screens around the world.

The speakers’ list reads like a who’s who of celebrities, political leaders, and high technology honchos. The exhibitors, however, are less familiar to those who will book tickets for the event. These are organizations and companies, many in the startup phase. Some are seeking exposure. Others are looking for funding. All want to become the next “big thing.”

I’ve counted 42 countries so far from the online exhibitors’ list. They cover a wide range of applications, services, and products in six different categories:

• Marketing and media
• Society
• Commerce
• Business development
• Lifestyle
• Developers and data

Among the exhibitors, you will find artificial intelligence (AI) applications for a wide variety of purposes and including both deep learning and machine learning. There are a number of business-to-business (B2B), supply chain and logistics management startups.

There is software for mining on the Earth and hardware for mining the Moon.

There are cloud computing, blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, computer vision, remote learning, robotics, cybersecurity, VPNs, and social networking applications.

There is technology for the oil and gas sector, for autonomous vehicles, construction, industrial maintenance, genomics, telemedicine, and many other medical technologies.

For companies seeking collective intelligence assistance or crowdfunding, there are new startups providing the necessary tools.

For online presence, there are web developers, helpdesk providers, data analytics companies, dashboard developers, customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and online sales solutions.

Companies focused on agriculture, food management, and the environment will be on virtual display along with developers of energy efficiency technology.

You will find fintech and financial solutions companies, online retail and consumer behaviour applications, and online legal tools.

There is even a pet owner to veterinarian (pet to vet) matching application.

And there will be angel and venture capital investors seeking companies that they believe can be winners in this environment of constant disruptive change.

In many respects, it will resemble last year’s physical show which had an enormous hall filled with new startup vendor exhibits from all around the world, and a number of stages for speakers, interviews, and panel discussions. Now all of the show is to be online reflecting the need for social distancing in the fight to stop the COVID-19 pandemic from spreading further.

Purchase tickets to participate from anywhere on the planet. Pick the speakers you want to hear, revisit those speeches when you want (something you couldn’t do while at the physical event). And be connected to others in attendance as well as exhibitors through the Collision from Home app.

This online version of Collisionfollows the 2019 Toronto conference, where more than 30,000 were in attendance. It will be interesting to see how well the conference works as an online event. If successful, the conference itself may become the next “big thing” as the post-pandemic world looks at ways of delivering events that normally require thousands to fly or drive to a specific site, producing tons of greenhouse gas emissions along the way and taxing our ability to mitigate global warming. When the organizers pull this off, described by The Financial Times as the world’s biggest tech conference, it will create a paradigm shift that could impact other international events and even political party conventions. If in 2021 we are still dealing with the pandemic, will the Consumer Electronic Show go virtual? Or will CEBIT in Germany? Or what about the Republican and Democratic National Conventions slated for the summer. Collision could deliver the realization of the promise of the Internet as never before. You’ve got to love the attempt and cheer the effort. And I will be virtually attending to write about it.