Miami Children's Health System's Katherine Quinn greets visitors remotely with an interactive robot at the eMerge Americas TechWeek at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Monday, May 5, 2014. CARL JUSTE / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
By Nancy Dahlberg / [email protected]
Miami is famous for putting on shows, but last week it wasn’t about cars, or boats or swimwear. Last week, the Miami Beach Convention Center buzzed with technology talk.
And that is exactly what the organizers of eMerge Americas Techweek, Miami’s biggest homegrown tech conference, wanted to happen, said serial entrepreneur Manny Medina. He’s the visionary behind the event, which attracted more than 6,000 attendees.
“It established that a few thousand more people than we expected are thinking ‘Miami technology’ and being wowed by the level of content,” Medina said. Though Miami isn’t yet in the same tech-talk mindspace as Silicon Valley or Boston, eMerge did its job to put South Florida on the radar, he said. “It all starts with changing the mindset about Miami technology.”
To be sure, the eMerge conference is modest compared to many tech and entrepreneurship conferences, such as South by Southwest, the annual nine-day interactive-music-film extravaganza in Austin, Texas, that attracts more than 70,000 to the city. Even a small tech conference in San Francisco can draw 20,000 people. This inaugural conference fell on the realistic side of initial lofty dreams of marquee names and massive corporate sponsorship. In the final week, organizers turned to deal sites including Groupon to boost sales.
Still, last week’s event drew at least 1,000 more than the conference goal of 5,000 registrants for seminars featuring 150 speakers on technology innovation, eight expos ranging from smart cities togaming, an invitation-only mayoral summit, corporate exhibits, startup and kids’ competitions, parties and networking. The conference was organized by Medina’s Technology Foundation of the Americas, whose mission is to promote and accelerate Miami as the technology hub of the Americas.
Year two of eMerge Americas is already on the books: April 29-May 5, 2015, with the main conference again taking place at the Miami Beach Convention Center, Medina said. His goal next year: 10,000 attendees.
Sponsors and attendees counted the first-year event as a success, with only minor logistical glitches typical of a first-time event.