Logo © Collision 2021
Collision, Canada’s largest technology show was held from Toronto online from April 20 – 22, 2021 – it was a three-day celebration of Canadian and international innovation. Attendees included an impressive array of important CEOs, founders, and Hollywood stars like Bo Derek (of the movie, Ten) and Nicole Kidman. According to organizers, there were more than 38,000 attendees, 1,266 startups, 1,426 journalists, 860 investors, 621 speakers and 113 partners from 141 countries, all using Collision’s platform over the three days of the event.
Technology Issues:
This Conference addressed major issues such as effect of the pandemic on a return to live events, regulation of big technology companies, hacker breaches and privacy breaches, environmental responsibility, mental health and fake news as well as police excessive use of force in after the guilty verdict in former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who was found guilty of second degree murder in the death of George Floyd.
Conference for both Large Corporations and Start-ups:
Collision had speakers, exhibitors from the world’s largest companies who are partnering and investing in start-ups. Large technology companies are needed to grow Canada’s technology space and sessions addressed the advantages of the large companies as well how start-ups can scale up to become larger
Pitch Winner:
Toronto based relationship startup, Couply won Collision’s annual PITCH competition. Couply is an app to help people in a relationship to keep that relationship going strong and avoid breakups and the need for counselling. It is potentially a large market, according to Couply. It uses a personality mesh test to understand the differences between partners and to customize date ideas and advice.
The two cofounders are Tim Johnston, Business Development and Denesh Raymond, Technology who worked at Canadian success story, Wattpad.
It won against 50 other start-ups who entered the competition. Of the 1,266 startups attending Collision 2021, 50 entered the group rounds of the competition and pitched in front of judges: Rashmi Gopinath, Matt Garratt and Ariel Garten.
Interesting Sessions:
Torontoartsandevents found many of the sessions interesting such as:
Canadian VC Reaching New Heights held April 21, 2021 2 pm.
Panel: Janet Bannister (Real Ventures), Shawn Chance (OMERS Ventures), Karamdeep Nijjar (iNovia Capital), + Karamdeep Nijjar, Shawn Chance, Janet Bannister
IPO are going strong and 2020 was a great year for Canadian Venture Capital investments which reached $5.3 B Canadian during the pandemic. This shows that venture capital investing and fundraising follows a different pattern than the overall economy which has yet to fully recover. Many U.S. VC’s are looking to Toronto for investment opportunities. This session was Informative for startups and others interested in technology and investment in Canada.
Next Year’s Collusion:
Collision 2021 was a large and informative international conference. The Technology conference to see in Toronto! Check back here for Collision 2022 June 20 to 23, 2022 from Toronto; hopefully, in person.
© 2021 TorontoArtsandEvents. All rights reserved. Editors please contact us for use. Torontoartsandevents received complimentary admission to this conference.
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