The 2024 Collison tech Conference from June 17-20 was a blast and covering & capturing for the last 5-6 years has been a pleasure i am excited to welcome CONSENSES to toronto in 2025
Collision was always a rush here Rush there i am always bouncing from one stage to another to catch talks panels to capture the vibe and flow of the conference people and see friends stop by alpha beta start up booths to hear there story of why they build what did to show off to investors even after 3 days there is something new to see each day and media village treats us & feeds us well
Unfortunately the 2024 edition of Collison in Toronto will be its last which is sad considering it’s been here since 2019 so highly recommended you getting young ticket for 2024 it’s the best tech conference in North America
So the last 6 years of collision it seems just like yesturday that collision arrived in 2019 to Toronto with much fan fare. Close to 30000+ attendees in 2019 sure had its hiccups on first day with attendance registration not going as smooth as hoped
But that was quickly fixed in following years following the 2 years of the Pandemic forcing the collision conference to pivot to creating a custom Online Platform bringing the ENTIRE Conference online instead of cancelling it making it a virtual conference with 1-1 zoom virtual networking with attendees this went on for 2020 & 2021 called funny enough Collison At Home https://youtu.be/0hQCPgtaz0I
When it returned to in person conference they learned and fixed the registration issue
Moved that process across the street to the Beanfield centre from Entercare centre also opened a new venue at the Up Express transit stop from the airport that it helped With space and logistics with dealing with attendees for conferences 2022-2024
But here are some amazing stats on how it’s helped the start up scene and Economic growth of the Toronto in those 4 in person conference years
The Collison Conference has supported and driven forward the Toronto and Canadian technology ecosystems by attracting thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, cultural icons and global media to Toronto.
And since its first year in 2019, and including next week’s final 2024 event at The Enercare Centre, Collision has hosted more than 130,000 attendees, 8,000 startups, 4,000 speakers, 5,200 investors, 6,000 journalists and editors in the city.
And According to Collison/Websummit & Destination Toronto, in 2019, 2022 and 2023, in-person attendance delivered approximately $112m CAD in visitor spending and approximately $189m CAD in economic impact to the city of Toronto,
Collision 2024 brought
- 37,832 attendees from 117 countries attended the final year event in Toronto
- 45 percent of exhibiting startups are women-founded – the highest proportion at any Collision event
- 42 percent of attendees are women, and 35 percent of speakers are women
- 1,834 companies will exhibit on the event floor, including startups from 57 countries, and global partners such as AWS, Microsoft, IBM, DELL and Snowflake
- 1,003 media will cover talks from 570 speakers, as well as 739 investors
And brought $42m CAD in visitor spending to the local economy. with more than 40,000 tech entrepreneurs from over 130 countries expected to attend in 2024
More than 2,800 Canadian startups and over 400 Canadian speakers have taken part in Collision from 2019 to 2023. Some of the top Canadian voices include Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, actor and entrepreneur Seth Rogen, award-winning author Margaret Atwood and Jeff Shiner, CEO of 1password are some of the notable featured speakers from past years.
Jeff Shiner has been coming to Collision since 2020 and in that time Jeff has grown the company to a 1,200 employee global organisation with $6.8 billion USD valuation, supporting millions of consumers and 150,000 businesses. Jeff will return in 2024 once again as a speaker.
Women & Women in Tech the gender ratio at Collision Toronto averaged at 44 percent women attendees, and 44 percent of exhibiting startups at Collision 2024 are founded by a woman, an almost 50 percent increase in the proportion of women founded startups since last year.
Over two years, 2022 to 2023, Collision has hosted 234 Indigenous and black-founded Canadian startups. In 2024, the event will see 370 Indigenous and black-founded startups exhibiting.
Toronto based startups who have exhibited over the years have been successful in finding investment off the back of a one metre Alpha booth. Sanders Lazier, CEO and co-founder of Carbonhound – a climate action platform that helps businesses measure and reduce their impact on the climate – received $1.3m USD in pre-seed funding after an investor stopped by their ALPHA booth at Collision 2022.
Sanders was successful in his application to the startup programme and was able to connect as many US VCs as possible, as Collision was the best place to reach VCs from outside Canada who were interested in investing in Canadian startups.
But my personal experience of attending and covering the 4 years of in person collision conferences the Collison After Hours Networking parties have to be the most fun
Most conferences don’t have parties after the conference this brings a lot of economic development to the toronto resturant and bars when collison attendees take over torontos resturant and bars Its the After Hours that makes the difference as a16z-backed Toptal software talent firm acquired London based business talent marketplace Skillbridge after a meeting at Collision After Hours.
After ten years of Collision and six years in Toronto, this will be the final Collision event, before the new flagship North American event Web Summit Vancouver in May 2025.
But i am happy Collison now WebSummit
Is staying Canada with it going to Vancouver Web Summit says Destination Vancouver expects the new B.C. event to generate $172 million in direct spending and $279 million in overall economic impact for British Columbia over three years.
