June 2021
Startup_festival, URL_event
EMERGE 2021
During our second fully virtual conference in pandemic times we experiment with participatory formats to deliver more than people expect from the online event, while focusing on the EMERGE original purpose – connecting great people in tech. We broke last year’s record and gathered together 6,522 participants from 102 countries: startups, tech talent, investors, media, and corporates.
EMERGE 2021 stated its mission to explore the new ways to connect with each other, with yourself and our home planet.
It became a shared online experience and a place where everyone was a contributor rather than a listener: 2 virtual stages with live interviews and talks about the future, technologies and wellbeing delivered by 61 speakers from all over the world, themed audio clubtables, 8 workshops, alongside 852 mentorship sessions and 1-on-1 consultations, networking and more than 80 startup pitches. All followed by 5 offline micro-afterparties held locally by the EMERGE community in different cities.
With an aim to create a sense of togetherness and connectivity for our attendees, we expanded the virtual EMERGE experience with a nice offline touch: we collaborated with Bremen-based artist and illustrator Daria Sazanovich, to design special merch. We then delivered it to different parts of the world to the longest and dearest members of our EMERGE community, just before the event. This meant that they could participate in the event in style and also have a memorable keepsake of the rarest thing in the pandemic times - a printed and signed conference badge!
Background
Started in Belarus in 2018, EMERGE conference has become the hotbed for tech, founders, community leaders, bigger companies and investors from across the New East — including countries from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Central Asia. The conference was co-founded by Alina Nilsson and Margo Lazarenkova.
Project team:
Margo Lazarenkova (Co-founder & CEO, Creative Direction, Experience Design)
Alina Nilsson (Co-founder & CEO, Startups & Investors, Strategy)
Magrifa Kamieva (Production Manager)
Anna Sholina (Head of Community, Strategic Partnerships)
Nastia Piven (Art Director, Visual Communications)
Julia Fedosenya (Partnerships Manager, Operations)
Ilona Beliatskaya (Speakers manager)
Anastasya Zyrianova (Programme manager)
Alexander Starodetko (Digital Project Manager)
Partners:
Microsoft, AWS, The Untitled Ventures, Chivas & more.
Speakers:
Mikita Mikado (CEO & Co-founder, PandaDoc), George Robson (Partner, Sequoia), Jevgeni Kabanov (CPO, Bolt), Polina Zakh (Creative producer, Senior Vice-President, Sila Sveta), Emily Witt (Staff Writer, The New Yorker) & more.
Featured in:
