We’re All in This Together — the Collision & Launch Pad PITCH impact report
“You don’t hear music like that in Half Moon Bay!”
The Hot 8 Brass Band welcomes people to Collision on day 2 of the conference for the Launch Pad PITCH.
“You don’t hear music like that in Half Moon Bay!”
Is what Robert Scoble said to me as we walked through Jazz Fest last Friday afternoon as we reflected on being blown away by the band the night before on Frenchman. Later, he wandered off to the Gospel tent for his own Jazz Fest experience. And 11,380 attendees to Collision last week each had their own special New Orleans experience.
“Wow, Collision is in the convention center, so it’s the real deal!”
Is what I heard from someone who turns up to these startup events in New Orleans — yes, my friend, this is the real deal.
When Paddy Cosgrave approached us about bringing Collision to NOLA last year, the most important thing to me became ensuring that we impacted the city as much as possible through this opportunity. So, let’s review the scorecard to see how we did.
Alon Robinson tells his story of going from student to instructor through Operation Spark to kick off Collision 2016.
11,380 attendees, 630 exhibiting startups, 407 investors all hit NOLA last week
We raised $10,000 for Operation Spark by selling the first 100 tickets to next year’s Collision
Attendees were welcomed to the NOLA on Parade event to connect with the meetup groups and organization on the front lines of #NOLAtech
We welcomed 500 students and NOLA natives into the conference by running a scholarship program to ensure the future leaders of our city were there
The Revelry krewe hosted a crawfish boil for 500 developers in the most New Orleans way possible
Grok & Banter held a Celebrating Diversity party for attendees.
NOLA startups like Scandy hacked the platform that Collision provided and made the most of their home field advantage.
We ran the Launch Pad PITCH competition featuring 24 startups from 9 cities to a packed house and rowdy hometown crowds from Buffalo and New Orleans
The Launch Pad PITCH finalist, Rorus, went on to win the Collision PITCH competition, proving that rising startup markets like Pittsburgh can compete on a global level
Michael Hecht aka DJ El Camino sheds the suit and fires up the crowd at the NOLA on Parade community night party.
“Collision and New Orleans are made for each other.”
I heard this over and over throughout the week. Collision is the fastest growing tech conference in the US because it creates an authentic experience to connect people — which is exactly why people go to conferences. And in New Orleans, community is in our DNA — we say “good morning” to each other on the street, we sit on porches with our neighbors in the evenings, and we connect through the rhythms and rituals of the city.
On behalf of the City of New Orleans, I offer a huge thank you to Paddy Cosgrave, Sinead Murphy, James Stafford and the entire Collision team. You have no idea how much having Collision in New Orleans last week meant to our city.
On behalf of Collision and Launch Pad, I offer a huge thank you to everyone who spent last week with us at Collision. Startups, investors, media, dreamers — thank you for investing in being a part of the experience.
We’re all in this together.
We’ve got big plans for the next year for Launch Pad, stay tuned for our next expansion city. And Collision has 2–1 tickets for 2017 available now, see you next year!