Top venture capitalists, leading tech CEOs, groundbreaking inventors and even the skydiver who jumped out of an airplane at 25,000 feet without a parachute will join us this week as we kick off the fifth annual GeekWire Summit, taking place Oct. 4th and 5th in Seattle.
We’re looking forward to seeing more than 700 of you at the Sheraton Seattle this week for the GeekWire Summit, the Pacific Northwest’s premier technology conference, presented by Bank of America.
We’ve been working for months on this event, and we’ve got a lot of amazing stuff in store, awesome parties and hopefully some of the best conversations you’ll encounter in the tech industry today. A few tickets remain, so if you’ve not yet signed up, make sure to grab yours here today!
If you’re attending this year’s Summit, here’s everything you need to know about the big show.
GeekWire Summit Location: Sheraton Seattle, 1400 Sixth Avenue in downtown Seattle. Map here.
Dates: Oct. 4th and 5th, with a welcome party Oct. 3 at Zillow’s headquarters.
Time: Registration, located on the second floor of the Sheraton, opens at 7:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 4th, followed by a welcome and introduction at 8:50 a.m., leading directly into our first session, a media panel with top tech journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and ZDNet. The first day will conclude with an Opening Night Party at Frolik at Motif (1415 5th Avenue), an awesome rooftop deck on 5th Avenue across the street from the 5th Avenue Theater. On Oct. 5th, registration will open at 7:30 a.m., followed by a sponsored breakfast by Northeastern University in which panelists will talk about how education can help solve the tech talent gap.
Agenda: We’ve lined up two days of great content, featuring technology leaders from across the industry, including fireside chats with Microsoft executive vice president Peggy Johnson (10:55 a.m. on Oct. 4th) Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi (11:30 am on Oct. 4th); DARPA director Arati Prabhakar (9 a.m. on Oct. 5th); Intellectual Ventures CEO Nathan Myhrvold (11:10 a.m. on Oct. 5th) and many more. Check out the full schedule here and read more about the speakers under the “speaker” and “agenda” tabs here.
GeekWire Summit Welcome Party at Zillow Group: Kick off the GeekWire Summit in style on Monday, Oct. 3rd, with appetizers and drinks at the spectacular headquarters of Zillow. Location is at 1301 Second Avenue in downtown Seattle, floor 31. The Summit Welcome Party, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., is open to all GeekWire Summit attendees, speakers and sponsors.
Food & Drink: No need to search for your own meal — we’ve got you covered. Light breakfast will be served on both mornings, and boxed lunches will be available to all attendees. We’ve also sprinkled coffee and beverage breaks throughout the day to keep the energy flowing.
Wi-Fi: Free Wi-Fi will be available throughout the Summit. Network: GeekWire Summit Password: summit2016. Power also will be available at select tables during the Summit.
Twitter: We’ll be using the hashtag #gwsummit for the event, and also monitoring the Twitter stream for questions from attendees during the various sessions.
Opening Night Party at Frolik at Motif on Oct. 4th: Opening night party at Frolik at Motif Seattle (1415 5th Avenue) on Tuesday Oct. 4th, just a quick 2-minute walk from the Sheraton. Hang out with GeekWire Summit speakers, attendees and other VIPs and geek out on one of the best rooftop decks in Seattle. Play a little shuffleboard and ping pong. Oh, yeah, drinks and appetizers to be served, too!
Prizes and giveaways: Have what it takes to uncover what’s inside the mysterious Best Buy Box? That’s just one of the fun activities we’ve got cooking at this year’s Summit. The Best Buy Box is loaded with geeky prizes — everything from drones to VR headsets — so crack the code and you can win. Also, our sponsors are hosting cool giveaways where Summit attendees can enter to win everything from Seahawks tickets to a Kenmore air tour of the Puget Sound region. Plus, the first 500 Summit attendees will receive some cozy GeekWire socks, courtesy of our partners at Strideline.
The GeekWire Muralist: Back by popular demand, visual strategist Guillaume Wiatr will be recreating the Summit activities on giant poster boards, presented by Flowroute. Follow along, as Guillaume recreates the Summit in real time, and put your own artistic talents to work by sketching your own ideas and posting them to a community board. Guillaume will pick his favorite sketch, and offer a half-day visual strategy session to your company or organization.
The GeekWire Lounge: At this year’s Summit, we’ve added more content with a second stage in the GeekWire Lounge area of the exhibitor hall area. A number of speakers will participate in interviews and interactive discussions during the two-day Summit, kicking off during the first morning break on Oct. 4th with representatives from Sirqul discussing IoT in one of Seattle’s newest condo projects. At 2:35 p.m. on October 4th, Seattle venture capitalist and Pioneer Square Labs co-founder Greg Gottesman will provide an update on his “startup studio,” which launched at last year’s GeekWire Summit.
On Oct. 5th, things will begin in the GeekWire Lounge with a live viewing party of the Blue Origin rocket launch, tentatively slated for 7:45 a.m. GeekWire aerospace and science editor Alan Boyle will lead the discussion, joined on stage by Doug King, CEO of the Museum of Flight, and Joe Landon, CEO of Planetary Power and Chairman of the Space Angels Network. At 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 5th, we’re excited to bring to the stage the “Acquired” podcast. Hosted by Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, this fun podcast dissects a prominent acquisition, and in this special airing we’ll hear about Apple’s acquisition of NeXT Computer Inc. Also, on October 5th at 12:30 p.m., GeekWire reporter Taylor Soper will interview Seattle Sounder FC defender Zach Scott, who is retiring from the team after the 2016 season to pursue a career in technology. Check out all of the action in the GeekWire Lounge!
Parking: Paid parking is available at the Sheraton, as well as garages in the vicinity. We encourage you to bus, bike or use other alternative transportation. Our transportation partner for the event is BMW’s ReachNow, and you can email us at events@geekwire.com to receive a special code to use for the Summit.
Tickets: If you’ve purchased tickets, just pick up your Summit pass at the 2nd floor registration booth at the Sheraton Seattle on Oct. 4th or 5th. (Note: Printed tickets are not needed). A limited number of tickets are available for the Summit, so make sure to invite a friend, colleague or co-worker to join the fun. Tickets available here.
If you have any questions about the Summit, just email us at events@geekwire.com.
Thanks to all of you for attending, and a huge thanks to all of our GeekWire Summit sponsors for helping to make this event happen.
Presenting sponsor: Bank of America, which is partnering with GeekWire on our Geeks Give Back campaign in support of the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship. Make your donation today, and support STEM education in Washington state!
Gold Sponsors: WSGR, Wave Business, Northeastern University, OfferUp, Centric, Lane Powell, Vulcan Technology and Zillow Group.
Silver Sponsors: Nuance, Moz, UPS Connect, Sirqul, CenturyLink and Flowroute.
Exhibitors: Frontier, DefenseStorm, Woot, ReachNow, Flock and Taser Axon.
Supporting Sponsors: Strideline, Best Buy, Accenture, Knoll, Global Innovation Exchange, Bootstrapper Studios, Killer Infographics, Frolik, ALLtech, Tagboard, Sharp and League.
