But what is a Hello Tomorrow Global Summit really like?
We could spend all day and all night telling you how great our own conference is… But let’s hear it from a self-confessed conference junkie instead! Here’s what Gemma Milne, Tech, Science and Innovation Writer and co-founder of the brilliant Science Disrupt had to say about last year’s Summit.
This extract was taken from Gemma’s article: Which are the best conferences?
Hello Tomorrow Global Summit
I love this conference so much, I’m now part of the team of curators — but even before I got more involved in the summit, I was hooked. Hello Tomorrow is an organisation set up to advance science entrepreneurship through its startup challenge, its multiple events around the world and its Global Summit every October in Paris.
At the Global Summit, they bring together 500 top emerging science startups with investors, corporates, and already successful entrepreneurs. They have 10 tracks — from health and drugs to transport and agriculture — and in each track are a host of startups intent on changing the world through science. Every single pitch I watched was ground breaking. No pointless apps and social media analytics tools here — instead there was a flying car, a lighting tool to stop over-fishing, a tactile tablet for blind peopleand a company using all the waste coconut husks to build sustainable logistics pallets. Real stuff. Stuff that actually makes the world a better place. And I’ve not even mentioned the speakers, the attendees or the production yet. The speakers ranged from the President of CERN and a dude building an asteroid mining company, to an optogenetics researcher turning mice ‘on and off’ in terms of controlling their sleep — and the thing that united them is that they are all DOING all that stuff you hear about in ‘future trends’ reports. Genetic editing, space tourism, personalised medicine, renewable energy…it’s being DONE, not talked about, by the people at this conference.
There were hardly any media there my first year (2016) so the focus was on the attendees collaborating, and with the number of investors, corporate decision makers and entrepreneurs in the audience, it really wasn’t difficult. Then the production. Oh my the production. It was so slick. Music used beautifully, awesome stage design, trendy break out areas — this was a place you felt pretty impressed by, as well as comfortable in. This is a fab conference for scientists of all breeds — finding collaborators and new ideas is so damn easy here; for investors looking at emerging areas; for corporates operating in one of the 10 tracks — get your R&D team sitting in on the track pitches; and anyone generally curious about the future — as it’s genuinely being built by these people.
How much? Tiered depending on your profession (student / investor / startup etc)
Invite only? Yes — but you can request an invite on their website
When? October
Where? Paris, France
Website? https://hello-tomorrow.org/summit
