There aren’t many networking events like Boston TechJam.
Attendees could shoot hoops with recruiterboom, race wind-up cars with Zipcar, play a whack-a-shark arcade game at Constant Contact and answer trivia questions from mabl.
This block-party style event took a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic but returned this year at a new location. Boston TechJam brought hundreds of startup employees, entrepreneurs, VCs, students and other community members to Lawn on D Wednesday afternoon.
Scroll through the slideshow above to see photos of the event.
In 2019, more than 4,000 people attended TechJam at City Hall Plaza. Organizers said around seven thousand people came to TechJam in 2018. For the first time in its eight-year history, TechJam was free to attend this year. Event organizer the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council said close to 2,000 people came to this year's event.
In addition to booths and activities set up by Boston-area organizations, the event also had live music, food, drinks and lawn games.
Click on the pictures below to hear representatives from local companies answer questions about their experiences at Boston TechJam this year.
Christine Carroll, a college recruiter at Constant Contact, said she was glad to finally be back amongst the Boston tech scene. She said this was also a good excuse to get the largely remote Constant Contact team together in a fun environment.
Her team brought shark-themed whack-a-mole and a giant Operation game, which seemed to be a hit among people walking by their display.
“We just really wanted fun, really interactive, also easy (games). People are just walking by quickly. You don’t want anything too complicated,” Carroll said. “I never thought I’d talk about whack-a-shark in a professional setting.”
In addition to showing passerby how to play Zipcar’s game involving toy cars, Ian Fay, lead talent acquisition partner, said he was chatting with a lot of people about the company’s Boston roots.
“I think people sometimes forget about Zipcar because we’ve been around for so long. And they forget that we’re such a Boston institution because we are all over the country,” Fay said. “It’s really interesting to have that recognition with people.”
Somerville-based Formlabs may be expanding globally, including recently opening a Midwest regional headquarters in Milwaukee, but it’s also making its presence known in Boston. Kerrie Juels, a senior tech recruiter at Formlabs, said returning to TechJam is an opportunity to make itself known to potential employees.
Kerry Fristoe of Innovation Women also came to recruit — but not for new employees. Innovation Women provides speaking opportunities for professional women to create more gender-balanced panels and help support their careers.
“We’re going to meet a lot of women in tech at a place like TechJam who maybe don’t know that there’s this kind of opportunity out there for them,” Fristoe said.
