Felice Gorordo still remembers the sick feeling of disappointment that hit him when eMerge Americas was forced to cancel its annual conference in early 2020.
The event was planned, marketed and ready to go when organizers pulled the plug three weeks before it was scheduled to open due to the then-emerging Covid-19 pandemic.
"It was one of the most difficult decisions we had to make," said Gorordo, the CEO of Miami-based eMerge Americas. "But we saw the writing on the wall."
So, the event was postponed. Organizers hoped to return in 2021, but Covid vaccination rates weren't at a high enough level to move forward with the conference in a safe way, Gorordo said.
But, it was worth the wait. This month eMerge Americas will return to the Miami Beach Convention Center on April 18-19 for the first time since 2019 with a two-day event featuring some of the technology industry's most well-known personalities. It's one of the anchors of Miami Tech Week, a series of technology industry events scheduled for the month of April.
"This is an opportunity to learn and network first-hand to get a better sense of what Miami tech is all about," Gorordo said.
The 2022 conference will feature more than 200 speakers touching on everything from early-stage investing to finding and retaining tech talent. South Florida's status as a rising cryptocurrency hub will also be explored, with multiple sessions devoted to subjects like Bitcoin, NFTs and Web 3.0.
And there will plenty of opportunities for people watching. Tennis champion and entrepreneur Serena Williams will be a keynote speaker this year, along with Reddit founder (and Williams' husband) Alexis Ohanian and Shark Tank presenter and entrepreneur Kevin O'Leary.
Much has changed since the last time eMerge Americas convened in 2019, Gorordo said. The movement of entrepreneurs and investors to Florida during the Covid-19 pandemic energized the region's tech sector, resulting in more venture funding than ever for local startups.
Emerge also grew its state-wide connections during the interim, partnering with Tampa-based Synapse Florida to boost the Sunshine State's tech economy through branding and outreach.
"We want to signal to the world that we're taking a statewide approach to ecosystem building," Gorordo said.
Launched in 2014, eMerge Americas connects technology entrepreneurs, investors, venture capital firms and more with the goal of transforming Miami into the tech hub of the Americas. It's a vision that Gorordo said the organization's founder, serial entrepreneur Manny Medina, had long before anyone believed Miami could be home to a thriving tech community.
Moving forward, eMerge will continue to unite founders, investors, accelerators, universities and other stakeholders to ensure they have the resources to build in South Florida.
"We'll keep evangelizing the story of Miami and how this [tech] transformation, this renaissance, is occurring across Florida," he said.
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