Collision opens with 39% women speakers, 50% surge in startups, and 35,562 attendees at Collision’s first in-person event in three years

Toronto June 21, 2022

Today, Collision, the fastest-growing technology event in North America, announced that 39 percent of its speakers at Collision 2022 are women, up from 30 percent at Collision 2019, with more than 340 women-led startups exhibiting at the conference.

35,562 attendees join Collision from 130 countries

With demand for in-person events increasing rapidly, the number of Collision attendees has grown by 40 percent, from 25,711 in 2019 to 35,562 – hailing from 130 countries – in 2022.

The overall gender ratio remained stable, with women accounting for 44.3 percent of attendees at this year’s event.

The event welcomes 1,557 startups 50% more than last year.

This year, Collision has selected more than 1,557 startups out of thousands of applicants hailing from 74 countries, including Mongolia, Nigeria, South Africa and Brazil.

The number of startups in attendance has grown by 50 percent since 2019, outnumbering even the cohort at Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon, which took place last November.

This year, Collision has 340 women-led startups exhibiting over the course of the event – the highest number of women-led startups in the event’s history.

Community initiatives work to amplify voices from under-represented communities

For the first time ever, Collision has run the Indigenous Attendee Program, designed to amplify the voices of Indigenous peoples, build respectful relationships with Indigenous communities in Canada, and build a more just tech ecosystem. Eight 8 startups received bursaries to exhibit at the event, and dozens of attendees will be joining the event using complimentary tickets as part of the program.

Collision has launched AMPLIFY, an initiative built to prioritize founders from under-represented communities. Almost 200 startups have signed on as part of the program, and will be exhibiting on the Collision floor.

Additionally, Collision has selected 274 Impact startups that are working to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals and that generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact.

Partnerships and floorspace increase by 40% and 54% respectively

Partnerships have also grown 40 percent YOY, selling out floor space two months in advance. 250 global partners have joined the event for 2022, including Snap, Google Cloud, TikTok, AWS, RBC, Siemens, KPMG, CAE, Interac and Crypto.com.

The total floor space needed at the Enercare Centre has increased by more than half, from 50,000sqm to 77,000sqm. For the first time, Collision will be using the entire Beanfield Centre building, and will be using outdoor space for food trucks, seating and circulation.

More than 793 investors are attending

PitchBook and Collision have unveiled their fifth Venture Investor survey, with results showing sentiment towards investing, emerging technologies and areas of impact. The survey was administered to 105 venture capital VC investors attending Collision. Key findings can be found here.

25 Nigerian founders travel last-minute to Collision after visa issues

Isaac Olowolafe, the founder of DreamMakerVC and DreamLegacy Foundation, generously donated his Toronto-based hotel, Dream Suites, to African founders who experienced delays securing their visas to enter Canada and attend Collision. Many African founders were unable to organize accommodation when their visas were received, as the city and its surrounding areas were fully booked up.

Isaac, who is also speaking at Collision, heard of the visa issue and donated the hotel to any African founders affected so they could still attend the conference. 25 Nigerian startups will now attend thanks to efforts made by Isaac and by Sunil Sharna, director of Techstars Toronto.

About Collision

For two years in a row, Collision – North America’s fastest growing technology event – moved online. Making the pivot to host thousands of attendees online was referred to by the Sunday Times as a “pretty big experiment”. Now, Collision is returning in person to host the largest international event in Toronto in more than two years, with 35,000 attendees anticipated at Collision in the Enercare Centre from June 2023, 2022.

About Web Summit

Forbes says Web Summit is “the best tech conference on the planet”. Bloomberg calls it “Davos for geeks”; Politico “the Olympics of tech”; the Guardian “Glastonbury for geeks”. In the words of Sky News, Web Summit is “the world’s most influential tech event”, and the Telegraph calls it the “planet's best tech conference”.

Useful links:

Collision images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/ 

Collision YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6MiQVyK_WaFlU5IvIT2b8A 

Collision speaker lineup: https://collisionconf.com/speakers

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