The World’s Largest Tech Startup and Investor Event is Gearing Up For its Biggest Edition to Date
With Dubai’s startup scene booming, Expand North Star returns with its biggest program yet, with 70,000 attendees exploring everything from AI and Fintech to creativity and sustainability
Dubai’s startup scene is thriving. The city—which has grown into a thriving international tech hub not just for the UAE and MENA, but increasingly on a global level—boasts the fastest-growing VC ecosystem in the world, according to Pitchbook data. And this October, the city is hosting one of the world’s largest tech events, once again cementing its status as an innovation hothouse and dealmaking destination.
From 13-16 October 2024, the 9th edition of Expand North Star, hosted by Dubai Chambers, will see more than 70,000 attendees from over 120 countries descend on the Dubai Harbour for four days of inspirational talks, networking, and entertainment. Among those attendees? An astonishing 1,800 exhibiting startups, 65 unicorns, and more than 1,200 investors and VCs looking for the next breakthrough.
Expand North Star is designed for making connections.
Over four days, the event will see a remarkable 450 speakers, including Perplexity founder Aravind Srinivas; Sir Martin Sorrell; Karya founder Manu Chopra; the UAE’s minister for artificial intelligence & digital economy, Omar Sultan Al Olama; Arsenal and Brazil legend Gilberto Silva, and many more. “At Expand North Star 2024, held for the second time at the iconic Dubai Harbour and proudly hosted by Dubai Chambers, we are not just envisioning the future of technology and innovation; we are shaping it,” says Peter Brady, assistant VP at Dubai World Trade Centre. “This year’s focus aligns with the biggest themes in tech: AI, the Future of Media and Creativity, Fintech and Blockchain, Climate Tech, and Deeptech.”
Among the agenda highlights? The Startup Ecosystem Leadership Forum, co-hosted with San Francisco-based Startup Genome, will see government representatives and private-sector leaders from more than 60 countries uniting to share knowledge and further develop startup ecosystems around the world.
New to 2024, Expand North Star has partnered with the flourishing Barcelona-based digital culture festival, Sónar+D, to bring eight custom exhibition projects, plus a full day of lively and inspiring talks to help get the creative juices flowing. Not only that, they are hosting the official GITEX GLOBAL and Expand North Star closing party featuring Eric Prydz, on 18 October at Dubai Expo City.
Sure enough, no world-class tech event is complete without a startup challenge, and Expand Northstar is taking theirs to the next level: this year’s Supernova Challenge 2.0 will let early-stage companies–who will have qualified in preliminaries before the event—pitch to a diverse array of investors for a $200,000, equity-free prize, and receive pitch coaching to help land their next funding round.
While many leading tech conferences serve up inspiration and networking opportunities, Expand North Star is explicitly focused on enabling productive deal-making; more than 1,200 investors will be in attendance at this year’s event, from some of the world’s largest funds, including NatWest Ventures, Bpifrance, European Investment Fund, Honda Innovation and more. On 13 October, the dedicated invitation-only investor summit will explore the next decade of venture capital, with a particular focus on AI and other fast-growing sectors. Elsewhere, the event anticipates 8,900 pre-scheduled one-to-one meetings between startups and investors… enough to keep the business pages busy.
More than 1,200 investors will be in attendance–all looking for their next big thing.
“Looking at expanding the economic impact of the global startup ecosystem and addressing the unprecedented opportunities of cross-regional partnerships, the 2024 edition of Expand North Star offers an unrivalled pre-scheduled concierge meeting service, ensuring meaningful connections for key companies and investors,” explains Brady. “A powerful scale-up program will also showcase the most promising rising startups, while we delve deep into the transformative potential of tech transfer.
”If that isn’t enough? There are deep-dive events including the Future of Blockchain Summit; the Future of Money event by Fintech Surge; a dedicated youth festival, GITEX YouthX Unipreneur—designed to motivate the next generation of tech innovators and leaders—and a whole after-event networking program, North Star By Night. “With thousands of international startups and fully vetted investors expected to join us,” Brady says, “we’re harnessing the unparalleled power of collaboration and forward-thinking to illuminate the path toward a brighter, more connected world.”
Expand North Star, hosted by Dubai Chambers, is running 13-16 October 2024. Learn more at ExpandNorthStar.com
Source: Wired