The company behind Web Summit has announced that Collision, its North American technology conference, is to move from the United States to Canada for the first time next year.
The conference, which has grown to more than 25,000 attendees since it commenced in Las Vegas 2014, is to relocate to Toronto from New Orleans, its home since 2016.
The announcement was made the day after Collision 2018 kicked off on Monday.
The inaugural event in Las Vegas in 2014 attracted about 5,000 attendees but the company behind the conference has sought to build Collision as a rival to SXSW Interactive and CES.
The four-day international conference, which typically takes place over six stages, is a sister event of Web Summit.
Chief executive Paddy Cosgrave recently hinted on Twitter that the company had been sounded out about a possible move to Canada by its prime minister Justin Trudeau.
90,000 attendees
Collision 2019 will be held at the Enercare Centre, the seventh largest convention facility in North America with over one million square feet of exhibit space.
The conference is looking to bring more than 90,000 attendees to Toronto over a three-year period with an estimated economic impact of $147 million (€95 million).
The event organiser said it looked at various locations for Collision but chose Toronto “because the city is a global hub, boasts state-of-the-art infrastructure and conference facilities and is home to one of the most vibrant tech and start-up sectors in North America”.
“New Orleans, Collision’s home for three years, is a very special town, but as Collision grows we needed to find a bigger base with more global connectivity. I believe that Canada and Toronto have lived to some extent in the technology shadow of America. But that’s changing and changing fast,” said Mr Cosgrave.
Perhaps, just as importantly for the company, the move should be a nice earner. The group that operates the Web Summit reported record profits in 2016, the year in which it first ran the tech conference in Lisbon following its controversial move from Dublin.
Relocation
That relocation enabled the company to significantly grow the event with registered attendee numbers rising from less than 30,000 in Dublin in 2015 to 50,000 a year later in Lisbon.
Recently filed accounts for Manders Terrace Limited, the holding company behind the Web Summit and its various sister events, show pre-tax profits jumped to €2.27 million for the 12 months ending December 31st 2016, from just €230,302 a year earlier.
In addition to Collision, Manders Terrace run a number of other sister events including Rise in Hong Kong and MoneyConf, which takes place in Dublin next month after relocating from Madrid.
