Startups, Technology

7 reasons you do not want to miss 021Disrupt

Written by Asra Rizwan ·  2 min read >
021Disrupt-Jehan Ara-P@SHA

021Disrupt, The Nest I/O’s flagship conference on entrepreneurship and innovation, is all set to take place in Karachi on 10th & 11th November. The second installment of the entrepreneurship conference will attract over 50 international and local speakers, over 10 venture capitalists and investors, with an expected footfall of over 600 entrepreneurs, professionals, and students.

So here are the seven things you need to watch out for this year at 021Disrupt.

1. The amazing line-up of local and international startup founders

Some of the eminent personalities of the startup world will be conducting speakers sessions this year, including Badr Ward, creator of Lamsa – a children’s edutainment app with over 12 million downloads, Chris Rogers, Partner at Lumia Capital who co-founded Nextel Communications which grew to $13B in sales and over 19k employees before being acquired for $35B, Paul Papadimitriou, Founder of Intelligencr – an innovation scouting firm with clients around the world including Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, Fujitsu, Canonical, SES, SABMiller, Criteo, Unify, Tumblr, Evernote, the European Union, Mudassir Sheikha, Co-Founder and CEO Careem, and many others. You can see the complete lineup of speakers here.

2. Opportunity to network with the local tech community

The casual format of the conference allows participants to network and hang out with not just the speakers, but also investors, influencers, mentors, and other professionals attending the conference. You will be doing more networking during the lunch and tea breaks at 021Disrupt than you do all year!

3. Learn a trending skill with workshops delivered by field experts

If you’re someone who has already attended 021Disrupt, you’re probably familiar with the amazing quality of workshops offered at the 2-day conference. What you probably don’t know is how much better these workshops are going to be this year. From pitching to branding to the blockchain, 021Disrupt has it all covered! Unfortunately, each workshop has limited seats so not everyone will be able to attend the workshop of their choice.

4. Raise an investment in Office Hours

This alone is reason enough for any entrepreneur out there to attend 021Disrupt. Those who don’t know, Office Hours are detailed one-on-one sessions with leading VC’s and investors from home and abroad. Entrepreneurs get to select who they want to have their “office hours” with and get an opportunity to pitch their startup and initiate investment deals. Even if you’re currently not looking for investment, the session will be a great learning experience for you as you find out how VC’s think when looking to invest in a startup. Office Hours are available for those who buy the “Entrepreneur” ticket.

5. Exhibit your work

A new addition this year at 021Disrupt will be the elevator pitch in front of a LIVE audience. A selected few startups will have an opportunity to go on stage and pitch their ideas to a room full of investors, mentors, founders, professionals, and people from all walks of life. If you’re an entrepreneur, you will not find an audience more relevant, so better buy your ticket now!

6. Find a mentor

Finding the right mentor at the right time is perhaps the best thing that can happen to an entrepreneur. Even if you’re not attending the conference with the intentions of finding a mentor, you might end up connecting with someone who will give you career advice you didn’t know you needed.

7. Get Inspired

When you find yourself surrounded by people who started with nothing and are now at peak of their success, you can’t help but get motivated to be a better version of yourself. Founders from around the world will share their success stories and personal struggles with the audience at 021Disrupt which in itself is an experience of a lifetime.

No matter at what stage of life you are at, you will find yourself immersed in an experience which will bring out the entrepreneur in you and inspire you to achieve great things in life. So make sure you buy your ticket before it’s too late!

Written by Asra Rizwan
I profile people and startups contributing to the Pakistani technology entrepreneurial ecosystem. Share a story with me, asra@techjuice.pk Profile