Collaborate, a new innovation conference produced by
Fosterly, a D.C. entrepreneurial community that is nearly 3,700 members strong, kicks off tomorrow night with an
opening party at 1812 North Moore St. in Arlington. The rest of the conference, to be held Friday and Saturday at the Ronald Reagan building on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, is a series of keynote speakers, workshops, roundtable discussions, expos and two pitch events. More than 900 people have registered for the conference as of press time; Adam Zuckerman, Fosterly founder, says a few tickets still remain for those who want to
attend.
Collaborate combines two former events that Fosterly used to produce: Day of Fosterly and GovFest. "We held Day of Fosterly twice and drew about 500 to 600 people each time," Zuckerman says. "We had 1,400 people register for GovFest. And we realized that it wasn't fair [to our community] to produce two major, separate events. So we combined the best of Day of Fosterly and GovFest into Collaborate."
The roster of
speakers at the event is long and deep. Between the keynotes, forums, roundtables and panels, more than 100 people will speak. Katie Harbath, the global politics and outreach manager for Facebook, and Tom Chi, the chief product officer and factory cofounder for Google X, will give keynote addresses on Friday morning and evening, respectively. Megan Smith, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer, will give the closing keynote on Saturday.
The Fosterly team has retained one of the most popular events from Day of Fosterly, the
Dolphin Tank, an antithesis of Shark Tank in which startups give their best two-minute pitch in front of a panel of entrepreneurs and investors to get feedback on their ideas.
The conference is free for all government employees and active military members. Entrepreneurs, technologists and other innovators have to buy a pass to attend; right now, passes are running from $299 to $499 for the event.