After two years of online meetings, the Polish Tech Day conference switches its format to an online event & face-to-face meetings. Hence, in June, we are meeting:
- Online – June 10th, 2022, Friday – Hopin platform,
- In person at the meetings for the Polish and technological community:
- June 14th, 2022, Tuesday – Google Campus, Warsaw,
- June 15th, 2022, Wednesday – Polish Embassy – Hotel de Monaco, Paris,
- June 16th, 2022, Thursday – Eight Moorgate Club, London.
Created in 2015, Polish Tech Day (PTD) is one of the most important technology conferences and the biggest project of the PLUGin Foundation, a non-profit organisation led by Polish technological and innovation diaspora members from all around the world.
The conference aims to connect, inspire and empower the community members of the Polish innovation diaspora to develop innovative tech businesses and make an impact on a global scale. Having welcomed over 100 partners and sponsors and over 3000 participants so far, PTD is organised with passion by a dozen volunteers from 6 different countries, reflecting the diverse nature of the Polonia.
“Since 2020, we have been meeting only virtually. The pandemic has influenced both our perception of the technology’s role in human interactions and our perception of closeness and help. Although we have not had a chance to process the last two years yet, we are standing in front of another challenge – war on the European territory, which is a great tragedy for Poland’s neighbours.
However, we are observing some kind of development of something that the pandemic gave the basis for and about what we talked about at the last year’s Polish Tech Day – the technology development serving the society and the good state of another human being. At this year’s edition, we want to look at the innovations and connecting to the community,” says Kuba Janas, Project Leader of Polish Tech Day.
Polish Tech Day 2022 – Connect to the Community
The whole event, both online and on-site part, will focus on the “connect to the community” topic. The panels prepared for the virtual part (June 10th) will delve into the social, technological and diasporic topics.
What do you know about Ukrainian startups? How is this sector coping during the war? Would you like to help but do not know how? During The “Business and organisations supporting Ukraine – the tech perspective” panel, PLUGin Foundation, together with Google For Startups and Ukrainian Tech Collective, will look at the Ukrainian startup ecosystem and talk about its current struggles by giving the platform to those who are facing those issues. In the next session, Emigration Museum in Gdynia (Poland) will discuss the details of its latest project, “Femigracja”, about highly qualified Polish female emigrants, their life and work situation, and the reasons and conditioning for their leave.
Whilst Marcin Kosciski (PLUGin Foundation; Associate Partner at Foster + Partners) will talk to Adrian Krężlik (Dosta Tec; School of Form) about “DesignTech in Architecture”. How can technological innovation transform the built industry and architectural design to deliver buildings and spaces of more sustainable and liveable habitats for all of us? Afterwards, the “Tech and Data in Sports” will look at the things that are not that obvious – how databases shape our reality and how our favourite sports games go. Paweł Osterreicher (ReSpo.Vision), Adam Szummer (Analityk.edu.pl) and Mateusz Kusznierewicz (sailor, Olympic medalist and businessman) will explain the role of data in sports and how to use them to win a championship.
The conference will be crowned by the API Awards Gala for the Ambassadors of Polish Innovation, which aims to recognise and appreciate extraordinary individuals who have developed and strongly contributed to promoting Polish innovations on the international scene. The last year’s API winners include Rafał Brzoska (InPost), Agata Zborowska (Conception X) and Rafał Modrzewski (ICEYE). Firstly, the nominees are chosen by the PLUGin Foundation together with the Award partners (Kulczyk Incredibles and Polonium Foundation). Secondly, the last year’s winners are choosing the final laureates in three categories – API Rising Star, API Scientific Research and API Business Leader (the last two are being introduced this year for the first time). The unique virtual NFT statuettes for the API 2022 winners are created by Agnieszka Pilat, an artist-resident at the Boston Dynamics. The winners will be announced at the online conference on June 10th.
Networking meetings
A new form of this year’s Polish Tech Day is based on the networking meetings organised in three European cities, during which the participants are the most important element. Meeting new people and being inspired by conversations with experienced professionals is the key to our conference. The event in Warsaw (June 14th), co-organised with Google and taking place on Google Campus, in Paris (June 15th), where with the Polish Embassy we invite you to Hotel de Monaco, and in London (June 16th) are for reestablishing personal contact with the community. We invite everyone interested in meeting fascinating, like-minded people, both from the Polish innovation diaspora and from the tech community, as well as everyone to whom our values are close.
Google For Startups is the strategic partner of the event. Additionally, other partners include Polish Embassy in Paris, Polish Investment and Trade Agency, Polish City Club, Wolves Summit, CIC Warsaw, Polish Business Link, and MIT Enterprise Forum CEE.
Participation in Polish Tech Day, both in the online conference and networking events, is free of charge (although in the case of face-to-face meetings, those interested must register as the number of places is limited). The event will take place in English.
