#021Disrupt &; My Favorite Talks from the Awesome Tech Conference

If you are anyway related to the technology industry in Pakistan, you must have heard about the recent conference #021Disrupt that was organized by The Nest I/O. It was a two day conference that fetched more than a dozen outstanding international speakers and investors to Pakistan and hosted more than 650 delegates with included 200+ entrepreneurs and innovators from all over the country. The conference was well planned and it showed in the flawless execution of the program and very insightful talks/presentations by over 60 speakers.

I was there for both days and here is the list of my most favorite talks from the conference. This list is in no particular order and it was a difficult choice because all of the sessions contained great content and were worth attending. Apart from the list below, I loved talks by Jawwad Farid, Rabeel Warraich, Alden Richards and Charles Ludwig.

So here you go!

1: Beyond Startup: How to Make a Dent in the Universe by SamMallikarjunan - Executive Strategist, HubSpot

Nobody could beat the energy and awesomeness of Sam Mallikarjunan, his talk covered the trust aspect of marketing and how customers see and evaluate us. He spoke about finding product/market fit by digging into customer assumptions and the ways we can use the data to disrupt the current market. His talk was very insightful and the slide deck was cool too.

2: How technology is transforming learning by Yasser Bashir - CEO Arbisoft

Yasser spoke about his work experience with edx and the way it has disrupted the learning industry. He presented a framework for understanding the transformative role of technology in learning and he mentioned his daughter's insights and help in the development of this framework. His talk was wonderfully balanced and it gave me few ideas about the passion project for 2018 (more details will come later!). 

3: Media, Tech & Innovation by Shaheryar Popalzai - ICFJ Knight Fellow

Shaheryar spoke about his experience in newsroom automation and shared some wonderful ideas where techies can build great products, including archiving systems, bots and use of AI for creating and dispersing content. Later, I spoke to my class about these ideas and I am hoping to see something useful coming out of our final year projects.

 4: VCs: What we look for by Riyad Abou Jaoudeh - Executive Director ME VenturePartners

Riyad’s talk enlightened the areas where founders can focus and improve their chances of getting a great evaluation. The best part was the explanation of possible deal terms and how they can transform a startup’s business. He also spoke about the importance of scalability for a startup and explained the hockey-stick curve. I made a lot of notes and I am definitely going to talk to my class about them.

5: Enabling Digital Conversations at Scale: 5 Keys to Driving Growth & Engagement via Email by Felipe Milan - Community Development ManagerSendGrid

Felipe’s talk was a delight and an eye opener for people like me who are skeptical of email marketing even though the data says otherwise. He explained the way SendGrid works and their framework is very well thought-out and well executed. He also spoke about their clients and the way email marketing helped them in growing faster. The best part of the talk was about A/B Testing and what should be tested for generating data that can help in taking better decisions for increasing customer conversion.

The only pictures that I took at the conference were of speaker slides, so here is a picture of the #WomenInTechPK gang taken by the photo booth there. 

The two days were productive and full of learning, I usually hate large gatherings and networking but anything for growth!

Did you attend #021Disrupt? If yes, which were your favorite talks? Let’s talk!