Given the uncertainty facing a large number of public events around the world due to the progression of COVID-19, we have made the very difficult decision to postpone Collision from taking place until June 2021.
We have been liaising closely with our host city, Toronto, for many months, and have also followed
advice from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Last night, we made the decision in an
abundance of caution given the international nature of the tech industry, and size and scope of the
Collision conference. While disappointed, we determined the time to make this decision was now,
rather than closer to our June in-person event.
Our host, the City of Toronto, has been more than supportive of our decision. We’d also like to
confirm that year two of our time in Toronto will be in 2021.
While it is regrettable to share that Collision will be unable to physically take place this year, in
parallel to making this tough decision, we were prompted to think about ways we can adapt, while
still providing a valuable attendee experience.
Today, we want to make a commitment: Collision will still take place, but online, as Collision from
Home.
For a company that organises conferences, we’re a little different. We’ve built our own software
over many years. Attendees have networked, connected and chatted using our apps, as well as
watched all our talks live online. Some who last minute couldn’t attend in person have experienced
our conferences using this software.
Though the software was originally built to enhance attendees’ offline
experience, we believe we are in a good position to develop it to a point
where we can host Collision from Home.
It won’t be perfect, which is why we would like to make another commitment.
Anyone who has purchased a ticket to Collision 2020 will have their tickets
automatically transferred to Collision 2021, and all ticket holders will be able
to attend Collision from Home, free of charge. Ticket holders are also eligible for a refund instead
of a ticket transfer to the following year in line with our refund policy in our terms and conditions.
We are confident we have all the necessary tools and technology to effectively execute Collision
from Home and will later announce the exact structure of the conference.
Whether it be online in 2020, or back in Toronto June 21 – 24, 2021, we look forward to seeing you
at Collision.
For more details please, read our blog post written by Paddy Cosgrave, founder & CEO of Collision
Conference here.
About Collision
Collision is known by CBC as the “TIFF for tech” and Inc. Magazine coins it the “fastest-growing
tech conference in North America”. Collision 2020 is set to move online for 2020, with Collision
from Home. Collision will return to Toronto offline for the second year from June 21-24 2021 at
the Enercare Centre.
About Web Summit:
Forbes says Web Summit is “the best tech conference on the planet”, Bloomberg calls it “Davos for
geeks”, Politico “the Olympics of tech”, and the Guardian “Glastonbury for geeks”, and in the words
of Inc Magazine “Web Summit is the largest technology conference in the world”.
Whatever Web Summit is, it wouldn’t be possible without an incredible team of over 200
employees based in Dublin, Lisbon, Toronto and Hong Kong; including world class engineers, data
scientists, designers, producers, marketers, salespeople and more. They’ve disrupted an old