The second annual Collision Conference begins today, bringing a flood of tech luminaries, developers, founders and venture capitalists to downtown Las Vegas.
For two days at the World Market Center, attendees will hear from speakers ranging from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh to singer Christina Milian. Representatives from giants like Facebook, PayPal and Google will discuss design, investing, coding, marketing and a host of other tech-centric topics.
Last year, Collision brought 1,500 attendees to Las Vegas. This year, the organization says it expects more than 1,000 startups to exhibit over the next two days. They'll be competing for attention from investors and venture capitalists. Finance is just as much a part of Collision as tech — this afternoon, the NASDAQ closing bell will be rung remotely from the World Market Center.
Though Zappos' Hsieh is certainly Las Vegas' most famous contribution the conference, a number of other local companies are also represented: drone startup SkyWorks will participate in a panel on the future of unmanned aerial technology, Caesars Chief Commercial Officer Tariq Shaukat is scheduled to talk about data in marketing and Banjo CEO Damien Patton is listed as a speaker on a panel called "Location location location."
Collision is the sister event to Dublin, Ireland-based Web Summit, another relatively new conference. Last year's Web Summit drew 20,000 attendees, a feat Summit creator Paddy Cosgrave attributes to “engineering serendipity” — using algorithms to organize a vast interconnected group of people.
And the attendees will form part of the data set Collision uses to craft future conferences. Cosgrave says the venue will be dotted with GoPro digital cameras to record crowd movement. The team's scientists will use that data to improve movement, networking and interactions.
Follow along here for live updates from the conference and check back later for a wrap up of day 1.