Five (more) reasons to come to Disrupt SF next week

Disrupt SF will light up San Francisco on October 2-4, and as usual we’ve designed the show to be unmissable for founders, investors and just about anyone in the global startup scene. In a post two weeks ago, we spelled out five of the best reasons to attend, including the amazing speaker agenda, the perennial favorite Startup Battlefield and the new founder-focused Extra Crunch stage. 

Needless to say, we can think of many more reasons to join the show, and here are a few: 

#1 Diversity (and a far better Disrupt SF for it). TechCrunch is the leader in the tech media world when it comes to delivering diversity in programming. The editors work extra hard to find great investors, founders and technologists who got to Silicon Valley on paths less traveled, to paraphrase the poet. To show our progress, we publish our programming diversity stats. To take just one intriguing example from the upcoming show, consider the winner of Battlefield Africa 2018, M-Scan, a Ugandan startup that developed a highly affordable sonogram for rural healthcare workers helping expectant mothers. They will join us at Disrupt SF. 

#2 Celebrities! Startups are very Silicon Valley, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t crossovers from the big screen or the arena floor or even the “deep state.” This year our lineup includes Will Smith, Ang Lee, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Curry, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Admiral Mike Rogers. TechCrunch’s editors are really looking forward to those sessions, and there’s nothing like being there in person to watch them.

#3 The Disrupt SF Tracks. Every year we designate official tracks for Disrupt SF and focus on recruiting both speakers and exhibiting startups for those categories. We also run a contest that awards the top early-stage startups in each category a free exhibit spot. As usual, we will have hundreds of early-stage startups on the floor, all arranged neatly in tracks. This year they cover most of the major and emerging startup categories, including: 

• Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
• Biotech/Healthtech
• Blockchain
• Fintech
• Mobility
• Privacy/Security
• Retail/E-commerce
• Robotics/IoT/Hardware
• SaaS
• Social Impact & Education

#4 The Moscone Center (our venue in the heart of SF). There’s nothing like the creature comforts of a thoroughly modern convention center. Working bathrooms everywhere! Reliable HVAC. Plush carpet underfoot. Plenty of room to sit down and chat or work. For attendees who knew our pre-2018 Disrupt SF events, that might sound surprising, given the tough conditions at our former venues — but we listened to you. A day at Moscone is far better than a day at the office, and you’ll be engaged with the future even while you keep up with work.

#5 The Hackathon. TechCunch’s legendary hackathon is back, but in a new format, which runs concurrently with the show and finishes with a final round of presentations from the top hacks, selected by a team of hacker judges, on the Extra Crunch stage. In the past, those presentations always took place the weekend before the show, so we’re delighted to make them a part of the regular programming so all show attendees can watch the hack final presentations.

So now’s the time to grab a pass to the show to save some serious money before things kick off next week. Remember, it’s the Innovator, Investor and Founders passes that get access to all the above!