The Ascent Conference is coming back to New York City

Published on August 21, 2019

One of the biggest tech conferences is making its way back to New York City. The Ascent Conference brings together some well-known names in the tech industry to connect with and learn from one another. 

This year’s event plans to be the biggest one yet. Last year, the conference brought in over 700 investors last year. This year, it plans on bringing in over 1,000 with 3,000 attendees overall, which is no surprise considering the kind of big names the conference has already dropped. The speakers this year include: Jager McConnell, the CEO of Crunchbase, Henry Blodget, the co-founder and CEO of Business Insider, and Deirdre Bigley, the CMO of Bloomberg.

Grit Daily Executive Editor, Jordan French, will be on stage for fireside chats, main stage, with McConnell and Blodget — so be sure to check those out, too.

What You Can Expect

The Ascent Conference is shaped around four verticals:

  1. Startup grad school,
  2. Venture capitalists/investments,
  3. Growth and marketing, and
  4. SaaSummit (Software as a Service Summit)

Each vertical is designed to provide attendees with a focused view on a certain aspect of the tech industry to help them get ahead.

The first vertical, ‘startup grad school,’ for example, is geared towards small business owners and giving them the tools and advice necessary to get ahead, while the SaaSummit was brought to life after the Ascent team noticed that this was the largest demographic at last year’s conference, deciding to dedicate part of the event to this kind of content. 

Networking with Purpose

But that’s not all the conference is focusing on. Founders in tech are a huge part of the industry and the Ascent team is making sure they are able to network with others. The “startup grad school” portion of the conference is where founders can learn and make those kinds of connections. There’s even a certain ticket to the conference that’s exclusive to startup founders. The conference isn’t giving a list of attendees, there is a blind registrant list from last year in case you’re curious. 

To help founders even more, the conference hosts a number of events. Round-table discussions, talks, workshops and more take place throughout the two days. Founders can even apply to pitch their small businesses in front of an audience of investors.

And of course, what everyone loves after a long-day of presentations, keynotes, and meetings are the after-parties and similar networking events, occurring in Midtown Manhattan. This could be a great opportunity for those looking to get their foot in the door and meet the right people. 

Navigating Your Way to Ascent

This year, the Ascent Conference will be held at The Sheraton Hotel in Times Square on October 7 and 8. Tickets are still available but the least expensive, Expo Pass, has already sold out.

But have no fear, as there are still other tickets available, such as the Founders Pass. However, if you’re looking for the most incentives and bang for your buck, the VIP pass is what you should focus your attention towards.

The VIP pass the most incentives including priority access to conference events, meetings and phone support. But each pass comes with free coffee. 

With such a large event with so much going on, it can be easy to get lost in the motions. But even the location of the conference could be reason enough to make the trip.

New York City houses a huge portion of the tech industry. In fact, almost ten percent of Fortune 500 companies are based here. 

So, what are you waiting for, get there.

Kori Williams is a Staff Writer at Grit Daily. Based in New York, she covers events, social-media news, apps, and New York brands. She loves grammar and aims to use her voice to help others.

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