Sydney, 04 September 2017: The NSW Government will strengthen Sydney’s place as Australia’s startup capital by backing Australia’s largest startup conference, StartCon 2017, to be held in Sydney from 1-2 December.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Regional NSW, Small Business and Skills John Barilaro said the NSW Government-supported Jobs for NSW will be a leading sponsor of the conference to provide further growth opportunities for the State’s thriving startup sector on top of its $35 million investment in the Sydney Startup Hub.
“StartCon is Australia’s biggest startup conference and this sponsorship is an investment in building our State’s startup culture and promoting our best startup talent to a wide international audience,” Mr Barilaro said.
“StartCon will shine a light on Sydney by attracting some of the world’s biggest technology names among 4,000 attendees, 350 investors and 60 speakers.
“As well as the nation’s largest startup growth conference, it will feature the largest startup pitch competition which last year saw over 85 startup founders present to seasoned investors including Shark Tank’s Steve Baxter.
“More than $120,000 in prizes were given out in 2016 and the winning startup went on to represent Australia at the Global Startup World Cup in San Francisco.
“Startup Alley at StartCon will be a perfect launch pad to showcase our State’s emerging and high-growth startups and its buzzing exhibition floor will also feature big technology players like Microsoft, Amazon AWS, Salesforce, and IBM.”
Head of StartCon Cheryl Mack said they are incredibly lucky to have a major government partner that shares our passion and commitment to the local startup scene.
“Jobs for NSW has a rich background in supporting the ecosystem and we cannot wait to work together in the coming months to make 2017 the valuable experience for our record breaking 4,000 attendees expected to attend.
“Together we have the power to transform Australia’s tech scene into a thriving and sustainable industry, creating countless jobs for future generations” according to StartCon’s Cheryl Mack.
Mr Barilaro said NSW is Australia’s leader in startup activity with 41% of startup founders (Source: 2017 Startup Muster report).
“Jobs for NSW has supported more than 100 startups through its grants and loans to develop their products and businesses and accelerate their market adoption.”
About StartCon
StartCon (formerly SydStart) is the largest Australian startup and growth conference, expo and entrepreneur community, established in 2009. The StartCon community has been supported by Freelancer.com since 2011. Around 5,000 tech startup professionals, investors and ecosystem participants have already experienced StartCon events. Andrew Chen from Uber and NASA’s Director of Advanced Explorations Systems, Jason Crusan, headlined the event in 2016.
The StartCon conference, held November 26 & 27th in 2016 at Royal Randwick Racecourse, attracted over 3,000 attendees. The conference was designed to enrich Australia’s technology and entrepreneurship sector by providing a forum for entrepreneurs and startups to learn from leading technology founders.
In 2017, StartCon continues to host monthly high quality events regularly at the Freelancer.com offices in Sydney CBD. For further details see www.startcon.com. Secure your ticket now!
For more information, please contact:
Liam Fitzpatrick
Communications Manager
+61 411 591 222
liam@startcon.com
