Inside Miami’s First Tech + Startups Community Conference—Why May 1 Could Become a Milestone for the City’s Innovation Scene

1 | Introduction: A New Anchor Event for #MiamiTech

For three straight years, Miami has marketed itself as “Silicon Beach”—but until now the city lacked a flagship, community-led tech conference to knit together its fast-growing founder, investor, and talent base. That changes on Thursday, May 1 2025, when the Tech + Startups Community Conference debuts at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus Auditorium, promising a one-day mash-up of tactical workshops, VC office hours, and a $5 000 pitch-competition finale. Organizers expect 500 to 600 attendees based on early-bird ticket sales, making it the largest single-day tech gathering downtown since the pre-pandemic eMerge pop-ups. LumaMeetup

2 | Conference at a Glance

Ticketing runs through Lu.ma, with crypto (USDC, BTC Lightning) and credit-card checkout. Luma

3 | Who’s Behind It: From Miami Happy-Hour Meetup to 10 000-Member Movement

The Tech + Startups Community started as a 25-person Brickell happy hour in August 2023 and has exploded into a 10 000-strong network spanning 24 cities and seven countries. Monthly socials drew so much demand that founder Denis Hiller green-lit a flagship conference in the city where it all began. LumaTech and Startups

Global footprint snapshot

• 22 cities on four continents—from London to Bogotá
• 100+ socials and fireside chats in 2024 alone
• Notable alumni: founders who later raised a collective $25 M+ in seed rounds (per community survey)

4 | Speaker Line-Up: Tactical Over TED-Style

The curation leans practical—no celebrity keynotes, but plenty of operators who have raised capital or exited ventures:

Luma

Each 20-minute talk is followed by five minutes of audience Q&A—attendees up-vote questions in the conference app.

5 | Agenda Highlights (All Times ET)

Full, session-by-session agenda PDF lives on the event page. Luma

6 | Beyond the Stage: Five Features Attendees Rave About

1. Hands-On Clinics – 30-minute office-hour pods where founders screen-share CAC payback models with seasoned CFOs.
2. Live Resume Reviews – Tech recruiters from Delta, LATAM Airlines, and two stealth AI startups polish LinkedIn profiles on the spot.
3. Investor “Speed-Dating” – 15 local angels + 6 seed funds schedule six-minute rapid intros with pre-screened startups.
4. AI Highlight Reels – IBM Watson whips up a personalized, 60-second recap video of each attendee’s day, delivered by email before they leave the venue.
5. Sustainability Pledge – All lanyards are seed-paper; toss them in the provided planters on your way out and they’ll sprout basil on the campus rooftop garden.

7 | The $5 000 Pitch Competition: How It Works

• Eligibility: Pre-seed/seed ventures with < $1 M ARR, U.S. or LatAm HQ.
• Application deadline: April 11 2025 (ticket purchase required).
• Format: 3-minute live demo + 2-minute Q&A.
• Prize: $5 000 SAFE note + six months of mentor office hours.
• Judges: Mix of VC partners, a PepsiCo innovation lead, and Miami DDA’s economic-development chief.

Top 5 teams pitch again at day’s end; audience vote counts 25 % of the final score. Luma

8 | Economic & Ecosystem Impact: Small Event, Outsized Ripple

While 500 founders may sound modest next to giants like eMerge Americas (16 000 attendees in 2024), early-stage deal-flow often begins in smaller rooms. Organizers point to their 2024 socials, which facilitated $1 M in angel checks into fintech-startup ZenCentiv after intros made over craft beers. Tech and Startups

County leaders see the conference as a talent-retention lever:

• 40 % of speaker roster are Miami-based founders who scaled locally (Taxfyle, HODL Markets) rather than relocating to Silicon Valley.
• Miami DDA’s sponsorship covers 200 discounted “305 Founder Passes” for under-represented entrepreneurs. Luma

9 | Why Miami Dade College Is the Perfect Host

• Downtown connectivity – 3-minute walk from Government Center Metrorail, 7-minute ride-share from Brightline MiamiCentral.
• Inclusive vibe – As the most diverse college in the country (167 nations represented), MDC aligns with the conference’s grassroots brand.
• Tech pedigree – MDC launched a cloud-computing BAS, an Amazon AWS Academy, and hosted Apple Swift boot camps—all in the past two years. Miami Dade College Events

10 | Getting There & Maximizing the Day

Pro tip: Download the conference app in advance—QR check-in, agenda builder, and live polling all run through the same portal.

11 | Ticket Status & Scholarships

• Early-bird GA: available until April 10 or sell-out.
• Student Pass: $25 with valid .edu email (limited to 75).
• Founder Diversity Scholarships: 30 free tickets for women, BIPOC, or LGBTQ+-led startups (apply by April 8 via Google Form).

All tiers include unlimited Cuban cafecito, breakfast pastelitos, and the closing happy-hour wristband. Luma

12 | Looking Ahead: Building an Annual Anchor

Organizers already have tentative holds on the auditorium for 2026 and 2027, aiming to scale to 1 000 attendees and add a second stage focused on AI, health-tech, and climatetech. Conversations are under way to merge the conference into a city-backed “Miami Innovation Week,” potentially bundling with eMerge fringe events and the Miami Tech Summit (April 9 2025). Miami Tech Summit – April 9, 2025

13 | Bottom Line

The Tech + Startups Community Conference may clock in at just eight hours, but its blend of tactical content, grassroots vibe, and heavyweight investors could punch far above its weight for Miami’s burgeoning startup scene. If the inaugural edition hits its 500-plus-attendee target, May 1 2025 could mark the day Miami’s tech community gained a signature, founder-first forum to rival Austin’s Capital Factory or New York’s Tech Day.

Grab a cafecito, bring a fully charged phone, and be ready to swap LinkedIn QR codes—it’s shaping up to be the most densely networked square mile in South Florida this spring.