Synapse Summit 2021 puts the spotlight on Florida innovators

The Florida tech scene is just starting to heat up and while many are looking towards Miami and other parts of South Florida, today I'm bringing the spotlight to a city a bit further north: Tampa. This month, March 8-11, Synapse, a nonprofit that connects entrepreneurs, investors, and other stakeholders to accelerate success in Florida’s thriving economies, is hosting its Summit.

Last year's Summit featured Spanx founder Sara Blakely, Bellini Capital Managing Partner Arnie Bellini (formerly CEO of ConnectWise), and Chairman of the Board Global Entrepreneurship Network and formerly of Priceline.com Jeff Hoffman. This year, the conference has Mayor (of Miami) Francis Suarez, Star of ABC's Shark Tank Daymond John, President of All Things Diverse Tammy Hodo, and Hall of Fame footballer player's Jerry Rice and Steve Young. You can see a full list of the speakers here.

There's only one major difference this year, and you probably already guessed it, it's all virtual this year! Thanks COVID! Despite the fact it's all virtual this year, the Synapse team has been extremely hard at work to make it an incredible experience for everyone. The Synapse team has partnered up with Brella, an event app that has really exploded during the past year to help provide attendee's with the best possible virtual experience.

Why should you attend the Synapse Summit?

I spoke to Synapse CEO, Brian Kornfeld late last week and as you would expect, he's really excited about next week's event, "It is going to be so different this year not being in person, but the summit has always been the place to see and be seen. We wanted to recreate that in the virtual world."

The shift from the physical world to the virtual one brought in some challenges though, "We had a successful framework for the last three years, and this year we had to go back to the drawing board," Brain told me during our conversation. Despite the challenges though, Brian and his team used the opportunity to learn and grow.

For first time attendees Brian recommends attending at least three (3) sessions. The agenda is setup already and set for you to go. He also suggests going with at least the GA+ ticket route to take full advantage of the networking. The meetings are only 15 minutes so don't be shy!

I'd also personally recommend you visit their Instagram to see more information about the speaker line up. Aside from they keynote speakers, I'm looking forward to hearing from Kim Rivers, CEO at Trulieve (Cannabis company), Dave Payne, Managing Director at TechStars, and Lakshmi Shenoy, CEO at Embarc Collective.

Will you be attending? If so, please connect with me – I'd love to hear from you! Of course, I plan to attend several of the talks and will be reporting back with things I learn and any new companies I meet.