After years of attending technology conferences around the country, Ian Ohora, David Mattox and Rob Devinney began to notice something.
As leaders of Virginia Beach-based Tulkas Security Group, a cybersecurity firm serving government and commercial clients, the pair regularly found themselves traveling to industry events across the country. Along the way, they realized many of the communities hosting those conferences were built around the same assets Hampton Roads already possesses, including military talent, universities, healthcare systems, entrepreneurs, technology companies and research institutions.
That realization led to Beach Tech Summit, a new event coming to Virginia Beach Aug. 7-9 that aims to combine technology, business, networking and family-friendly experiences along the oceanfront.
“We wanted to be a little bit different,” said Ohora. “We wanted to do a Virginia Beach tech summit, but tech in all sorts of tech. Restaurants, robots, video games, drones.”
The event will take place at Neptune Park, the Hilton Garden Inn and other locations along the Virginia Beach oceanfront. Organizers envision a mix of speakers, technology demonstrations, networking opportunities, exhibits, a job fair and a drone show designed to attract both industry professionals and the public.
For Ohora and Mattox, however, the event is about more than a weekend gathering.
It’s also about highlighting the innovation economy that already exists across Hampton Roads.
“We really want to highlight local companies,” Mattox said. “To raise awareness that they exist. To show that you can live in Hampton Roads, finish your career in the Navy in Hampton Roads, and you don’t have to take all of that technical experience and send it down to the Research Triangle, Northern Virginia or Texas.”
That theme emerged repeatedly as the two described their vision for the summit.
Both have attended conferences focused on cybersecurity, defense and emerging technologies. While many of those events are hosted in well-known technology markets, Mattox argues Hampton Roads often overlooks its own strengths.
The summit’s location is intentional.
Rather than placing the event inside a traditional convention center, organizers chose venues near the beach and boardwalk in an effort to create something that feels distinctly Virginia Beach.
“We don’t want it to be stuffy,” Mattox said. “That’s just not Virginia Beach. We want to have fun. We want to be at the beach.”
For Ohora and Mattox, Beach Tech Summit is an effort to showcase what already exists across Hampton Roads.
“When you think of Virginia Beach, you think of the oceanfront,” Mattox said. “You don’t really associate our area with being a hub for technology. Which makes absolutely no sense because we have all the major branches of the military here, NASA here, the largest naval port in the world. We’re doing incredible things here.”
For more detail on Beach Tech Summit, head to the website: https://beachtechsummit.com/
