A landmark tech summit, on course to be the first conference in Ireland since March 2020, has been forced to go virtual only after the Stormont Executive yesterday decided to delay the relaxation of Covid restrictions.

EmTech Europe had planned a hybrid approach on 1-2 July with a capped audience of 100 in Titanic Belfast and several hundred logging in online across Europe to hear from innovators behind breakthrough tech solutions to a range of pressing global problems including climate change and Covid-19.

However, fears of the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus sparked an about-turn by the Executive with the target date for a restart of conferencing pushed back to 5 July.

Nevertheless, the EmTech Europe team, which won the bid to bring the conference founded by Boston's MIT Technology Review to Belfast, say they will double down on the virtual summit and go all-out to promote Belfast as a progressive, fast-growing knowledge economy. 

"We had effectively sold out the in-person element of EmTech Europe so we're bitterly disappointed at having to postpone as we really wanted to convey to the world an image of Belfast as a city which was starting its journey of recovery from Covid," said Connla McCann, CEO of Aisling Events which brought the conference to Belfast.

"Despite this setback, in the best spirit of Belfast, we plan to push ahead with our broadcast from a purpose-built stage in Titanic Belfast. Though we won't have an audience in situ, our moderators and local speakers can attend and they will be introducing a who's-who of the most brilliant minds across Europe."

Leading the speakers at EmTech Europe will be the founders of BioNTech, Turkish-German husband-and-wife team Dr Ugur Sahin and Dr Özlem Tureçi, who made the breakthrough in Messenger RNA technology behind the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They will be joined by emerging technology leaders from Denmark, Finland, Spain, Switzerland, Norway, France and Germany. Even tiny Andorra, a landlocked nation-state in the Pyrenees, will be represented. 

Adds Connla: "Losing the in-person element is a setback for sure but it also gives us an opportunity to focus in on the virtual conference and to ensure all those who log on to EmTech Europe see the very best of Belfast as a city in which to live, learn, invest and work. And of course, it should whet the appetite of our virtual delegates to visit Belfast for EmTech 2022 which, fingers crossed, will enjoy a full house in Titanic Belfast."

You can sign up for EmTech Europe online.