ATLANTA — It's no secret that Atlanta's tech community is growing.
From 2016 to 2021, Atlanta-based investment firm Valor Ventures told Tech Crunch venture capital investments surged to $2.1 billion. Now going on its third year, the conference Render ATL is bringing together tech founders, engineers, developers, VC’s and others back to Atlanta, keeping in line with trends.
Render ATL founder and CEO Justin Samuels hopes the conference will help bridge the divide between Black culture and Silicon Valley culture. Samuels, a Senior Software Engineer and Tech Lead at Mail Chimp, said the conference features a variety of workshops, panels and networking opportunities for those at a variety of different levels and paths of their tech journeys.
“We created a tech conference where anybody from entry to senior [level] can come, learn new topics, new ideas and bring that home,” Samuels said.
The more than 80 speakers at the convention paint a picture of Atlanta’s diverse group of talent and growing number of tech companies. Speakers from the convention represent Atlanta-based talent at companies like Google, Spotify, Slack, Microsoft, Netflix and Amazon among others.
Creating a space for more opportunity is a major theme for this convention. Samuels said people of color looking to grow in the tech space have the opportunity to do that here.
“I am seeing more and more people, particularly Black people who are wanting to get into tech. They are asking, 'where should I begin, what type of resources should I use, or who do I even talk to,'" Samuels said.
Render ATL’s third installment brings with it the inaugural Atlanta Tech Week, which is a week long full of activations and experiences with tech partners across the metro Atlanta area.
Render ATL takes place from May 31 to June 2 at the AmericasMart Convention Center.