May 26, 2016
TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016 made its mark on Brooklyn May 9th-11th, with 2,300 people in attendance and thousands more tuned in via live stream. Over the course of three days, attendees learned, presented and hacked through a whole host of new ideas and technology.
Ahead of the conference, 1,000 developers and engineers had the chance to participate in an all-night Hackathon, with only one minute to present their creations. This 2016 winner was AlexaSite, which allows designers to update websites using only their voice.
A big draw of TechCrunch Disrupt each year are the speakers who explore all elements of technology. This year’s panel and keynote topics ranged from IoT security, AI assistants, transportation tech, food startups and storytelling in VR. Another topic that proved popular was the gender and race inequalities in the tech world.
For emerging startups, the most exciting part of the conference is the Startup Battlefield, a competition where judges choose an emerging company to take home the “Disrupt Cup” and a US$50,000 grand prize.The winner this year was a company called Beam that makes video game streaming a social experience, allowing viewers to watch and interact with people playing games.
TechCrunch’s annual Disrupt events are a fun companion to the site’s ongoing coverage of the technology and engineering industries.