Spaces plays host to Latin America’s tech leading lights.

Thousands of the leading lights from the technology sector descended on Spaces Berrini in Sao Paulo recently for one of the most important events in the industry’s international calendar.

Big, bigger, brazil

Sao Paulo Tech Week is the biggest such gathering of its kind in Latin America, and last year’s edition had more than 750 events taking place across the city. Spaces Berrini was the central hub for the three-day affair, making it effectively the epicentre for what was yet another tremendously successful celebration of innovation in the region.

With its range of meeting rooms, the location’s spacious surroundings are ideally suited to host high-profile events, with a diverse audience of entrepreneurs, government officials, tech start-ups and legal experts all taking part. We welcomed talks, seminars, lectures and discussions focussing on some of the latest developments in innovation and entrepreneurship.

As well as the chance to network and learn from experts in the field, there was also the opportunity to experience some of the latest tech, including drones and robots.

Discussing the future

“This event is one of the most important for innovation and technology in Latin America,” says Patricia Moraes, Regional Marketing Coordinator. One of the highlights for her was a discussion about women in technology: “we welcomed some of the greatest names in the market, presidents and directors, discussing the future of women and more,” she states.

She says another highlight was a special gathering for some of the region’s industry leaders: “One of the best bits was to provide an amazing time for them to interact with each other over dinner,” she adds. “That special time brought up important discussions regarding the future of our city.”

It’s no surprise that South America’s largest city should be the host for such an event, with a thriving start-up ecosystem, a population of nearly 15 million, and half of the country’s billionaires accounting for 18% of Brazil’s GDP.

The real innovation hub

Often referred to as the country’s “innovation powerhouse”, the city is the home of over 60% of the country’s investments, with coworking in Berrini seeing a massive uptake in recent years. This wasn’t the first involvement Moraes has had with the event (having worked on it before she even joined Spaces), and which she describes as a life-changing experience: “That’s why I take part as a sponsor,” she says. “I wanted people to have the same experience that I had, with the opportunity to connect with the most important professionals in the market.”

Describing Spaces’ involvement at Sao Paulo Tech Week as “three intense days of content and knowledge”, she praised her Spaces colleagues for all their hard work in making it such a huge success. All the team members were involved and participated in the lectures too, helping to support participants throughout the whole three days. “In spite of that hard work, it was worth it seeing all the results,” she says. “Many people are thanking us for the opportunity because they had the chance to access relevant and meaningful content for free.”

Spaces’ mission is to combine flexible working with community networking events, with the Berrini site offering a wide range of perks to support the local community of professionals. By hosting such a prestigious event, it was also a golden opportunity for some of the location’s tenants to mingle and chat with technology trailblazers from across the continent and beyond.

“We could see our clients interacting a lot with all the attendees and participants of the lectures,” Moraes adds. And looking to the future, she feels the event will open doors for start-ups and will have already generated more networking opportunities between participants and the Spaces community.

For more information about Spaces and the Sao Paulo Tech Week, click here.