Grow Your San Diego Tech Company & Career

2-Night In-Person Event
April 13 – April 14, 2022
Students $10 | General Admission $35

Ticket Sponsorship Form

(If you are experiencing financial hardship and are interested in participating please fill out the form above to request a sponsored ticket)

FEATURED SPEAKERS

Ryan Kuder

Ryan Kuder

Managing Director, Techstars Anywhere at Techstars

      Alex Waters

      Alex Waters

      Director of Economic Development and Innovation, Jacobs Center

          Dominique McGill

          CEO and Head of People Operations, The HR Bar

              Neal Bloom

              Neal Bloom

              Managing Partner, Interlock Capital

                  Julius Alejandro

                  Julius Alejandro

                  Founder & Project Director, Village Up San Diego

                      Lauren Rowley

                      Lauren A. Rowley

                      Chief Investment Officer, Stella

                          Oralia Alvarez

                          Oralia Alvarez

                          Director of Business Development, Mission Driven Finance

                              Kim Davis King

                              Partner, Launch Factory

                                  Chris Staszak

                                  Chris Staszak

                                  Chief Technology Officer, LogicBoost Labs

                                      Caitlin Wege

                                      Managing Partner, MooDoos Investments

                                          2-Night In-Person Conference of Fun, Interactive, and Educational Events

                                          We’re bringing together our region’s next-generation founders and tech workforce with the local innovation ecosystem!

                                          Who should attend?

                                          • College students
                                          • First-time founders
                                          • Job seekers for San Diego startups
                                          • Recruiters and reps from established startups and tech companies

                                          This once-a-year conference will connect startup/tech industry members, students, first-time entrepreneurs, and aspiring job seekers. 

                                          You’ll have an opportunity to connect with San Diego startups hiring now, get feedback on your resume, get tips on upleveling in-demand skills, and network with the San Diego startup and business scene.

                                          We’ve lined up an incredible 2-nights of opportunities to help you launch or grow your startup, connect with a mentor, break into the tech industry, or find your next big idea.

                                          Schedule at a Glance

                                          Night 1: Talent Incubation Night – Find An Opportunity: Training, workshops, and mentorship that will take your skills to the next level. Learn how to create a career path that is tailor-made to you.

                                          Date: Wednesday, April 13th

                                          Location: UC San Diego Park & Market, 1100 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101

                                          Time: 3:00 – 9:00 pm

                                          Night 2: Startup Night – Create An Opportunity: Learn what it takes to go from an idea to a business and beyond, witness the toughest pitch competition on earth and hear war stories from hardened veterans.

                                          Date: Thursday, April 14th

                                          Location: Design & Innovation Building, San Diego, CA 92093

                                          Time: 3:00 – 9:00 pm

                                              You’ll have access to…

                                              Convergence Job Matching Portal

                                              Get on the radar of San Diego companies looking to hire top talent. If you are a student in search of an internship, a recent grad, or if you are changing careers, you’ll want to sign up & submit your information below! We’ll help connect you with local startups and hiring tech companies. Interested companies will reach out to you directly if you are a match for their role(s)! 

                                              Intercollegiate Pitch Competition & Founders Tournament

                                              Sixteen hand-selected startups from our local college partners will compete in the toughest inter-college pitch competition around! After three separate battle rounds, our all-star judging panel will crown the champ for ultimate bragging rights. Watch what makes a great pitch, see the next generation of talent, and cheer for your favorite. Check out the schedule below for more details on the tournament structure and eligibility. Submit the interest form to pitch! We will consider high school student submissions.  

                                              Workshops & Office Hours with Industry Experts

                                              Uplevel your skills and connect with industry experts. We’ll host workshops and office hours to cover the fundamental skills needed to thrive in the startup scene. Come learn from the best!

                                              Deep Dive to Level Up: Panel Discussions 

                                              What does it take to land your startup dream job? Learn more about how companies hire, what they look for, and how to increase your chances of landing a job in 2022 and beyond. We’re bringing in industry experts to chat about career paths in:

                                              • Engineering/Product
                                              • Marketing
                                              • Sales & Customer Success

                                              We’ll also talk about what to do when things don’t go according to plan. Behind every success are years of hard lessons learned. We’ll chat about real-life struggles that paved the way for a resilient future.

                                              Plus! Hands-On Workshops and Networking:

                                              • Improve your LinkedIn profile
                                              • Group mock job interviews
                                              • Networking 
                                              • Startup Expo

                                              SCHEDULE

                                              Location: Executive Conf 213/14

                                              Time: 3:00 – 5:30 PM

                                              Speaker: Dominique McGill, CEO, The HR Bar

                                              Getting a job offer is just one piece of the career search puzzle. From visualizing the perfect role and what the day-to-day looks like, to find your criteria match, and then telling the story of how previous wins and growth gifts have specifically prepared you as the “perfect candidate” for a specific role at a specific moment in time. To leverage the latest tech tools, productivity hacks, and inside insight from the people behind the scenes–recruiters–searching for talent like you. We’ll reverse engineer and break down the recruiting process to give you a step-by-step guide on how to build a customized roadmap to help land your dream job in 40 days or less.

                                              Bring your laptops, existing resume(s), previous cover letters, LinkedIn profile, etc. It’s ok if these are in progress or you’re just getting started. This will be a hands-on session, designed so you can walk away with tangible progress to get you one step closer to landing your dream role. We’ll cover how to navigate and use job boards like LinkedIn, BuiltIn, community slack groups, etc. to your advantage, talk about search tools like Hunter.io and Mixmax, profile/resume/cover letter optimization to get you the recruiter screen and so much more!

                                              Location: Computer Lab 321

                                              Time: 5:45 – 6:15 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              Location: Classroom 318/19

                                              Time: 5:45 – 6:15 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              Location: Small Conf Room 211/212

                                              Time: 5:45 – 6:15 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              Location: Classroom 320

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM

                                              Location: Union 331

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Hallway

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              • Kandji team members
                                              • Julius Alejandro, Founder & Project Director, Village Up San Diego

                                              Location: Computer Lab 321

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM

                                              Location: Classroom 318/19

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM

                                              Location: Small Conf Room 211/212

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:45 PM

                                              Location: Executive Conference 213/14

                                              Time: 6:45 – 7:00 PM

                                              Location: Executive Conf 213/14

                                              Time: 7:00 – 8:00 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              • Kyle Barbato, Founder at Mavericks Recruiting on Demand. Previously Head of Talent Acquisition at Venmo & Braintree. – Working with clients like Color, FedEx, GoFundMe, SeatGeek, and more!
                                              • Rob Anderson, Head of Talent, Color
                                              • Gabby Povoli, Senior Technical Recruiter, GoFundMe
                                              Location: 2nd Floor Lobby
                                              Time: 8:00 – 9:00 PM
                                              We’ve partnered with UC San Diego, San Diego State University, Cal State University San Marcos, University of San Diego, Point Loma Nazarene University, Miramar College, & Mira Costa College to bridge and connect the Region’s next-generation workforce with the San Diego startup and tech ecosystem. Join Convergence attendees, which include aspiring talent, Startup San Diego partners, local active recruiters, and hiring local tech companies for an evening of connecting.

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Event Space

                                              Time: 2:30 – 3:00 PM

                                              Speaker: Alex Waters, Director of Economic Development & Innovation, Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation

                                              Office hours room: 4th Floor Utopia

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Event Space

                                              Time: 3:00 – 3:30 PM

                                              Speaker: Ryan Kuder, Managing Director, Techstars Anywhere at Techstars

                                              Office hours room: 4th Floor Meeting Room 407

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Event Space

                                              Time: 3:30 – 4:00 PM

                                              Speaker: Mike Roberts, President & CEO, Creating Coding Careers

                                              Office hours room: 4th Floor Open Landing A

                                              Description: An intro to cloud including the state of cloud, an overview, lingo, & demo

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Event Space

                                              Time: 4:00 – 4:30 PM

                                              Speaker: Justin Renfro, Senior Director of Growth, WeFunder

                                              Office hours room: 4th Floor Open Landing B

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Event Space

                                              Time: 4:30 – 5:00 PM

                                              Speaker:

                                              Office hours room: 4th Floor Meeting Room 407

                                              Location: The Basement

                                              Time: 6:15 – 6:30 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              Sixteen hand-selected startups from our educational partners will compete in the toughest inter-college pitch competition! The all-star industry & investor judging panel will provide critical feedback and ultimately crown the champ for ultimate bragging rights. Students will be exposed to what makes a great pitch, see the Region’s next generation of entrepreneurial talent, and support their peers.  This is your opportunity to get in front of active local investors and represent your college to the larger ecosystem. We encourage you to submit the interest form to pitch live! 

                                              Eligibility Criteria:

                                              •  Active Student
                                              • Local College Program/Support Affiliation
                                              • High School Applicants are Welcome
                                              • Pre-seed funding

                                              Competition & Tournament Structure:

                                              • Round #1 “Pre-Seed Round” – 8 bouts! Founders will be randomly paired for 8 bouts and have 30 seconds each to give the elevator pitch on their startups. No materials are allowed in this round. Just 30 seconds of the founder speaking. The top 8 go through to Seed Round.
                                              • Round #2 “Seed Round” – 4 bouts! Founders will be randomly paired for 4 bouts and have 2 minutes each to pitch their startups. In this round, the founders should use a short slide deck for their 2-minute presentation. Startups going over the 2 minutes will get the gong from the judges. The top 4 as decided by the judges will go through to the Series A Round.
                                              • Final Round “Series A Round” – This is a 3 part battle–Each founder will complete all three segments outlined below. A fun and lighthearted interaction with the judges, but the stakes are high.
                                                • Part 1: It’s a secret!
                                                • Part 2: Rapid fire questions from judges for 5 mins.
                                                • Part 3: The mic drop. Give us at most 5 words to remember you by.

                                              Location: 2nd Floor Event Space

                                              Time: 6:45 – 7:45 PM

                                              Speakers:

                                              Note:
                                              Events and times are subject to change, please check back often.

                                              Convergence FAQ

                                              UCSD Park & Market (1100 Market St, San Diego, CA 92101) is at the heart of Downtown San Diego, with that said there are several paid parking options nearby the venue. Check out this link to see nearby paid parking locations. We highly encourage attendees to come to the venue via public transportation (MTS), or rideshare (Lyft or Uber). The MTS trolley blue line connects attendees all the way from UCSD and all the way from the south and drops them off in front of the UCSD Park & Market building.

                                              Here are quick links for MTS trolley directions:

                                              The UCSD Design & Innovation Building located on the UCSD campus can be conveniently accessed by the MTS Blue line. If you plan to drive to the location here are a couple of parking recommendations:

                                              1. The closest Paid parking lot is at UCSD P510, arrive early at this location to assure parking. You can also park at the Gilman Parking Structure which is also a short walk to the UCSD Design & Innovation building. You can pay for your parking on the Park Mobile App. Click here to view the map to get from these parking structures to the event venue. 
                                              2. For FREE parking, we encourage people to park in the 5-story free parking garage at La Jolla Village Square, 8657 Villa La Jolla Dr. You can catch the MTS blue line trolley at Noble Drive Station and 2 stops up land in front of the Design & Innovation building off UCSD Central Campus station.

                                              Here are quick links to get to the venue using public transportation:

                                              Yes, both nights will be catered with food and snacks. The food is covered by your ticket.

                                              We will have volunteers and signs to conveniently lead you to the different workshop rooms and office hours.

                                              No, you may plug into any session you want at the designated time frame, please refer to the schedule.

                                              No, you’re not required to come for all 2-nights and you can see the schedule and find which nights or sessions would be best for you.

                                              Since Convergence is in-person this year we encourage attendees to come to their desired session. We will not have recordings available, but you are welcome to add the speaker on LinkedIn and contact them for more information.

                                              Your ticket price will go towards Startup San Diego’s operations and programs with a mission to create a more inclusive and innovative startup ecosystem.

                                              Yes, please let us know at least 24 hours in advance by emailing [email protected] Include your name, email, and the name and email of the individual(s) you would like to gift the tickets to.

                                              Please contact us at [email protected] and a member of our team will follow up with you within the next 24-hours.