Future Fest let’s not repeat that in the future
Marred by political uncertainty and a crushing heatwave, a lot can be learned from the event By Taimoor Hassan
Y
ou know an event went down like a lead balloon when the attendees of the event are scrambling in scorching heat to find water to hydrate themselves. Even the president of Pakistan’s entourage, said one attendee at the recent Future Fest, came searching for water at their stall, for the president. This precisely sums up what turned up at what was the largest tech conference/expo in Pakistan. The event organised on May 11-13 in Islamabad’s Fatima Jinnah Park in F-9 had been a subject of Tech Twitter last week. The event featured a VIP dinner, an address from the president and high-ranking government officials, panel discussions, food and technology festival and performances by leading artists. The event, supposed to be the biggest of its kind, was initially scheduled to be organised
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in the month of March and had in its speaker lineup the then prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. The event schedule in March was disrupted after the future of the PTI government became uncertain and political agitation in Islamabad where the event was going to be held made the Future Fest rethink the dates for the event. The event was rescheduled for May 11-13. The speaker lineup was also disrupted. Besides PTI government officials, which included prime minister Imran Khan and IT minister not attending the event anymore, the new dates of Future Fest coincided with the Organization of Pakistani Entrepreneurs (OPEN) Silicon Valley’s Invest in Pakistan conference in the US, and a number of investors chose to attend the OPEN event in the US instead of Future Fest. The initial Future Fest speaker lineup included the VC firm i2i founders Misbah Naqvi and Kalsoom Lakhani, who chose to
attend OPEN’s Invest in Pakistan conference. Aatif Awan, founder of Indus Valley Capital, who was one of the speakers, could not attend Future Fest in Pakistan, Ali Mukhtar could not attend, and international VC firm Antler partner Teddy Himler could not attend either. At the venue, Fatima Jinnah Park in F9, Future Fest was expecting to host 30,000 participants not only from the startup ecosystem but also the general public who would attend microfests like freelance fest, food and entertainment fests. To accommodate such a large gathering, it had to be a space like the Fatima Jinnah Park where seven marquees were set up to give space to exhibitors, hold conferences and panel discussions. The turn of events was not favourable to Future Fest. It was a three-day event in May which means the threat of severe heat waves should have been accounted for and planned for. The worst actually happened and it was unfortunate for the Future Fest team that the heatwave was followed on by stormy weather
