Skyscanner to host tech conference for charity

Flight search specialist Skyscanner will today host a conference in Edinburgh in aid of Scottish charity Children 1st.

Chris van der Kuyl will be speaking at the Skyscanner conference

The event, to be held at the city’s John McIntyre Conference Centre from noon, will feature speakers including Chris van der Kuyl – chairman of Entrepreneurial Scotland and Minecraft developer 4J Studios – and Calum Paterson, managing partner of venture capital investor Scottish Equity Partners.

Skyscanner’s marketing and tech (SMarT) conference, which takes the theme “How the tech location Europe can compete against Silicon Valley”, will bring together industry influencers from the internet sector to discuss the increasing success of the European technology industry.

A spokesman said: “Our aim is to provide an insightful and beneficial experience to all of them, get them in touch with influencers and opinion leaders in the industry but at the same time doing this all for good and support Children 1st.”

Other speakers at the SMarT will include Scott Friesen, industry manager for travel at Google, John Bernard, global marketing director of Firefox OS and Harald Burchardt, chief operating officer at PureLiFi, the Edinburgh spin-out that uses beams of light to transmit data.

Rebecca Heaney, one of the team involved in the creation of digital skills academy CodeClan, will act as the event’s host and moderator.