How Do Women Succeed in Tech - Tips From Top Female Founders

1.World Toilet Summit

Despite the humorous name, The World Toilet Summit’s aim is to figure out solutions for the world’s ever growing sanitation crisis, rather than to exhibit some of world’s finest toilets! It is a unique global event established by the World Toilet Organization to bring together various sanitation stakeholders under one roof to connect and collaborate on innovative inventions, projects and products in the sanitation sector.

2. Extreme Jacuzzi Summit

A self-confessed group of extreme jacuzzi fanatics called ‘jaccuzzi.ch’ organize an annual jacuzzi gathering up in the Swiss Mountains. All participants must either cross-country ski or hike to the secret location with all their camping gear and then everyone helps out in constructing the giant jacuzzi, with water coming from natural underground hot springs! This is definitely one of the most extreme gatherings of people in the world.

3. International Skydiver Meeting

More of a mass gatheirng of highly skilled and slightly crazy skydivers than an official convention, Internatioal Skydiver Meetings bring together the World’s top skydivers in an attempt to break world records. While the largest skydiving formation World Record was broken by almost 180 skydivers outside of Chicago in 2012, many more attempts have taken place in the mean time.

4. Harry Potter Convention

The official Harry Potter Conference has far more serious themes running though it than most Harry Potter gatherings. This academic conference explores the themes in J.K. Rowling’s literature, with lecture topics ranging from ‘Glad of Your Absence: Or, Why No One Writes About Ron’ to ‘Harry Potter and the Meaning of Life’. This annual gethering tales place at Chesnut Hill College in Philadelphia and runs at the same time as their Harry Potter Festival, which aims to be a little less serious and includes a Harry Potter Themed Pub Crawl!

5. International Slackline Meeting

This could be one of the most extreme and dangerous meetings to take place, but also one of the most exciting. The International Slackline Meeting involves attendees spending most of their time strung up on tightropes stretched across the Italian Alps in Monte Piana. Besides the fact that the slackers spend a good part of their days on slacklines suspended hundreds of feet above the Italian dolomite Alps, the meeting also includes musical jam sessions, drinking and a Yoga workshop.

6. Red Head Convention

The Irish Red Head convention is a whacky gathering of red heads in a small town in Co. Cork in Southern Ireland. The event is open to Irish and international redhead visitors and admirers, and includes a range of prizes and competitions such as ‘King of the Red Heads’, ‘Most Freckles per qruare inch’, ‘Curliest Red Hair’ and of course the annual carrot tossing competition!

7. The Official Star Trek Convention

Those new Star Trek movies directed by J.J. Abrams are hot. You don’t need to be a series fan to appreciate them – they’re bringing ST back to the masses. And like the movies, you don’t need to be a hardcore pointy-eared, V-handed geek to enjoy yourself at the official Star Trek Convention. Over 70 Star Trek celebrities beam down to share their experiences and even perform. Yup, that’s right. Several ST celebs have another career on Broadway and beyond, and share their stage talents with Star Trek fans. Get lost in an enormous vendor room. And even be a part of a World-Record attempt at the largest meeting of costume-clad Star Trek fans.

8. Comic Con

Comic Con is dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, comics and related popular artforms, primarily through events that celebrate the historic and ongoing contribution of comics to art and culture. Comic-Con began in 1970 when a group of comics, movie, and science fiction fans banded together to put on the first comic book convention in southern California. With attendance topping 130,000 in recent years — in a convention center facility that has maxed out in space — the event has grown to include satellite locations, including local hotels and outdoor parks.

9. Anthrocon Furry Convention

FurConvention Fur Con is a furry convention where member of the furry fandom – people who are interested in the concept of fictional non-human characters with human characteristics gather in one place. These meetings provide a place for fans to meet, exchange ideas, transact business and engage in entertainment and recreation centered on this concept. Originating in California, USA during the mid-1980s, there are now over 40 annual furry conventions worldwide, mostly in North America and Europe. The largest furry convention is Anthrocon which is held each year in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

10. The Annual Monkey Buffet

Okay, so this is more of a meeting for monkeys than humans, but the event itself attracts locals and tourists from all over Thailand. The annual Monkey Buffet involves giving fruits and vegetables to the local monkey population in Lopburi province north of Bangkok, in order to thank them for attracting tourists to this poor region. Up to 2,000 monkeys gather for this annual, extremely bizarre, event.

11. The Redneck Games

Red Neck Games

The Redneck Games are held in East Dublin, Georgia each year and started as a result of the American medias reaction to the news that Atlanta had won the bid to host the 1996 Olympic Games by saying the event would be organised by ‘a group of rednecks’. To begin with it was created to help children’s needs and around 5000 people turned out for the first Redneck Summer Games – over the twice the population of East Dublin at the time. The wacky event includes competitions such as toilet seat horseshoes, bobbing for pig trotters and mud pit belly flops!

12. International UFO Congress Convention

UFO Convention

The International UFO Congress Convention is dedicated to the dissemination of information related to many areas in Ufology. While previously held in Laughlin, Nevada, the conference moved to the Phoenix, Arizona area in 2011. It features presentations given by authors, researchers, experts, enthusiasts, and those who have witnessed paranormal or anomalous phenomena from all over the world. It also provides a forum to discuss the experiences and findings.

13. The Vent Haven Ventriloquist Convention

Vent Haven Convention

The Vent Haven Convention was started by William Shakespeare Berger, an amateur ventriloquist from Cincinnati, and the man who set up the Vent Haven Ventriloquist Museum, which hosts the convention. The Museum is the only museum of its kind in the world, housing more than 800 figures, thousands of photographs, playbills, letters, and an extensive library of vent-related books, some of which date back to the 1700’s. The convention attracts up to 600 ventriloquists each year.

14. DreamHack

DreamHack Convention

DreamHack is the world’s largest computer gathering, a local area network meeting with live concerts and competitions in digital art and e-sports. It is arranged twice per year at the Elmia Exhibition and Convention Centre in Jönköping, Sweden. It holds the world record (as recognized by the Guinness Book of Records and Twin Galaxies) for the world’s largest LAN party and computer festival, and has held the record for the world’s fastest Internet connection, and the record in most generated traffic.

15. ‘The Office’ Convention

Office Convention

What better place to host an annual convention for fans of Emmy Award winning show, ‘The Office’ than in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the city where it was created. Over the past several years, cast members and writers for the show, plus over 15,000 fans, have attended the three-day convention to celebrate their favorite show and its unique characters.

16. Beer Floating Gathering

Beer floating (kaljakellunta in Finnish) is an open Finnish summer event. The event participants literally float down a river in an inflatable boat full of beer. The event started with a handful of people and now attracts thousands of people to the Kerava River near Helsinki. The event is held on varying dates and is primarily organized through social media sites such as Facebook.

17. Lego Conference

Lego Convention

We think this conference may sound more fun than it really is, as we don’t believe (sadly) that it a 2- day conference involving building giant lego structures and letting our inner child run free! In reality, the LEGO Idea Conference is the global event bringing together diverse stakeholders from a variety of communities. For three days in April, 200-300 international experts – including leading academics, practitioners, innovators, international education organizations, government representatives and social entrepreneurs – will focus on play and its critical link to learning.

18. Santa Con

Santacon

What could be a better than an annual gathering in December of 100’s, if not 1,000’s of people dressed like Santa Clause?! Santa Con is an annual costume party, mass gathering and pub crawl of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes or as other Christmas characters parading in several cities around the world, principally in New York City. It has also been known as Santarchy, Santa Rampage, the Red Menace, and Santapalooza. Essentially it is “a nonsensical Santa Claus convention that happens once a year for absolutely no reason”.

19. Xena Convention

Xena Convention

The Xena Warrior Princess Convention takes place over a weekend and includes games and contests, discussion panels, a costume parade and a slew of celebrity meet-and-greets as well as autograph and photo-op sessions with some of the main characters. Rumor has it that the Xena Convention this year may well have been the last, bringing an end to two decades of fan-fueled fun surrounding the syndicated TV series.

20. The Celebrity Impersonators Convention

Celbrity Impersonators

Picture this, if you will: Elvis, Amy Whinehouse, Dr. Phil and Michelle Obama walk into a Las Vegas ballroom… well, that’s what you will see at the Las Vegas Celebrity Impersonators Convention! The event has been running for over a decade and attracts the public, celebrity impersonators, look-a-likes, sound-a-likes and tribute artists.

21. The Nigerian Email Conference

Looking to make a bit of extra money on the side? Why not head along to the 3rd annual Nigerian Email Conference run by senior assistant leader of the revolutionary Front of Sierra Leone? The keynote speech is entitled, “From Postal Scams to Email scams, we have come a long way infant child” and other great discussions include “Are 10 million emails a day too many?” and “The effectiveness of using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.” For more information on this totally legit, ahem, conference click HERE.