Porto Alegre
When tech comes to town
BLUESKY’ S STEPHANIE ACKLAND PICKS UP THE GAUCHO TRAIL AND ROUNDS UP THE MEETINGS SCENE IN BRAZIL’ S PORTO ALEGRE
Left: Porto Alegre- City & Gaucho one of the best entrepreneurial climates in Brazil. Some six Technology Parks are located here.
Embratur, the Brazilian Tourist Board, in conjunction with SEBRAE, recently chose Porto Alegre as a city to showcase to a group of international meeting planners. I joined that tour and Vinicius Garcia, director Porto Alegre CVB, told us:“ As one of Brazil’ s major business hubs, Porto Alegre has solid experience in hosting international events. The familiarisation tour, organised by major stakeholders, showcased firsthand what the destination has to offer.”
B razil’ s Porto Alegre
continues to cement its position as innovation capital of Latin America, hosting South Summit Brazil, 25 – 27 March, 2026.
LATAM’ s 4th edition of the world’ s largest event for tech startups, investment, and innovation is set to attract some 23,000 attendees, 3,000 start-ups, 900 investors, and over 800 speakers.
South Summit, as a platform for the entrepreneurial tech ecosystem, continues to connect startups with key players and Porto Alegre joins other Chapters, Madrid and Korea.
Previous programme speakers include Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, Amazon’ s VP + CTO Werner Vogels and co-founder of LinkedIn, Allen Blue. The March three-day event takes over Cais Maua, the‘ Wharf’, transforming the venue into a techie’ s paradise. Former warehouses
Cityscape
and cobbled courtyards become the backdrop for deals, discussions and debates on everything from AI to robotics.
Why Porto Alegre? It’ s not by chance Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul, was chosen for the LATAM edition. The state has long been known for innovation and industry and Italian and German immigrants helped shaped the region which, today, also has a thriving youth population. With renowned universities, and a track record in startup and growth business, the city has
Non-stop hub For Porto Alegre, innovation isn’ t just an annual event.
The PUCRS University initiative, Techno Puc, builds cross-border, collaborative projects through online participation. It is a global connector, bringing together international presence with local engagement. Its open innovation model facilitates partnerships between 300 + national and multinational organisations and 1,000 + accelerated start-ups, creating some 6,500 + connections internationally.
One such project is Digicon’ s D’ Flow. Through Techno Puc’ s‘ Anywhere strategy’, Digicon has successfully developed scalable solutions and new markets. Supporters include Hewlett Packard and Dell.
PUCRS also has its own Convention Centre with 5,500sqm of exhibition space, a 2,500 plenary, 10 auditoriums and 70 + multipurpose rooms.
Institute Caldeira, a 22,000sqm innovation hub, connects companies, start-ups, universities and public authorities through live and online events. Housed in the original building where entrepreneur A J Renner founded what is now one of Brazil’ s largest clothing brands, Caldeira has a waiting list for its adjacent second facility. Aside from enterprise, the Institute fosters
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