We made it.

Nine events across the globe, all on the same day, bringing together people with one thing in common: an interest in Voice AI. Following the sun, it started in Melbourne and finished 20 hours later in San Francisco.

What made it special wasn't the number of cities, or the distance between them. It was the WE: the people who came together across the world to make something unique happen.

9 cities. 3 continents. 900+ registrations. 200+ invitations. One community following the sun for 20 hours.

Every time we wrapped a Voice AI event last year, in city after city, people kept asking us the same thing: "when is the next one?"

I always knew that at some point we had to get people together in various locations, so the community could meet regularly without compromising the agnostic, neutral ground we try to hold.

Following a discussion with Miguel a month ago, the idea of a global meetup germinated. I reached out to people I've met over the last months, people I know and trust, and asked: would you be in?

Most said yes.

Running one event is not an easy task. It's a bit like a voicebot: from the outside you think "hey, I can do that too." True. Then you start working on it and realise there is far more work than it appears. You need the right venue, the food and drinks, the communication, the attendees, the certainty that the people who join will actually enjoy being together, the sponsors. Not that easy once you put it all together.

We picked a "simple" format, a gathering, to keep the on-the-day operations light. Let's meet and chat already brings tons of value when the people in the room share a common passion. We kept each city intimate, around 15 people, so the networking stayed good and we could offer food and drinks to everyone who joined.

We spent countless hours reviewing more than 900 registrations across the nine cities, selecting the people we felt would get the most out of meeting fellow Voice AI builders. In the end, we invited more than 200 people to join us around the world.

For me the adrenaline rush lasted all the way, and the goosebumps happened at the launch of every single city.

Of all the events I've been part of, this one was unique. Unique because it spanned the globe. Unique because it was dedicated to people working in the same field, carefully selected. Unique because it was the first time we tried this format. And truly unique because it happened thanks to a group of amazing people all over the world who, a few weeks back, all said "let's do it".

Voice technologies are creating new ways to connect humans and machines. Voice is the medium we humans used to build civilisations and communities. A few days ago, voice was one of the reasons people across the globe came together, and honestly, that's super cool.

Beyond the awesome people who made this possible, the sponsors of this event deserve to be named here too. Massive thanks to Speechmatics, Twilio and LiveKit. Their trust and support made this happen.

The concept was a bit nuts, and they backed it on a community-first principle: the rooms were not built for pitching a product, they were built for gathering the community.

Alone you go faster, with others you go further.
This event is a demonstration of it.

Keep being nuts.
A "f*ck it, let's do it" attitude played a big role here. Like starting a company: overthink it and sometimes you simply don't do it. Laying the rails in front of you while the train is already moving is stressful, but damn, when you reach the station and look back at the ride, it's overly cool and satisfying.

Caps are frustrating, and necessary.
It's painful to limit the number of attendees, but for networking events it's what allows everyone to have a good time. That came back clearly in the feedback. We dealt with no-shows too, which hurt, but hey, not much we can do about that one.

Trust the people, not the process.
I've written a few playbooks on how to run events, going deep into the details. They're useful, but the key to success has nothing to do with them. The secret is good people, good people and good people.

The first Global Voice AI Gathering was a huge success, thanks to the people on the ground who made it happen and the companies who backed them.

And this is only the beginning.

We want to do it again, learn from this first edition, add a few more cities, and keep giving more power to local communities through Voice AI Space Chapters. The idea is simple: more cities, more people bringing the community together locally, all connected globally.

On our side, we want to keep pushing further, with more events around the world and, eventually, a truly global Voice AI Summit. 🤓

Nine cities down. Next time, let's make the map a little more crowded.

To everyone who was part of it: the hosts, the guests, the sponsors, and the people who turned up in the rain. Let's do it again.

The Voice AI Space team