Tampa Bay Tech is hosting its annual poweredUp Tampa Bay Tech Festival on May 14, 2025, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg. The event brings together tech professionals, enthusiasts, and students to meet industry leaders and learn about new innovations. This year’s festival promises to be particularly significant as the region emerges as a new tech hub.
Keynote Speech by Arnie Bellini
Arnie Bellini, co-founder and former CEO of Tampa-based ConnectWise, will deliver the keynote remarks at the event. Bellini has a rich history in developing innovative software, dating back to the early 1980s. Under his leadership, ConnectWise became the Tampa Bay area’s first billion-dollar software company. Recently, Bellini and his wife made a landmark $40 million donation to the University of South Florida to create the Bellini Center for Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing.
New Features and Sessions
The poweredUp 2025 event will feature over a dozen speakers from companies like Jabil, Accenture, Trellix, Dynasty Financial, Guidepoint Security, and Haddy. Topics will include robotics, intelligent process automation, healthcare tech, and state-of-the-art technology used by Universal Destinations & Experiences. A new addition this year is a ‘capture the flag’ cyber challenge sponsored by Cyber Florida, providing participants with hands-on cybersecurity experience.
Community Focus
“This year is really different where we have a really cool, I think, regional approach,” said Meghan O’Keefe, Executive Director of Tampa Bay Tech. The event is open to the community, with free tickets available for students. Attendees aged 21 and above can participate in a happy hour networking session after the event.
For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Tampa Bay Tech website.
