• by Tony Silber , May 16, 2022

TechCrunch, the media and events site covering the technology industry, is returning its TC Sessions: Mobility event back to an in-person format this week, its first such event since 2019.

The event includes such topics as automated vehicle technology, robotics, AI, 5G, SaaS, climate tech, urban air taxis and aerospace, all through the lens of how they impact transportation.

TechCrunch team members will speak to founders, expert technologists, investors and policymakers for their take on the automotive sector, automated-vehicle development, aviation, EV infrastructure, regulatory issues, VC trends and more. It will be held on May 18 and 19 in San Mateo, California.

"TechCrunch has experienced double digit growth over the past year across the board," TechCrunch Sr. Director of Operations Joey Hinson said. "We’re always focused on innovation and creating the best possible experiences for consumers and sponsors and we think our hybrid model serves the best of both worlds. 

Sessions: Mobility will provide highlights from the two in-person days available on May 20 online, in addition to some programming, including a live-pitch feedback session for startups. "As life begins to get back to some sense of normality, we have been really focused on thinking about how we can create the best experience for our consumers and how we can also create the best experiences for our partners that are also accessible on a global scale," Hinson said. "Watching live demos and networking with people within your industry is really valuable, so we have combined the best of both."

Tech and transportation are obviously a timely topic, as demonstrated in Sessions: Mobility’s growth since inception. “The Sessions Franchise has experienced accelerated growth in the last 18 months with sponsors and advertisers, as well as audience,” a company press release stated. In particular, the audience has grown by 67% on a year-over-year basis from 2020 to 2021.

The growth has extended across the company’s revenue lines, according to the release. The flagship “TechCrunch Disrupt,” famously featured in the HBO TV series “Silicon Valley,” increased by 30% in the same time period, the company said.

Meanwhile, according to the company, TC+ subscriptions increased by 211% in 2020, with an additional 142% increase in 2021. Ad revenue was up 49% in the first quarter of 2022.

The company said it has experienced significant interest from the series and added a slate of new events to its agenda. There’s one focused on the tech/data stack next week, for example, and an event in June is focused on climate, in which TechCrunch will interview top founders, scientists, developers and other climate innovators dedicated to building ecosystem-changing solutions, delving into whether climate tech can actually save the world.

The 17-year-old company is owned by the investment firm Apollo Global Management and is a unit of the media entity Yahoo.