In 2003, Austin’s tech industry looked much different than it does today.

The dot com crash had led to many Internet startups failing and even established companies like Intel halted expansion plans here.

But despite the upheaval in the industry, Sean Lowery, executive director of InnoTech Austin, saw the city’s potential for a rebirth of the technology industry.

“The dot com bomb left a pretty good void in the area in terms of technology events,” Lowery said. “We saw the opportunity and need through some contacts.”

And so the first InnoTech Austin took place in 2003 with five rooms at the Austin Convention Center. This year, the conference will have 12 rooms with nine different tracts going at the same time and it is expected to attract more than 1,400 people, Lowery said.

The daylong technology conference takes place on Nov. 16th and it features a full day of sessions, workshops, keynote speeches, networking and more. In addition, the conference hosts an Austin Women in Tech Summit. Registration is only $40 with discount code SILICON77 and includes access to all InnoTech sessions too.

Lowery started the first InnoTech conference in Portland, Oregon and he has since expanded and added conferences nationwide. InnoTech also hosts a technology conference in San Antonio.

Throughout the years, Lowery has seen Austin’s technology industry grow tremendously. One of the big differences he sees is in how many different jobs have been created including data scientists, computer systems analysts, information security analyst, web developers, software developers, mechanical engineers, IT managers, computer systems administrators, social media managers and so much more.

“The number of opportunities in the tech world continues to expand,” he said.

For five years, InnoTech has hosted the Women in Tech Summit. It came about because the women of Austin requested it, Lowery said. He had a few women on his advisory board that suggested InnoTech add programming tailored to women in the technology industry.

“The Austin event is very custom built,” Lowery said.

Programming is tailored to meet the needs of the Austin technology community, he said.

This year, sessions and talks focus on blockchain technology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, open source and more.

The keynote speakers include William Hurley, co-founders of Honest Dollar and Chaotic Moon. He will talk about “The State of Open Source and the Future of Software Development.” Rob Platzer, chief technology officer with Bitly, will give a talk on “Building in the API Economy.” And Doug Reeder will speak about “The Future of Work: Mind-shift from Robots vs. Humans to Robots Empowering Humans.”

For more on InnoTech Austin and to register for the conference please visit its website.

Editor’s note: InnoTech is an advertiser with Silicon Hills News