Celebrating Resilience, Career Paths, And ‘Creatorship’ In Tech

Celebrating Resilience, Career Paths, And ‘Creatorship’ In Tech

Ten years ago, Omid Ekhlasi rented a cinema in Stockholm for an evening of creative minds, networking, community-building, and discussions about people’s passions. Businesses battled it out in a startup competition. Sadly, only eight people were in the audience. Awkward, echoing applause bounced off the cinema walls. It was hardly the success Ekhlasi had hoped for. Nonetheless, he felt he was onto something. Stockholm was a technologically vibrant city that could benefit from centralized networking. It was a tech hub ready to burst with innovation if nurtured in the right conditions. Perhaps there would need to be more evenings in empty cinemas. He persisted. Bringing people together and watching them coalesce around good ideas was his passion.

Ekhlasi is now the Founder and CEO of ‘Techarena’. In 2024, the Techarena conference hosted 8,000 attendees, a thousand-fold increase on that lonely cinema all those years ago. Now taking place in The Strawberry Arena, the biggest stadium in the Nordics, last year’s Techarena enjoyed talks from little-known names like Al Gore and Steve Wozniak.

“We started Techarena to support founders because we understand how challenging and unpredictable the journey can be,” Ekhlasi says. “There is no simple formula, rather a very clear mission, hard work, and many sleepless nights throughout the years. Our focus has always been on growth, staying relevant, and creating real value in the tech and business ecosystem.”

Ekhlasi is effusive of Sweden’s technological prowess. “Sweden has been a frontrunner in innovation over the past decade, experiencing an incredible boom in startups and entrepreneurship. Yet, despite our global success in these areas, we lacked a central place to come together. This became my passion, and I’ve been lucky to build a career out of doing it.”

The success of the Swedish technology ecosystem is world-famous. Stockholm consistently ranks among the top cities globally for unicorns per capita. A government-sponsored computer scheme in 1997 is widely heralded as a reason Swedes subsequently dominated the internet. Technology success stories like Spotify and Skype have created a flywheel where huge amounts of capital flow back into the Swedish tech ecosystem. In 2025, Klarna is one of the world’s most celebrated fintechs and is expected to IPO this year (which may further flood Swedish tech with more capital and entrepreneurs). Scaleups such as Sana – builders of AI assistants who raised $55m from NEA last year – and Flower – which raised $25m from Northzone for its innovative energy grid technology – show plenty more success is still to come.

Jessica Schultz, Partner at Northzone, one of the most prominent European venture capital firms and early investors in Spotify, who is also speaking at Techarena 2025, expanded on why this is the case. “Sweden’s tech success stems from key factors like 1990s PC reforms, early broadband adoption, and access to funding, combined with a culture of role models and global ambition. Free education, healthcare, and childcare also create a safety net that empowers entrepreneurs to take risks and innovate on a global scale from day one. Add to that a tradition of public and private R&D investment, a strong social mobility foundation, and globally recognized role models like Skype, Spotify, and Klarna and it’s no wonder Sweden continues to punch well above its weight in innovation.”

It is on this technology heritage that Ekhlasi has built Techarena. This year’s 2025 conference, happening on February 20th and 21st, will host keynote speakers such as business magnate Richard Branson, Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph, skateboarding-legend-turned-entrepreneur Tony Hawk, and entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.

There is no doubt a strong creator economy theme runs through this speaker line-up. Though Branson rose to prominence years before people had even uttered the phrase ‘creator economy’, he built a personal brand synonymous with Virgin and used his personality to generate media attention that then turbocharged his business.

Or perhaps, in a funny sort of way, there is no greater example of the creator economy than skateboarder Tony Hawk. A gifted child, Hawk went professional at 14 years of age. It was, and would remain, his life’s passion. But only out of that passion was he able to build an illustrious, multifaceted career. Understanding the power of intellectual property and personal brand, he launched Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater in 1999 with Activision; a gaming franchise that has enjoyed 18 different games including ten main-series titles, four spin-offs, and four repackages. Hawk also created his own charitable foundation to support skatepark projects, hosted a weekly radio show on Sirius XM from 2004 to 2019, and even helped design Emojipedia’s skateboard emoji.

Hawk told Forbes, “I’ve been thankful to have had such a multi-faceted career, mainly across skateboarding but also philanthropy, media, and entrepreneurship. My advice is to find something you’re passionate about, learn as much as possible about the craft, and then constantly consider new ways in which you can make that passion work for you.”

It’s also not only household names speaking at Techarena this year. Ash Dykes, a British explorer and extreme athlete with five official world records and four world first records, will be on stage sharing details from his adventures. Not only is Dykes pushing the frontiers of human physical endeavor but he’s documenting his efforts along the way. With 300,000 Instagram followers and a flourishing YouTube channel, the creator economy is essential to his career.

“Achieving what no one has accomplished before and surviving in some of the world’s harshest environments is one thing—but documenting it in real time and sharing it with the world through social media and television is another challenge entirely,” he comments. “It’s an incredible privilege to offer my followers a front-row seat as I pursue these world records. Platforms like YouTube and Instagram allow me to share not just the magnitude of the challenges I face, but also a deeper glimpse into my personality and the journey behind the achievements. Being able to connect with people in this way makes the experience all the more fulfilling.”

Attendees to this year’s Techarena conference will not only hear stories of amazing business, technology, political and personal exploits. Perhaps more importantly, they’ll learn the secret sauce of how to build illustrious careers and brands out of those exploits.

As Ekhlasi puts it, “This year’s theme is about “Becoming the Best in the World”. An often-overlooked aspect of success is resilience, the stories of setbacks and how they were overcome. Most successful companies have faced countless moments where it felt like they wouldn’t make it. Yet, time and again, they’ve managed to bounce back and push through. To become the best, you need to hear these stories from people who have dominated their fields. Whether you follow in their footsteps or simply adopt parts of their playbook, learning from their experiences is essential to achieving success.”

And for those worrying about their career trajectories, Ekhlasi’s empty cinema story shows there is hope for us all.