Robot Pepper welcomes crowd to opening day of eMerge Americas, Miami’s oldest tech event

Being greeted by a 5-foot-tall robot while a DJ plays loud dance music seems natural entering a nightclub on South Beach, not a tech conference. True to its Miami roots, eMerge Americas is not your average tech gathering.

The global tech event that opened Thursday in Miami Beach Convention Center celebrates Miami’s emergence as a tech hub and gateway to the Americas.

Pepper is one of many robots used at Alan B. Levan | NSU Broward Center of Innovation, a place designed to support entrepreneurship on Nova Southeastern University’s Broward campus. Pepper welcomes visitors at the center, effectively doing the job of a receptionist.

Pepper also gives visitors tours of the center, said NSU innovation center programmer Desmond Cox, who works in the university’s makers lab to support entrepreneurs.

Behind Pepper at the organization’s booth on eMerge’s trade show floor were three small robots with flexible arms and legs. Each robot was programmed to teach people how to give themselves breast examinations, one of the healthcare applications for the robots.

The robots were joined by thousands of tech investors, entrepreneurs and enthusiasts for the first of the two-day eMerge event. Since its launch in 2014 as the first major Miami annual showcase of innovation, eMerge also has hosted celebrity speakers like tennis legend Serena Williams and former Miami Heat star Chris Bosh.

This year’s opening day keynote was retired NFL star Tom Brady, who said he expects to dabble in tech startups now that his professional football career is over. Besides the celebrity star power at eMerge, it is not uncommon to see Miami-Dade County Mayor Danielle Levine Cava cutting ribbons at trade show booths and attendees lined up to try out a DeLorean sports car simulator.

With November’s very public implosion of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and concerns whether ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence technology will eliminate jobs, there remain legitimate questions about a critical hurdle for Miami’s tech sector: offering access to women and area residents of all racial backgrounds.

At least one eMerge attendee, Florida International University senior Ray McDonald, remains unphased by the tech turmoil of the last year which has shaken Miami’s tech scene.

McDonald sits on the board for Blockchain at FIU, one of the largest student-led blockchain organizations in America. The Miami Gardens native thinks there’s still much promise in Miami’s tech sector, despite public failures like the failure of FTX. Those big disruptions have informed him what to watch out for in a constantly changing industry.

“People blow a lot of smoke sometimes,” he said. “Just gaining that discernment from doing more in the space, it doesn’t lower my confidence any because I’m confident in my ability to scope out what’s real or not. There’s still so much cool stuff going on.”

Manuel Porcar, CEO of startup company Darwin that focuses on using natural microorganisms to create everyday products, came from Spain to Miami in search of investors and business partners at eMerge. For him, Miami has advantages over California’s Silicon Valley and is a place in which he wants to do business.

“Miami is booming in terms of startups and development of technology,” Porcar said.