How to Create an Awesome Satellite Event at West Tech Fest
Every December, West Tech Fest becomes something much bigger than its Core Program. Around the main stages and flagship experiences, a whole ecosystem of independently run satellite events springs up across Perth and Fremantle, hosted by businesses, universities, community groups and individuals who each bring their own slice of the innovation world to the Festival.
If you have ever thought about hosting one, here is what you need to know, along with some real examples from our 2025 satellite event line-up to show just how much room there is to make it your own.
Who can host one? Everyone.
Satellite events are open to businesses, startups, universities, community groups and individuals alike. You do not need to be a household name in the ecosystem to bring people together. Our 2025 line-up included everything from the Perth Biodesign Showcase to a grassroots coffee meetups with 15 attendees, proving there is a place for every scale of event.
There is no "right" format
One of the most freeing parts of hosting a satellite event is that there is no template to follow. Your event can run for an hour or stretch across several days, as long as it does not clash with core events. The 2025 program showed just how wide that range can be:
🔸Quick and casual
The Happier Hour Club ran a two-hour morning Sauna Session for founders in East Fremantle, while the Pledge 1% Coffee Meetup gathered founders over coffee from 7:45am.
🔸Half-day deep dives
The Entangled Workshop brought quantum researchers and entrepreneurs together at UWA for a three hour hands-on session, and the Quantum Internet Summit ran a five hour morning program at Crawley.
🔸Full-day showcases
The AI Disrupt Summit, run by Build Club Perth, Bloom and Curtin Entrepreneurs, ran from 9am through to 7pm, combining an optional breakfast with a full day of programming.
🔸Evening experiences
From WTF is Deep Tech at CERI to AFTER DARK: West Tech Fest Edition at The Bird in Northbridge, evening events proved a popular way to bring people together after hours.
Whatever length suits your goals and your audience, there is space for it.
Funding is on you, but you are not on your own
Satellite events are independently funded, so you will need to bring your own budget together through sponsors, partners or your own organisation. Budgets in 2025 ranged enormously, from grassroots meetups run on a few hundred dollars to major showcases like the Global Robotics and Automation Showcase. There is no minimum spend required to take part. What matters is that your event delivers a great experience for your audience within whatever budget you can bring to the table.
Choosing your venue
Location matters. The advice in our satellite event guide is simple: pick a spot that makes it easy for attendees to move between multiple satellite events across the day. Recommended venues include the University of Notre Dame Australia's Fremantle campus, Freo Social, Riff by Spacecubed and Harbour Space, with more options available through the City of Fremantle, City of Subiaco and City of Perth.
The 2025 Program also showed how much variety works well within this principle. Events clustered around the Perth CBD, including Startup WA's Startups on Tap in Subiaco, Invest & Trade WA's West Aussie Sundowner at the QT Hotel and the Debate Club and Rockford Equity's Startup Funding Debt vs Equity debate in the AWS Office, while others made a feature of unique locations such as Bread in Common in Fremantle for Blackbird Ventures' Something New Dinner, or Neerabup for the Global Robotics and Automation Showcase. There is flexibility here too, but clustering near other satellite activity, particularly in the CBD or Fremantle, tends to give attendees the best experience of the day.
Know your audience, then design around it
The strongest satellite events in 2025 had a clear sense of who they were for and shaped the format accordingly.
By invitation only events, such as An Evening with Perth Angels celebrating 15 years of angel investing, or the Blackbird Something New Dinner, created an intimate, high-trust environment for a specific network.
Open to the public events, including 10 Mistakes to Avoid When Angel Investing and How to Form a Board of Directors for Scaling Your Start-up, focused on practical, accessible learning for anyone keen to grow their knowledge.
Niche technical communities got their own dedicated spaces too, from the Quantum Internet Summit to Automation Unlocked, a session built specifically for accounting and reg-tech platforms.
Before you lock in your format, ask yourself who you most want in the room, and let that answer shape everything else, from ticketing to venue to length.
Before you submit, talk to the West Tech team
This step matters more than it might seem. Getting in touch with the West Tech Fest team before you submit your event lets us:
🔸Confirm your event idea and help you land on the optimal timing so you are not competing with other Festival activities
🔸Provide you with official West Tech Fest logos and branding
🔸Flag opportunities to connect you with relevant speakers, partners and delegates already in our network
A quick conversation up front saves a lot of back and forth later, and it means your event is set up to make the most of the wider Festival audience from day one.
What West Tech Fest brings to the table
Hosting independently does not mean hosting alone. As part of the Festival, your satellite event gets:
🔸 Invites and connections: help connecting with relevant speakers, partners and delegates
🔸 Promotion: exposure across West Tech Fest's channels, putting your event in front of an audience actively looking for things to do during Festival week
🔸An integrated experience: your event becomes part of a connected, city-wide Festival rather than a standalone listing
Ready to host your own?
If reading through the 2025 line-up has sparked an idea, whether it is a breakfast for bootstrappers, a showcase for your industry or a dinner for your closest fifteen collaborators, get in touch with the West Tech Fest team to talk it through before you submit.
Get in touch with the team at westtechfest@curtin.edu.au
There is no single way to run a great satellite event. The best ones simply know their audience, pick the right venue and length for the job, and plug into the wider Festival to make the most of the people already in town for West Tech week.
