Italy’s first tech conference will begin on Wednesday in the country’s capital city, bringing together investors and entrepreneurs from all over the world in a three day event.

Blast, which will take place from 10th – 12th May, will provide a valuable networking opportunities for 150 of the best global startups in the pre-seed or early stages of funding. Thirty of those will also have the opportunity to enter the Blast Startup Competition, a three-day battle to win a £30,000 cash prize. Blast is in partnership with Fiera Roma, one of the largest exhibition centres in Europe, where the event will take place.

The boutique conference is the first one of its kind to take place in Italy, a country vying to become the next start-up hub. Unlike other major conferences, Blast will focus its events on five main categories; food tech, an obvious choice for the founders after Rome played host to the first startup bootcamp focusing solely on the foodtech industry, as well as Fintech, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality/Artificial Reality and IOT & Industries 4.0.