Technology and the future will be the focus of a series of events this week in the inaugural Bermuda Tech Week.Executives from technology companies around the world will participate in 19 events through the week, with the centrepiece being the all-day Bermuda Tech Summit with the theme “Focused on the Future” on Wednesday.Tech Week is hosted by the Bermuda Business Development Agency and fintech Bermuda, a team set up by the Bermuda Government to drive its fintech initiative.Today, the main event is the Bermuda Technology Innovation Awards, taking place from 5pm to 7pm at the Hamilton Princess & Beach Club.Tuesday’s Liquidity Summit, presented by Hub Culture, will focus on the world of “new finance”, with sessions on digital asset securities, digital banking services and how blockchain is revolutionising retail on the 8am to 5pm schedule.Among the speakers will be Sir John Swan, who will feature on a panel entitled “Welcome to Liquidity” alongside Stan Stalnaker, founding director of Hub Culture, and Kevin Richards, business development manager at the Bermuda Business Development Agency.Also tomorrow, KPMG will host “Defend and Detect: A Technology and Technique Series Event”, while the BDA and Fintech Bermuda will team up to present the Bermuda Tech Education Summit.David Burt, the Premier, will take part in a conversation with Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, at the Bermuda Tech Summit on Wednesday.Circle is a crypto-finance company built on blockchain technology that is planning to hire 30 people over the next two years for its Bermudian operation. In July, Mr Allaire also praised Bermuda’s approach to regulating the fintech industry while speaking to the US Senate Banking Committee.Among other notable speakers at the summit is Page Crahan, head of product and market strategy, early pipeline, at X, formerly known as Google X and otherwise known as “moon shot factory”, a group of inventors and entrepreneurs who aim to tackle some of the world’s most intractable problems.Ms Crahan will speak in a session on “Solving the World’s Biggest Problems”.Cormac Kinney, CEO of Diamond Standard, is one of the panellists in a session on Bermuda’s growing fintech sector and what it means for Bermudians.Diamond Standard’s sister company BitCarbon Technologies is also looking to build up its workforce for an electronic diamond exchange on the island.Philip Bekhazi, CEO of XBTO, Tim Grant, CEO of DrumG, and Bill Karsh, special adviser to Velocity Ledger, will join Mr Kinney on the panel.Other panel sessions focus on technological innovations in the hospitality industry, advancing Bermuda’s telecommunications and technology infrastructure and insurtech.Thursday and Friday will feature the two-day Tech Beach Retreat, organised by Tech Beach in partnership with the BDA on the theme of “Fintech: Innovation Island”.The Premier is among more than 20 speakers for this event, with notable others including Jeff Pulver, vice-chairman of blockchain communication company Skrumble, whose work contributed to applications such as Whatsapp and FaceTime being free, and Kome Emuh, chief operating officer, securities division operations and engineering at Goldman Sachs.The Royal Gazette is an official media partner of Bermuda Tech Week. For more information, visit www.bermudatechweek.bm