A carnival for techies

The fourth annual Boston TechJam occupies City Hall Plaza this Thursday afternoon. The event is part expo and part festival, with dozens of tech companies setting up booths alongside food trucks, street games and a live concert. Consider it a networking block party for startups, established companies, students, investors and, last year, anybody who wanted to ride a mechanical shark.

Mark Lorion, chief marketing and products officer at Apperian, a mobile app management company based in Boston, co-founded TechJam in 2013. “People come out to have fun and they bring their team, and the by-product is, [they] meet a hundred new people,” he says.

According to Lorion, Boston’s local tech industry is underappreciated and often overshadowed by other tech centers like Silicon Valley. TechJam, he says, is a chance to celebrate local innovation.

“We’ve got an incredible number of technically skilled and savvy people coming out of [local universities],” he says. “The willingness to help other companies out, to help out entrepreneurs, to make connections, to buy and source our technology locally is not matched in any other region.”

While previous years’ events were 21-and-up events, this year’s TechJam is open to anyone over 18.

“Now we can have college students, who are either starting internships or interested in internships, attend and meet companies and get supercharged about the greatness that is Boston,” notes Lorion.

While they’re out there disruptively innovating, attendees can enjoy live music until 10 p.m. from Boston-bred bands East Coast Soul and Bad Rabbits, and food trucks like Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and The Sausage Guy.

If you go:

June 16 from 4 to 10 p.m.
City Hall Plaza
City Hall Square
Ticketsstart at $15
bostontechjam.com