GeekWire Gala recap: Humans and robots party together in Seattle at our geeky holiday celebration

The halls have officially been tech’d.

Humans and robots rubbed shoulders and partied Thursday night at the 2025 GeekWire Gala as our annual holiday extravaganza drew more than 750 members of Seattle’s tech community to the Showbox SoDo.

The geeky event — presented by title sponsor First Tech Federal Credit Union — featured games, karaoke, dancing, food, drink, networking and plenty of good times.

• A Selfiebot roamed the floor capturing images of attendees and two Portraitbots drew quick caricatures.
• Robots raced at another station while people also had their pictures snapped in a robot photo booth.
• There was an espresso martini printer, specially printed macaroon cookies, a candy bar, a walking oyster bar and much more.

For the third year, GeekWire and Greater Seattle Partners once again recognized the region’s “Uncommon Thinkers,” the groundbreaking innovators who are changing the way we work, live and play. The honorees included: Anindya Roy, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Lila Biologics; Chet Kittleson, co-founder and CEO of Tin Can; Brian Pinkard, co-founder and CTO at Aquagga; Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Portal Space Systems; Kiana Ehsani, co-founder and CEO of Vercept; and Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky.

Special thanks to our gold sponsors, Greater Seattle Partners, Pilot, and Astound Business Solutions; and silver sponsors, MeeBoss, Tito’s, The Baldwin Group, Wilson Sonsini, ALLtech, IDA Ireland, Microsoft for Startups, gone.com, Prime Team Partners, and Regence.

Thanks again to everyone for making our party your party. Happy holidays!

Keep scrolling for more photos from the 2024 GeekWire Gala: