One of the coolest differences between working for a living and working in startups is, the party never stops in the startup world.
There’s always another pitch event/conference/meetup somewhere in Europe.
This year, one of the biggest is coming to Cork, Ireland. Startup Nations Summit is scheduled for November 2016. Last month, Prime Minister Enda Kenny announced Ireland had been selected to host the Startup Nations Summit. The event, organized annually by the Global Entrepreneurship Network, has never been held in Europe and is likely to attract top-shelf startup policymakers, advisors and innovators from around the world. (Though we wonder how so many tech executives actually run their businesses when they’re attending so many of these things.)
Another event that promises to be yuuuge is Viva Technology in the middle of the summer. Which we’ve already posted about, but have included as part of this update. Ah, but there’s so much more going on. Unfortunately, a number of events including Agile Management Congress in the Czech Republic are sold out, with waiting-list only signups. So, let’s look at what’s coming up in the next few days, weeks and months.
• START SUMMIT 2016, 18 -19 March 2016, St. Gallen, Switzerland
From the website:
The Start Summit 2016 will be unlike anything you have seen before. About 1500 founders, students, investors and other partners will make their way to St. Gallen to discuss and create tomorrow’s world of entrepreneurship and technology. We at STARTglobal have been working tirelessly on ensuring that this event will live up to its complete potential. However, we will not be able to do it alone. STARTglobal is now looking for motivated and interested supporters to join us in various areas of the Summit ranging from drivers over infrastructure to catering. Register now and help us make this an event worth remembering!
You can see the full list of speakers here, who come from companies such as Axel-Springer, Uber Switzerland, Rocket Internet, Hyperloop and SpaceX.
Here’s the link to the schedule.
Corporate partners include SAP and DeutscheBank. Investors include CTI Invest, B-to-V Partners and Digital Zuich 2025.
You can get your tickets here.
• STOCKHOLM STARTUP WEEKEND, 18 March
From the website:
Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement helping entrepreneurs to the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is a 54 hours event for designers, marketers and technical people.
It starts with ideas pitching, teams formation, prototype development; it continues with coaching sessions with mentors during Saturday and Sunday. The event finishes on Sunday evening with final presentations and winners’ award ceremony. This time hackathon will have a social focus, but as usual – all the ideas are welcome!
This time hackathon will have three tracks:
1) General ideas track
2) Social innovations track
3) Solutions for new members of our community track (new members here can be anyone from work/love immigrants to asylum seekers).
Let’s together create positive changes in our society with help of effective IT tools!
Secure your ticket now!
• March 19, INVESTOR DAY VILNIUS.
Investor Day Vilnius will bring 100 investors and a lot of Lithuanian-based talent to this Baltic town, according to the event website.
From the event website:
On March 19 in Radisson Blu Hotel Congress Center Vilnius over 500 investors, financial advisors, startups, venture capitalists and funds, top managers and game changers from all over the Europe and USA will join the event to discuss the future of investments in Europe and worldwide. The focus on newer technology and rapidly-emerging investment sectors through the renewed industry research will give the outstanding speakers form investments, venture sector, leading global tech companies, financial consulting, unicorns, corporations and startups!
The event includes the chance to network with:
- 200 potential corporate partners
- 500 techies from across Europe and the United States including talent, venture capitalists, experienced executive talent and media
- 15 funds that control an aggregate of $500 million
- speakers such as Darius Zakaitus, director, Vilnius Tech Park, Perry van Rijsingen, general manager of Philips in the Netherlands and Oscar Kneppers, founder of RockStart, Netherlands
The startup pass is 50 euros. The executive pass 175 euros and the investors pass is 315 euros. There’s a pitch competition, and the prize is 2,000 euros.
The event is at the Radisson Blu Hotel Congress Center Vilnius.
• 11TH ANNUAL TNW CONFERENCE, Amsterdam, 26 May through 27 May
Frederiksplein 42
Amsterdam, Netherlands’
(We included this in an earlier roundup, but some of the information on the website has been updated.)
The city of Amsterdam plays host to the 11th annual TNW Conference, a technology gathering that brings together the world’s top technology leaders, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs. Inspiring keynote talks and endless networking opportunities are tied together by more than 8 stages, 300 exhibitor pavilions and a week full of satellite events about the future of technology, innovation, marketing, communication and imagination.
Unlike a lot of the lesser tech events, this attracts celeb Silicon Valley names. For 2016, Gary Vanyerchuck is on the roster along with Steve Huffman from Reddit, Youtube producer Casey Neistat and Julie Zhuo, director of product design at Facebook. TNW also has serious sponsorships from Adyen, Google, Paypal, Amazon and Facebook.
• June 30 to July 2, 2016 in Paris, VIVA TECHNOLOGY (See our original post, which has more details, here.)
France is taking a giant step toward becoming the innovation capital of Europe.
Viva Technology Paris is billed as Europe’s largest tech event and the first global collaboration bringing together large corporations, investors and startups. Viva Technology Paris will give 5,000 startups the chance to connect with thousands of senior executives, investors, academics and opinion leaders from all over the world, according to a news release.
The sheer scale of the event is impressive: For three days, the event will take up 30,000 m2 (323,000 square feet, or more than 7 acres), at Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles, with 5,000 startups and a projected 30,000 attendees.
The event has backing from some of the biggest tech and financial firms in the world including global insurer AXA, banking giant BNP Paribas, London-based accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young, Google and Orange, the French telecommunications conglomerate. With AXA and BNP Paribas as participants, it’s safe to assume fintech, which is what Europe does best, will be the driver.
“The digital revolution is shaking up the value chain of many economic sectors, Fintech is probably one of the best examples,” Henri de Castries, AXA president and CEO, stated in the original release.
The 40,000 m2 of the event hall and associated communication package will include:
- 20 thematic “LABS” for start-ups and firms of the same sector to closely collaborate
- A “HALL OF TECH” zone at the heart of the event, dedicated to innovation
- A “BUSINESS“ zone for firms to showcase their products and services
- 250 conferences dedicated to the transformation of firms, markets and society
- A digital platform, Connect, for online matchmaking and collaboration through challenges
VIVA TECHNOLOGY will allow innovative start-ups and corporate firms from all over the world to benefit from unprecedented visibility on the European market. More than half of firms listed on CAC 40, the benchmark French stock market index, have already planned to attend the event. Being a partner is an opportunity to attract the attention of the media and visitors to your most innovative products and services, demonstrate your expertise, meet and partner other companies that have the most affinity with your business model and get some additional leads from international decisionmakers.
