The 2014 edition of Europe’s largest startup event Slush took place this November in Finland’s cold capital. A huge venue with 4 stages and lots of showcase space for guest companies (including RenderStreet) hosted an audience of 10,000 people, in just 2 days.
Slush was surrounded by over 20 side events, usually addressed to specialised communities. I chose to go to an IGDA Finland event, was invited to pitch at EBAN (European Business Angels Conference) and went to cheer for the startups that graduated the fall batch of Startup Sauna accelerator.
But of course, Slush was the highlight of the trip. The keynotes went from how to hack your body and your lifestyle to live a better life, to how being an astronaut and seeing Earth from space changes you. I listened to Sami Inkinen talking about how he started rowing 4,400Km across the Pacific for a social cause. Astronaut Leland Melvin spoke about shifting perspectives when returning for the first time from outer space. C-level executives from tech giants (Alibaba, Supercell, Spotify, Zendesk, Nokia, Sony, IBM) shared their experience with the public.
Official opening of the main stage of Slush.
I especially enjoyed the pitching competition where I’ve seen bold ideas with potential and got inspired by excellent storytellers. Wether they’re trying to find solutions for the sightless, or are building apps that approach learning in new ways, startups these days focus on building a better society. Throughout the conference, there were no less than 100 startup pitches and the winner Enbrite.ly walked home with half a million Euro investment from the angels at the event.
RenderStreet booth and Marius Iatan, co-founder and CEO, attending Slush 2014
I was glad that our RenderStreet booth at Slush was visited by a lot of people. Together with students, artists, software publishers and solution providers we explored ways of joining forces and deliver better services to our customers. Now, there are more people out there that heard about Blender and about the things open software allows them to do.
And, of course, there were the Finnish parties: live bands, DJs, drinks and some more clubbin’.
Tech conferences give you what you want them to: ideas and inspiration, business opportunities, knowledge, networking or entertainment. Talented people from so different backgrounds getting together form a melting pot for that value into the world. I cannot imagine the stories of 10k people from the two days of the conference – how many future co-founders have met, what deals started rolling and which game changing ideas emerged here? I can only say this is an incredibly rewarding experience and that I recommend attending a tech event, at least once a year. The future is here, if you know where to look for it.
