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With a wealth of start-up and tech conferences on the calendar every year and the same speakers often doing the same circuit, you want to make sure you are getting the best out of your conference season, maximising your business opportunities, fundraising strategy and hearing those talks that deliver the golden nuggets.
One conference you might consider adding to your list is one of my favourite start-ups and tech conferences in Europe, Slush. It’s a two-day conference held in Helsinki and serves as the flagship conference for the Nordic ecosystem, despite being held in Finland, one of the smaller of the markets.
I was lucky enough to attend the conference again this November. Yes, this is a conference held in a cold place in one of the colder months of the year, but that that is part of its charm. Here are few of takeaways from Slush2024.
It’s quite surprising when you are sitting in the audience at the opening ceremony and you’re reminded that Slush is a student initiative, run by students, recent graduates and volunteers, many of whom go on to become the next Nordic founders, or indeed take over the main roles at future conferences.
When you ask regular investors who attend Slush, why they keep returning the answer is usually quality over quantity. With only 13,000 attendees, this really is just a bitesize representation of Europe’s start-up and scale-up talent but the quality of talent on display has investors returning every year. Worth noting that this year there was said to be over €4 trillion worth of assets under management attending the event this year, and investors come from all over the globe.
Whether investor, start-up or just someone with the breadcrumbs of an idea, there is a place for you here. Enterprise Ireland brought a large cohort of 24 companies to Slush this year and the founders and investors I managed to pin down, between their busy meeting schedules, were very happy with the connections they were making.
Everyone at the conference is accessible, and while there is a speakers lounge and an investors area there are plenty of chances to grab a chat with these people on the conference floor. It’s one of the things attendees love most about the event; you never know who you might bump into.
The start-up competition in which 100 start-ups are chosen from hundreds of entries. By the time Slush comes around the participants are reduced down to the top 20 and they get the chance to pitch live at Slush, the top three then go on to pitch on the main stage on the last day.
The winner walks away with a big cheque of €1 million in Venture Capital funding. This year Irish start-up DevAlly made it to the top three. Although they didn’t win, they received plenty of investor and customer interest, so if you are looking for a platform to raise your profile, Slush 100 has proved an effective way of doing it.
One thing that I do notice at Slush, and generally at Nordics and Baltics events which have been organised by the start-up ecosystem, is there are plenty of women on stage. I wouldn’t even say that it’s necessarily a conscious decision by the organisers, more just a true representation of the ecosystem. I should add that the funding female founders receive is still really no better than it is in Ireland, but you see much more female representation in business in these parts.
Kicking off on Day 0 there is a smorgasbord of side events throughout the week in Helsinki, some held within the conference venue and others spread out across the city. Plan ahead – it might be worth bringing a couple of team members, so you don’t miss out.
The talks at Slush really cater to the founder audience. They are often very candid interviews with great takeaways. If you get a chance to catch some of the talks, you are likely to return home armed with several great nuggets. This year’s guests included Milda Mitkute cp-founder of Vinted, Lourdes Agapito co-founder the software company Synthesia and Neha Narkhede, co-founder of Confluent.
Come prepared. Layering is key to your comfort and hats, gloves and waterproof footwear are mandatory, there is a reason it’s called Slush. Helsinki is a beautiful city in the snow so just embrace it, and never trust a slushy puddle!
Plan well ahead if possible as accommodation in the city is not cheap although you can get a reasonable Airbnb if you are quick. For those on the start-up shoestring budget there are plenty of hostels in town. Eating out and socialising is also pricey, so my advice is to plan your side events in advance, it is possible to survive on sandwiches and nibbles for the few days. Also…coffee at Slush is free and they have machines dotted around the event space, so you are never far from your next hit if that’s what keeps you going!