At the international technology startup conference Slush in Helsinki, 3,100 startups and several million innovative ideas were presented, and 21,000 participants were involved. Slush has grown from impromptu meetings of business students to the brightest and most highly professional conference in Northern Europe. Participants share their insights and experiences, make deals and closely monitor the world of technology and business.
Among the guests with global brands on Slush were Facebook, Paypal, Slack, PWC, Microsoft, Porshe, Oracle and many more. ReVerb didn’t miss out on this unique opportunity to attend this magnificent event. Having met there our business friend, Artem Karyukin, the ReVerb team decided to examine his impressions of the conference.
According to Artem, the main reason for coming to Slush this year was to get an impression of current information technology and of startups that can be implemented in Russia using partnerships or local copies. Moreover, it was the biggest event in this format he ever attended.
Slush is also completely organized by volunteers. They come from all over the world; every year, about 2.4 thousand volunteers work at the conference. The main team of Slush consists of 30 people who organize Slush conferences in Helsinki, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo.
“This was a very well organized event with a modern exhibition facility, convenient transportation, clean toilets, and appetizing food available as needed. It took only 5 minutes to get a new bracelet from a reception desk when I lost one.”
Slush, founded 10 years ago by the creators of the game Angry Birds, has become a platform for searching for business partners and investors and for sharing ideas and experience in the field of technological innovation. It includes communications and opportunities for networking at the highest level–you will not find its equal anywhere else. This conference is a great opportunity to expand professional networks and even to find new friends. The importance of establishing friendly relations during such events needs no explanation.
I met several Finnish guys with whom I became friendly. I even invited them to visit my place in Moscow. Another new friend is a guy with a Ph.D. in physics. He decided to change professions and shoot films about local Finnish culture.
Currently, I am waiting for Russian subtitles for his first film that has already been made. Take advantage of the opportunity to chat as much as possible, and you will get many professional contacts or even friends if you are lucky.”
Artem’s goals during the conference were:
a. To find an interesting, profitable startup that EDISON might invest in – not money but man-hours of our team’s work.
b. To find any large-scale software development project that needs an offshore software development center.
Unfortunately, they weren’t completely achieved.
It was worth it!
To sum up, Slush provided all guests, including Artem and Dave, with an excellent opportunity to meet with colleagues in the event industry, investors, talented developers, and find interesting projects.
