ArcticStartup At Le Web
ArcticStartup will be going to Le Web this year to see how three days of conferencing will work out. Le Web, held in Paris will be on between the 7th and 9th of December. While the conference is pricey at 2300€ for a standard ticket, they did offer discounts for startups, students and freelance developers (all sold out now). Despite the steep price, it's the largest annual Silicon Valley gathering on this side of the Atlantic.
We'll be bringing you the highlights of the event, the controversies and debates. This year's theme is social-local-mobile, but don't worry - themes in the past haven't restricted conversation and we're bound to hear the latest trends across the board being discussed this year as well. We won't be doing any live blogging or tweeting, but in-depth coverage of the content that matters. The event has an impressive list of speakers and a program that will keep you busy throughout the three days.
What The Arctic15 Finalists Released
Arctic15 was held almost a month ago and we decided to summarise what the 15 awesome finalists actually pitched and released on stage. This is a little bit of a promotion to our upcoming videos of all the pitches we're beginning to release soon on ArcticStartup from our event. So browse through the 15 finalists presented below in alphabetical order, presented in their own words.
Attend Arctic15 & Frozen Rails - Save 20%
We've partnered with another very cool conference held just before Arctic15, Frozen Rails, to offer a 20% discount on tickets for those who wish to attend both conferences. As you know, we're building Arctic15 to be the biggest startup launch conference in the Nordics this year. Frozen Rails on the other hand goes well with developers and others interested in Rails development.
Two Events Worth Taking A Look At: Inspire And Startup 2.0
We don't promote a lot of events like this, but when we do you can be sure they're worth taking a look at. Two events we'd like to bring to your attention (and you can win a ticket to the Inspire conference, read more details below) today are the Inspire conference and the Startup 2.0 event aimed at mobile apps. The Inspire conference is organised in London between 7th an 8th of June where as Startup 2.0 is organised in Bilbao, Spain between the 17th and 18th of June.
BarCamp Baltics 2009 Gathering in Latvia in February
BarCamp Baltics 2009 will be held in Riga, Latvia, between 6th and 8th of February, 2009. That's the place to be if you're interested in Baltic and Russian ideas, views, and cooperation around mobile and web projects.
BarCamp is an international network of conferences organized around different themes, based on the idea that participants will generate the presentations and discussions for and in the events themselves. BarCamp Baltics brings together social networking and new media specialists, bloggers, podcasters, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, marketers, and mobile Internet professionals and enthusiasts.
The event will feature 5 to 6 simultaneous sessions, including presentations, workshops, messages and discussions, 30 minutes long each. Between 75 to 95 presentations in total will be held during a day. Participants can choose any sessions to attend and also the topics they want to present, and there will be presentations both in English and in Russian. Around 500 to 600 participants from the Baltic States and CIS, Central and Western Europe, and Americas are expected to be present.
BarCamp Baltics aims to to stimulate the development of new IT and media projects in Baltic states and CIS, and enhance networking and provide connections for international commercial and non-commercial joint projects. BarCamp Baltics 2008 gathered together more than 500 people from 23 countries, and was supported by the biggest media in Latvia.
BarCamp's been arranged also in Helsinki, and there are a few other ones coming up: Odense in January and Århus in March, in Denmark, and in St. Petersburg, Russia, in May.
Nordic And Baltic Companies Non-Existent In TC50
Currently, the most talked about startup event in the world is the TechCrunch50 being organised in San Francisco by Michael Arrington's TechCrunch. Mike Butcher wrote an article in the UK version of TechCrunch about the non-existence of European companies, compared to Israeli startups (there were 5 Israeli startups present).
Now if we look at this from a Nordic and Baltic perspective - the only Nordic company we could find in the participation list was Burt (Sweden). While the investments required for such a trip is high, I was wondering if it really is worth the money for the European companies or do they already receive enough visibility here in Europe?
I know the Israeli companies in general are pushing more aggressively to the US market, while European startups can somehow still manage locally here in Europe with its 300 million domestic market. So there are differences in strategies, but I'm throwing the ball to the entrepreneurs - what do you guys think, is it worth the money? or do we need something like this in Europe? Or is there an explanation I've missed for Europe's absence (could it be that many applied, but did not get through)?
