Posts tagged:

conferences

BarCamp Baltics 2009 Gathering in Latvia in February

by Miikka Kukkosuo, December 30, 2008 — Leave a Comment

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

by Antti Vilpponen, September 11, 2008 — 2 Comments

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)?