WELCOME project: South Summit post-event blog!
South Summit ended on Friday 7th October, but it’s almost as if we were still there! We’ll need a few more days to really soak in all we’ve learnt and experienced during those, very intense, 3 days. 12.000+ attendees from over 100 countries were present at the event, and I’m positive our startups met quite a few of them!
Both our Roadshow and Europass startups had meetings scheduled during those very intense 3 days, but let me start from the day they landed in Madrid on Tuesday 4th of October.
On that same evening, Tetuan Valley, one of Welcome’s partners, organized a dinner for the selected startups, and, as we all know, food, especially if served with a glass of cold beer –over 35 °C that week in Madrid, just saying!– makes socializing easier than usual.
Day 1:
The following day, October 5th, South Summit officially started. Startups from both the Europass and the Roadshow programme spent the whole day attending talks, workshops and, of course, networking!
The Roadshow teams got to meet the representatives of two international VCs: Nauta Capital and Balderton Capital; and the head of the startup program of Orange France. Over four hours were spent talking to investors and corporates at this meet up that WELCOME organized for them.
Just after lunch, all the Europass startups checked in at our meeting point: the Startup Europe Booth. It was great to feel such enthusiasm, and to hear many stories of just a few hours at the event! This time was also used for networking between the teams and sharing success stories, tips and tricks on how to master the conference. As you can imagine, we could not miss the opportunity to take a group photo before getting lost in the event again.
Day 2:
On Thursday the founders attended a PR workshop on how to prepare your startup for a PR campaign and how to make the best out of it. The workshop was facilitated by Olivia Czetwertynski, PR Consultant and founder of Becomewide. According to startups, this was one of the star events of the programme. In addition, throughout the three days Olivia held 1-to-1 sessions with the Roadshow startups on how to tackle specific PR issues for their startups.
The rest of the day was left for networking at South Summit, which proved to be a great event to make contacts, meet other entrepreneurs and learn lots from others.
To be more precise, startups were involved in over 60 meetings with investors, corporate and potential partners! We’re already following up with them to see if something decisive has been discussed during the event. Bear with us and you’ll find out!
What they said:
“South Summit helped us to expand our vision. Nice event, nice people, good opportunity. We enjoyed Summit” Lorenzo Ricciardi, Karmahouse
“It was a great well done organised event” Caio Bulgarelli, Sprintfire
“South Summit has been interesting, mainly related to some insights and lessons learned through the Fintech space and the Dave McClure keynote…Lucia, Silvia and all the team members were really amazing and supportive. We do really appreciate their work and their kind help” Daniele Galifa, Goalshouter
Take a look at Welcome’s pre-event blog post to check out their Roadshow and Europass startups.
Commissioner Carlos Moedas discussing Startup Europe at South Summit.
South Summit’s first day just came to an end, and what a day!
The Startup Europe booth has been very busy from very early in the morning: many people seemed to be attracted to the European Commission logo, and to what the EU has to offer to the startup ecosystem.
In the early afternoon, a very special guest came to our booth: Carlos Moedas, the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation. He was kind enough to spare some of his very short time in Madrid to engage in a brief discussion on Startup Europe with us.
Some of the main points discussed were the need to share best practices and improve interaction amongst the EU Member States. Moedas argued how important it is to keep Startup Europe an umbrella initiative, where individuals are directly involved and can actually see what is happening and how. People need to be actively aware of what is taking place at European level, and need to establish a direct contact with the European initiatives to feel part of them. Without a doubt, getting startups in the political agenda is crucial.
We need to bear in mind that the end-user is our main objective.
Carlos Moedas, EC Commissioner, discussing Startup Europe with Matevz Gantar, Welcome project coordinator, at South Summit.
About South Summit:
South Summit is a leading startup conference in Europe aimed at showing to the world the talent, innovation and opportunity of the South.
Startup Europe is giving out 50 free passes for South Summit startup conference Madrid!
Are you thinking of attending South Summit but still don’t have a ticket?
Startup Europe is giving out 50 passes for startups! All you have to do is get in touch with us and show us your interest!
Write an e-mail to briefly explaining why you would like to attend South Summit and which session you’d like to listen to the most! Also let us know which Startup Europe project you are connected to!
Please send your response by 3rd October at the latest.
About the event:
South Summit is one of the leading startup conferences in Europe aiming to prove to the world the talent, the innovation and the opportunities from South.
South Summit will be held in Madrid, Spain, on 5th- 7th October 2016.
To see the programme of the conference, go here: South Summit programme