The Northern Europe Start-up #CityChallenge
2Pears, the team that bring you events and networking for creative and start-up companies in tech, music and media, are delighted to announce the upcoming evening of debate and networking to define which city in Northern Europe is the equivalent of Silicon Valley – the #CityChallenge – taking place in central Helsinki on 17 October, in conjunction with Arctic15.
2Pears together with NordicMeetup, supported by Inventure, the venture capital investor in early stage companies, and UK Trade and Investment, will be hosting an evening of debate and networking, starting at 18.00 at Grotesk Bar, Ludviginkatu 10, which will see 6-8 Northern European cities pitted against each other to win the title of The Silicon Valley of Northern Europe.
The debate will also contain an interactive voting quiz on mobile, courtesy Fruitboars, for the audience to participate in.
The debaters of the evening, each representing a Northern European city, will discuss the following competitive factors in particular:
- The availability of skilled people
- Availability and ease of access to financing
- The regulatory environment and government responsiveness and support
- Marketing and access to customers
- The availability of business infrastructure
The confirmed debaters include:
- Copenhagen: Lars Buch, partner & managing director of Startupbootcamp Copenhagen, previously R&D Director at Nokia
- Helsinki: Kristoffer Lawson, co-founder of Holvi, and StartupSauna as well as The Alternative Party
- London: Scott Sage, partner at DFJ Esprit, co-founder of City Meets Tech in London
- Oslo: Tor Grønsund, founding partner at Lingo Social, and lecturer of entrepreneurship at the University of Oslo
- Riga: Andris Berzins, investment advisor at Creandum, co-founder TechHub Riga, and Startup Wise Guys advisor
- Stockholm: Henrik Dillman, co-founder of Mancx, winner of Arctic15 last year
- Tallinn: Priit Salumaa, co-founder of Mooncascade, Garage48 and Mobile Monday Estonia
Moderator of the debate is internationally recognised entrepreneur Mohamed El-Fatatry, founder of Muxlim Inc., and currently the chairman and CEO of My Islamic Voice.
The evening is created specifically to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, tech industry experts, and tech start-ups for a lively, informed and fun discussion.
2Pears co-founder Petra Johansson comments: “There is a thriving tech start-up scene in Europe which needs to celebrate its entrepreneurial spirit, while highlighting both the benefits and the challenges of growing out of a European country. This will help improve the business climate where necessary. The idea for #CityChallenge comes from on-going friendly banter on Twitter about which city in Northern Europe produces the best companies, and hosting the debate in conjunction with Arctic15 made perfect sense. All 2Pears events are focused on facilitating a productive dialogue between investors, entrepreneurs and technology businesses, with the aim to achieve a 4.5 times return on investment for all parties involved.”
Tuomas Kosonen, partner with Inventure, says: “As we are keen to see a continued stream of interesting and talented new early stage tech start-ups, we are delighted to support #CityChallenge by 2Pears, which will effectively highlight the excellent growth opportunities for companies in Northern Europe. We are looking forward to a fun evening of robust debate involving both investors and entrepreneurs.”
Mari Aaltonen from UK Trade & Investment explains: ”The UKTI objective is to support the growth and internationalisation of tech companies. We are naturally delighted to see Scott Sage defending London as the European Silicon Valley.
We are looking forward to an interesting debate and thrilled to see so many thriving start-up cities represented.”
The event is supported by media partners Financial Times and Mediatainment Finance.
Tickets for the event can be purchased here: http://www.amiando.com/NESCC.html
