Come Tuesday 29 November iEER partners will arrive to Helsinki for a peer review visit. Arriving at the darkest time of the year, visitors will have to bear slippery streets and only a few hours of sunlight. So why on earth would the Finns invite anyone to visit them at such depressing time of the year?
The answer to this is Slush, the hottest startup gathering in Europe. This year 15,000 attendees, 2,000 startups, 800 venture capitalists, and 700 journalists from over 100 countries meet in Helsinki on 30.11.-1.12.2016 to drive business and experience the event’s rock star atmosphere. Student led entrepreneurship societies are very active in Helsinki and are behind major innovations like Slush and accelerator Startup Sauna. Slush got its start as a student-led event, and has now grown to a global phenomenon with events in Tokyo, Shanghai and Singapore.
Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. Helsinki has a metropolitan population of over 1.4 million and is home for over 500 tech startups. The region has numerous incubators and accelerator programs. Industry-defining technologies such as SSH, Linux and MySQL have been developed in Helsinki and local success stories include Rovio (Angry Birds) and Supercell.
Helsinki-Uusimaa region received the European Entrepreneurial Region (EER) label in 2012 and chose Young Entrepreneurship for its theme. In Helsinki iEER partners will get to know local accelerators, find out what financing opportunities are available for SMEs in Helsinki-Uusimaa and hear from young entrepreneurs. iEER is hosting an official Slush side-event on Tuesday 29 November titled “Future of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Helsinki-Uusimaa”. You can check out the seminar’s agenda here.
Remember to follow us on Twitter at @BoostiEER for live updates from Slush!
