Dates: November 30- December 1, 2016 | Tickets here
To become a speaker apply here | Deadline: August 12, 2016
[Oops, the opportunity has already expired. Sign up to AlphaGamma weekly newsletters to stay ahead of the game]
Prices: starting from EUR 295,-
Location: Helsinki, Finnland

SLUSH 2016:
Europe’s leading startup event

Slush is a non-profit event organised by a community of entrepreneurs, investors, students, and festival organisers. Although Slush has grown from a 300-person event to become one of the leading events of its kind in the world, the philosophy behind it has remained the same: to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward.

Not Californian sun – but honest Slush

Originally founded to change attitudes towards entrepreneurship, Slush is a student-run non-profit movement characterised by a unique energy and enthusiasm.

In 2015, Slush brought together 15,000 attendees from 100 countries for the two-day event held in Helsinki. The philosophy behind it has remained the same: to help the next generation of great, world-conquering companies forward.

Since the beginning, facilitating meetings between startups and investors has been at the very core of Slush. In 2015, 1,700 early-stage startups and 800 registered investors pre-booked over 4000 meetings to be held during the two days of Slush through our industry-leading proprietary matchmaking software.

Two days full of excitement

Slush is a two-day event with five stages full of the program. Slush gathers successful founders, investors and media who take the stage to share their stories in fireside chats and keynotes. One stage is purely dedicated for pitching. The others are filled with experts sharing their stories and sparking a dialogue on the future.

Slush is a great opportunity to influence the hearts and minds of 15,000 tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and investors from around the world. The pace of the program is fast, talks and fireside chats usually being 15–20 minutes.

Stories from the North

This year Slush drew inspiration from Nordic mythologies – the stories depicting how the Northern people survived through the dark and the cold back in the days. For the program, they are looking for exceptional, almost mythical stories by entrepreneurs that are told and retold years after Slush.

The program is curated by the independent content team with the help of a number of serial entrepreneurs, investors and tech experts. Personal experience, strong stories, data-backed findings, and exclusive content are appreciated.

An eye-opening experience

Slush connects startups and tech talent with top-tier international investors, executives, and media. Facilitating meetings between startups and investors is at the very core of Slush.

One-of-a-kind community

Slush is not just an event: it is a one-of-a-kind community, now expanding globally. Slush is run by youth who want to make a difference in their societies. Niklas Zennström, Taizo Son, Ilkka Paananen, Risto Siilasmaa, and Mårten Mickos, amongst others, have already become part of the non-profit initiative that is radically changing how entrepreneurship is perceived in Northern Europe, Japan, and China.

Slush is closer to a festival than a conference – it’s all about celebrating entrepreneurship. It is not a business, but a community of people who love what they do. Organised by a group of 1,500 volunteers and 600 event professionals, Slush is the largest technical production in Finnish history.

Interested in speaking at Slush?

Slush is a great opportunity to influence the hearts and minds of 15,000 entrepreneurs, investors and tech enthusiasts from around the world.

They are now looking for great speakers through an open call. Speakers can be founders, startup team members, researchers, or specialists. The talks and interviews at Slush are short, and the pace of the program is fast.

They are looking for 16-minute talks with non-commercial content: instead of promoting, endorsing or speaking about your own company or brand, they want you to share a memorable story or lesson.

The audience loves real-life case examples, stories of impact or proven scientific results. Speakers will be selected by the end of August. Deadline: August 12, 2016

SLUSH 2016 themes

1. The mind of an entrepreneurIn the world of entrepreneurship, the fear of failure and the drive to succeed are constantly present. Nine out of ten startups fail, but failure still has a lot of stigmas and a negative connotation, even though successful serial entrepreneurs often fail several times before succeeding. At the same time, mindfulness and self-development are becoming more and more popular in the startup scene.At Slush 2016, they want to embrace the hardships of life as learning experiences, and encourage the community to share their solutions to coping with stress, struggle and social pressure. Seeing hard times as a natural part of the entrepreneurial life can help us to embrace the darkness.
2. The next 100 years of your lifeThe life expectancy of a newborn has risen by over 10 years over the past half a century. The new discoveries in bio and nano technologies, regenerative medicine, and other areas of life sciences are promising us new opportunities for longer and healthier life. Longer life expectancy also sets new challenges.With the ageing population, how do we create more quality years into life without needing to spend years in institutional care? Hospitals are becoming connected, doctors have more data for their diagnoses, and people can get more information about their health status. Insurance companies are subsidising healthy lifestyles, and health care professionals are increasingly becoming proactive lifestyle coaches.
3. The self-driving societyTechnology startups are not just disrupting hotels, cabs and payments. One industry after another, startups are dismantling institutions in insurance, banking, taxation, democracy, healthcare, to name a few. Robots, artificial intelligence and deep neural networks are taking more responsibility in running several tasks, which raises the question about the role of work in the future. Security and privacy are becoming more important, as abuse will have critical consequences.Are we happy to give more control to machines, and at what cost?
4.  Survival plans for planet EarthWhen nations are failing at protecting our planet, startups are taking the lead in developing innovative ways of producing energy and food, keeping our oceans clean, and preserving biodiversity.There will soon be a billion new consumers in the world, and societies along with startups will have to solve problems caused by drought, famine and waves of immigration. However, if all else fails, it’s good to have Plan B.We’re setting our sights towards new frontiers – the Moon, Mars and beyond. As space technology is becoming cheaper to develop, we’re seeing commercial satellites launched into space by small businesses and people booking flights to outer space.
5. Augmenting the human lifeThe year 2016 will be remembered as the year when VR was seriously launched for the masses. Oculus, Playstation, Samsung, HTC among others launch their consumer headsets, while gaming companies, movie studios, media, and startups bring great quality content available for the virtual experience.Together with augmented reality technology, they are opening a window of opportunity to redefine entertainment, gaming, learning, travel, and work among other areas of life. Slush 2016 will take a deep look into how VR, AR and AI will improve our life and capabilities.

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