START Summit 2019 lays focus on interactivity

Every March, START Global, Europe’s leading initiative for entrepreneurship and technology among students, organizes the START Summit, which has grown to become one of Switzerland's leading conferences for entrepreneurship and technology. This year, the event will gather more than 2’500 visitors comprising of students, founders, investors, corporates, and like-minded people as well as media. 

In addition to Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented technologies, Blockchain and the Internet of Things, the 2019 edition will also focus on Entrepreneurial Impact to highlight the influence of a business ideas on society and economy while ensuring profitability. 

Keynotes, workshops and vast networking opportunities
Similar to the previous events, the START Summit 2019 brings industry experts on stage to deliver keynote speeches. Some of this year’s key speakers include Bracken Darrell, CEO of Logitech, and Richard Socher, Chief Scientist Salesforce. The conference also offers workshops, speed-dating sessions, one to one meetings as well as various networking opportunities. 

“START Summit offers founders a platform to meet and exchange with investors. An excellent example of the potential is the case of Valentin Stalf, founder of N26. He met one of his Investors - Axel Springer Plug and Play - at START Summit. We will continue to connect more startups in our joint technology ecosystem”, says Deborah Doerig, President of START Global. 

The format of the event will be familiar to the audience. The main stage will cover keynote speeches and some of the panel discussions while the START Arena covers industry and technology-specific themes. The next edition once again includes the START Circus stage where interactive event activities such as pitching competitions take place. Startups and industry leaders have the opportunity to showcase their solutions at the booths in the exhibition area. 

START pitching competitions
The START Summiteer pitching competition is a startup competition offering CHF 25’000 to the best startup pitch. One of the jury members will be investor Daniel Gutenberg, the Swiss “unicorn hunter”, who will evaluate and give insights to the contestants. For the START Factor pitching competition, any individual with a business idea can participate spontaneously. Registration for the competition can be concluded while purchasing the ticket via https://startsummit.ch/tickets. 

Start Hack
During 35 hours of the 4^th edition of START Hack, students from tech-universities will work on eight projects in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and Augmented technologies, Blockchain and the Internet of Things. The hackathon aims to foster an entrepreneurial mind-set of the students by encouraging them to challenge their thinking. Registration is now open via https://starthack.ch/ .