I was recently asked to moderate the Slovak Start-Up Awards in Bratislava, which I gladly agreed to do. I was more than happy to see such an event take place in my home country and was pleasantly surprised by the turnout and quality of the event.
The main sponsors were Neulogy, Dell, Sario and KPMG. This was a contest to choose 4 companies which would be sent to California to spend time at the Plug & Play Tech Center. The majority of the event was taken up by live pitches from the 11 finalists. Additonally, all the sponsors spoke on stage about what they are doing in the CEE region and I moderated a panel of investors and an entrepreneur from Slovakia. The final keynote was the Minister of Economics from Slovakia, Dr. Juraj Miskov, who unfortunately was the only participant to speak in Slovak instead of English. This was a bit odd since after the event I clearly heard him speaking English and German fluently.
If you're interested in the region, take a look. It was good to see so many companies apply for the award and to hear the finalists pitch their business case.
Startup Awards.SK 17.11.2011 from Neulogy on Vimeo.
P.S. I had no involvement in choosing the music. Just be aware of that! :-)
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