More prizes and cheaper passes for startups! Admissions to infoShare Startup Zone are still open

  20 thousand euro for the best startup and up to 1 million euro in potential investments for outstanding businesses – this is the stake in the infoShare Startup Contest in May. But that’s not all! The organizers of the event, the infoShare Foundation and Gdańsk Business Incubator, STARTER,  are upping the ante! The best startup in Poland will move on to compete in the global Creative Business Cup. On this occasion the period of admission for the contest and the Startup Zone got extended until April 20th. Startups may also benefit from a 50% discount. Register at www.infoshare.pl/startup-zone. The 10th infoShare conference in Gdańsk on May 18-20 will join around 5 thousand experts, fans of new technologies and media, as well as investors and entrepreneurs. An integral part of infoShare is the Startup Zone with its well-known Startup Contest. Last year the contest attracted almost 160 companies from all over the world. The contestants will be rated by an international jury which will include among else Jon von Tetzchner (the creator of  Vivaldi and Opera web browsers) and Marc Wesselink from the Startupbootcamp accelerator in Amsterdam. Almost 2 months before the event its organizers enhanced the offer for participating startups and made it easier for innovative businesses to show themselves in Gdańsk: – New and prominent partners are joining the Startup Zone, including the Creative Business Cup which offers a spot in its competition for the most creative participant of the Startup Contest. That’s why we want as many innovative businesses as possible to have the opportunity to present themselves in Gdańsk. Thanks to the support of our new partners we were able to cut the prices by half and give each team an additional pass – says Anna Wylężek from STARTER, Gdańsk Business Incubator. – InfoShare is the ideal place for CEE startups to shine globally, so it’s worthwhile for the investors from the region to make use of this opportunity – Wylężek adds. The infoShare Startup Contest paved the way to global fame for companies like CTAdventure. After succeeding in the Startup Contest in 2014 they won a ticket to the Creative Business Cup where they achieved the first prize in the world finals: – Participating in infoShare Startup Zone gave us the chance to present ourselves to a wider audience in Poland and abroad. We were able to make a lot of contacts and to draw a great deal of attention to our product, Professor Why™, in the media. The decision about taking part in another competition, the Creative Business Cup, was partially the result of our success in infoShare. We were well prepared and that gave us the title of the World’s Best Creative Entrepreneur – says Mateusz Marmołowski, the founder of CTAdventure. Yet the Startup Zone is not just the competition. It’s also the chance to take part in the Expo and present your project before 5 thousand conference attendees. Also, startups will have a unique opportunity to participate in speed dating and eye-to-eye meetings with global investors. Mentors such as Calum Cameron (Startup Wise Guys), Mike Bradshaw (AppCampus), Piotr Pietrzak (IBM), Niclas Fritz (BatchOne) will prepare the startups for the competition. Moreover, the Startup Stage is a guarantee of inspiration, with expert presentations by Joerg Rheinboldt – CEO of Axel Springer Plug&Play Accelerator in Berlin and Valérie Kinoo – founder and director of Coworking Les Galeries – a unique coworking space/art gallery. Other stages will see presentations by Kevin Goldsmith – the Vice President of Engineering in Spotify and Anthony le Roux – Uber General Manager for Eastern Europe, and many other talks by more than 100 speakers from all over the world. The conference will also feature specialised workshops on latest technologies, marketing, and new media by professionals such as Paul Boag from Boagworld.com, Mark Griffin from Brand24, or Pablo Musa from Elastic. The participants will have a chance to learn how gamification impacts customer loyalty, how to successfully sell products and services online, or how to manage crisis in social media. They will also learn about tools and methods of efficient data processing and analysis, and the significance of a user friendly interface on Internet platforms. The programme also has many extra features, such as the Networking Party, a bonding event for all conference attendees with a performance by Julia Marcell, or the Leaders Event – a meeting at Stadion Energa Gdańsk for businesspeople, investors, and managers of the C level, concluded by the Leaders Boat Race along the Motława river. During the last day of the conference its participants can go on a special cruise in the Baltic Bay called infoShare on the Boat. The application period for infoShare Startup Zone closes on 20 April 2016. The registration for the conference is open all the time. For more information on the registration process and discounts for startups visit www.infoshare.pl/startup-zone. Photo credit: Tomek Kamiński, Info:share 2015.