(A very) Short summary of SLUSH

For those of you who haven’t heard about it, Slush is one of the largest assemblies of investors and entrepreneurs in the world. The event that hosts around 15 000 (and counting) guests annually is hosted in the cold and dark Helsinki, Finland each fall. The two-day event boasts dozens of world class keynote speakers and discussion on multiple stages. The talks usually revolve around the topics of entrepreneurship, business, society and technology. In 2016 Slush brought together 1 700 startup companies, 800 Investors and hundreds of journalists in one massive and international networking event.

Along with thousands of others I decided to apply to Slush 2015 as volunteer and later took part in the event in something called the “demo area team”. In addition to aforementioned stages, Slush has areas for product displays and large companies have bought dedicated areas to promote their development. For startups there was the demo area, where the companies could rent a 2m by 2m booth for their own product displays and promotions. In an event that was just incredible as a whole, this area was in my opinion the best part. Here you could meet some of the most interesting companies both from Finland and internationally. Most importantly you could actually have a conversation with the people working for these companies. There were also specific areas for one-on-one meetings between startups and investors, facilitated by Slush’s matchmaking tool for entrepreneurs, food courts, one of the stages was dedicated to pitching (Each Slush has a pitching competition, where the winner gets contacts, partnerships and most importantly, investments).

As a volunteer I got to see the buildup to this great event, the event itself and a lot of the behind the scenes action such a massive event is sure to provide. And the best thing? If you volunteer, you get into the event for free. It’s hard to describe this event in a blog post, so I strongly recommend applying for volunteer in Slush 2017 and seeing it for yourself. There is something for pretty much everyone and I actually scored a great internship in Slush

– Jaakko Söderholm