Slush.
It might be a little word, but Finnish Slush is huge. Not only in Scandinavia, but worldwide – and it’s still growing. Today Slush is one of the leading technology and startup events gatherings, where speakers of innovation, entrepreneurs and investors meet to bring ideas to life and make business. In 4 years Slush has grown to become the largest venturing event in Europe. It has also gained enormous popularity outside Europe, which the Slush-China conference proved on 13 October 2015.
“It’s a life time experience,” says Wang Jian, CTO of Alibaba group.
Slush-China took place at International Conference Service Center in Beijing, and the two-day conference had a clear mission.
“China is becoming an international center of innovation. We want to encourage Chinese startups and youth to become the new international pioneers for the global stage,” says the Slush-China CEO Lauri Tammi.
Finland strongly supports Slush, and the Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipilä attended Slush-China in Beijing to encourage Chinese entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship is increasingly progressing in China, and every year millions of Chinese establish new businesses. Being the central hub for established companies and brands that are interested in emerging technology, Slush can be a great support when starting up a new company. The event brings relevant investors and companies to the same place and makes sure that the right companies meet the right investors in one-on-one meetings.
No less than xxxx guests attended the Slush-China event. Slush-China could not have chosen a better person for the opening address than Risto Siilasmaa: not only is he the Chairman of Nokia and has made Finnish business history, he has also been a part of Slush right from the early stages. In his speech to Slush-China he mentioned that still, even he could not foresee the force that Slush could bring about n the global startup community and beyond that.
His speech stated that Slush is not just a Finnish, but truly an international event.
Another speaker at Slush-China was the President of Intel China, Ian Yang. In his speech he told the audience how innovations in China have changed during the past 10-20 years. According to Ian Yang, the whole scene has changed with the geographic scope moving from few cities to the entire nation, the industrial scope from ICT to all the sectors, and in terms of creators of innovations, from experts to basically anyone interested and committed. Additionally, the funding and support for the innovations by the government and other entities has become more strategic and strong.
Slush China event included activities on several stages, including the main venue, pitching competition and Slush Café. A Finnish-Chinese innovation forum started out the activities at Slush Café.
Among the speakers were also the Ambassador of Finland in China, Marja RislakkiIn. She emphasized how important it is to collaborate in innovations.
“In today’s world, no one can innovate alone or in isolation”, she said.
Slush had a great start in China. Increasing amount of Chinese participants attended the Slush main event in Helsinki on 11-12 November. .
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