Slush, it was nice to meet you
It all started on the 10th of November, when we went to pick up our Slush tickets at Kamppi.
Before we got there, we didn’t think that the event was that big! 15000 attendees, from 100 countries, and we only were 2 girls from France and Spain. The whole event was a good surprise and we were really happy to go there to discover a lot companies.
Those two (really good) days were a good way for us to meet new people – talk to start-ups to understand their strategy or just discover new companies with good ideas – but also listen to founders of bigger companies and understand how they got where they are today. It was interesting to see what are their objectives, what problems they had to face in the past and how they see the future. The presentations were quite short – it was fast and there was no useless information. They just got to the point and explained clearly what they had to.
It sounds like an inspiring experience, and it was! This is the kind of place where you realize that hard work pays off and that we, students, could be one of them later. This also was a way to discover new companies of which we could be clients and that we think deserve to be known.
On the 11th, when we got in, our first impression was that Slush looked way bigger than we expected. A few minutes later it was time for the opening – then we started to walk around and understand how much things we were going to see and learn. We now understood why people would come to Finland for three days just to go to Slush – it is something big!
We really liked Slush. It was not just about going there because we had tickets to use. But why did we like it? There are a lot of reasons! There were really big companies as well as smaller ones, which were more accessible. The start-ups had small booths and were just waiting for you to pass by to explain was is their activity and give an answer to all the questions you can have. Thanks to the afterparties, in Kaiku for the first night, and in the Slush place for the second one, those start-ups people were even more accessible.
We even got internships/future jobs possibilities by talking with them. This is way easier to get professional opportunities by talking directly to someone, and thanks to Slush we did! Of course we really liked those afterparties. It was nice to meet people in a more relaxed environment, or just enjoy some drinks in a cool place with nice music!
One of the things we also liked a lot was the Slush 100 pitching competition. 100 companies – 100 good ideas – 5 minutes each to convince the jury that their idea is a promising one. We listened to a lot of different pitches! The information they chose to talk about was always different and the way they did it too; it was nice to see what they think is the best way to present their company and convince the jury that their idea is worth it.
We have nothing more to say – except that this was a really nice experience – and that if we could go back there next year, we would! Slush, it was nice to meet you!
Rocio & Adélaïde – Group 9
The course “Internationalisation of Small and Medium sized Businesses (5 ECTS)” is the first course of the “Business in the Baltic Sea Region (15 ECTS)” extensions studies. During the course students plan and manage small internationalization projects and actively support SMEs to enter foreign markets. This is done in co-operation with the Digas project, supported by the European ERASMUS+, KA2 programme.