- NEXT Berlin - Start-up Pitch 2012: Application starts now!
NEXT Berlin, the leading conference for the digital industry in Europe - and its partner Deutsche Telekom - invites Start-ups to present their business ideas in front of investors and opinion leaders at the event NEXT Berlin on May 8 & 9, 2012. The application process will start at nextberlin.eu on March 13. Community voting and a decision from a jury of top class experts will follow in April and at the conference itself. Start-ups and their innovations will attract much attention, and have the chance to win a Start-up Pitch package worth 10.000 Euros. Berlin is the Start-up capital of Europe, and young businesses from all over the world are drawn to this vibrant city. Many of these, including companies like Amen, Gidsy, 6Wunderkinder, Upcload and wahwah.fm, capture international interest with their fresh ideas. The promotion of innovators and business stimulators has been an aim of the NEXT Berlin conference from the very start. NEXT Berlin Start-up Track With a complete track dedicated to the European Start-up scene, this year’s edition of NEXT Berlin will have an even greater emphasis on and value for Start-ups. Telekom, will be responsible for the track program, curated by Dr. Min-Kin Mak, Head of New Biz & Partnering at Telekom. Experienced founders, investors and business incubators will share their knowledge with the NEXT audience. For Start-ups this will be a perfect opportunity to do some serious networking. In addition, some of them will be invited to pitch their ideas live on stage to the digital industry’s international opinion leaders. NEXT Berlin Start-up Pitch NEXT Berlin and Telekom are searching for young founders or early Stage Start-ups in the internet and e-commerce sector, who want to present their innovative ideas and sustainable business models to a jury and audience of experts. The application process will start on March 13 at nextberlin.eu. Founders and Start-ups will be invited to present themselves to the NEXT Community, who will then vote applicants to the next round in early April. The NEXT Start-up Pitch jury will pick approx. twelve finalists, partly coming from the NEXT community’s top 30. The jury will consist of top experts from Telekom, successful entrepreneurs, and further venture capital and media representatives like Dr. Stefan Glänzer (White Bear Yard), Nate Elliott (VP, Forrester) and Jörg Rheinboldt (M10). On the first conference day, the jury will judge the finalist’s presentations and announce the winner, who will receive a Start-up Pitch package worth 10.000 Euros. Last year, wahwah.fm won the Start-Up Pitch with the presentation of their music sharing app. “Winning definitely helped us capture investors’ attention,” says CEO & Founder of wahwah.fm Philipp Eibach. “We were astonished by the internationality of the conference. The day after we won at NEXT, MTV New York and other media called to pick up our story.” Since then, wahwah.fm has excited investors and media alike. Featured on BBC News and in the The New York Times, it has been described as “Foursquare for sound” by TechCrunch. After a successful beta-version, the first full version of wahwah.fm went into the German app-store last month and was launched in the US last Friday. And who is NEXT? Find out at NEXT Berlin on May 8 & 9. For more information and photo download please go to nextberlin.eu/press or contact press@nextberlin.eu.
About Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom is one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies with over 129 million mobile customers, 34 million fixed-network lines and approximately 17 million broadband lines (as of December 31, 2011). The Group provides products and services for the fixed network, mobile communications, the Internet and IPTV for consumers, and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in around 50 countries and has over 235,000 employees worldwide. The Group generated revenues of EUR 58.7 billion in the 2011 financial year - more than half of it outside Germany (as of December 31, 2011). About NEXT Berlin NEXT Berlin will again be a highlight of Europe’s largest festival of the digital scene, the Berlin Web Week. Organised by the leading digital agency, SinnerSchrader, NEXT Berlin will close Berlin Web Week with its two-day conference on May 8 & 9. Around 2.000 opinion leaders will meet for networking, talks and workshops on the future of our digital environment. The program is divided into six theme tracks, curated by top-class professionals, for the topics: technology, creative, start-ups, mobile, fashion and experience. In addition, there will be a ’Keynote Track’ where renowned speakers will perform. Among the first confirmed conference speakers are technology historian George Dyson, Steve Souders (Google), Hermione Way (TNW), Alexia Tsotsis (TechCrunch), Russell Davies (R/GA London) and Jeremy Tai Abbett (Truth Dare Double Dare). Tickets for NEXT Berlin are available at nextberlin.eu. A Regular One-Day Ticket costs 690 Euros, a Regular Two-Day 990 Euros. Start-ups will be able to buy tickets at the reduced cost of 190 Euros. (All prices ex. fee and VAT.) About SinnerSchrader SinnerSchrader is one of the leading digital agencies in Europe. SinnerSchrader develops interactive stra- tegies, platforms, and applications which create radical relationships between consumers and brands. The SinnerSchrader Group has over 400 employees in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, and Hanover who work for customers such as Allianz, TUI, Tchibo, simyo, REWE, comdirect bank, PPR Group, Steigenberger and OTTO. SinnerSchrader was founded in 1996 and has been quoted on the stock exchange since 1999.