sTARTUp Day invites everyone to start a business

On December 9th, at the University of Tartu’s initiative, the first international business festival sTARTUp Day 2016 will be held. Over 1,000 entrepreneurs, investors, students, and scientists will come together and more than 40 speakers will discuss successful business models.

“We all know somebody who is involved with a start-up. But do we really know what a start-up is? We’re organising this event to explore, in detail, this very topic and to inspire people to start a business,” said Andres Kuusik, festival organiser and the Head of the University of Tartu Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.

“The event tells a story of beginnings and the journeys that followed. We have invited more than 40 speakers from around the world to share their experiences, their keys to success, and discuss ways to build a sustainable business model,” noted Kuusik in elaborating on the main topic of the festival “How to earn if there is nothing to burn?”

Local names taking the stage include Olympic athlete Gerd Kanter, musician Sandra Vabarna, and co-founder of Taxify Martin Villig. Presenters adding a global perspective include one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the world Jamie Dunn, the YouTube sensation Christian LeBlanc, and designer of virtual reality Keiichi Matsuda, among others.

In addition to presentations, everyone is invited to take part in practical workshops, look around the virtual reality room, learn about new products, services, and job offers from the university and start-ups, and enjoy the event finale pitching competition.

The festival is being held in the recently opened Estonian National Museum. The event will be hosted by Louis Zezeran from Comedy Estonia.

An after-party will be held in cooperation with Tartu Music Week in the former exhibition building of the Estonian National Museum on Kuperjanovi street. Besides foreign performers like the Finnish-Chadian singer-songwriter Suad and the ambassador of spiritual bass techno from Russia Moa Pillar, several Estonian musicians are also represented — these include noir-rap master reket and the rawk’n’rowl group Dead Furies, among others. In addition to the festival night, pop-up concerts and music+technology talks will be held in the offices of start-up companies and the cafés of Tartu.

Registration and ticket information: www.startupday.ee.

Organisers and Partners
sTARTUp Day business festival is organised at the initiative of the University of Tartu by Tartu City Government, Tartu Science Park, Tartu Business Advisory Services, Tartu Biotechnology Park, Tartu Centre for Creative Industries, Contriber, and sTARTUp community.

The event is supported by Startup Estonia, Swedbank, Pipedrive, Mooncascade, A. Le Coq, Fortumo, and Hedman Partners. Foreign speakers travel here with the help of the Enterprise Estonia, Baltic-American Freedom Foundation, embassies of USA, Sweden, and the Netherlands, and Edu Tegu (foundation Innove). The after-party is organised by Tallinn Music Week.

Additional information: Ermo Tikk, sTARTUp Day marketing and communication, ermo.tikk@ut.ee, +372 5343 2165