Web Summit 2014 prepared us for SLUSH
Written by Petri Pekkarinen
Web Summit 2014 is now behind us but it definitely left a mark. The conference brought together 22 000 people with at least one thing in common: love for tech. Entrepreneurs, investors, media… everyone had an interesting story to tell and a personal goal for their time in Dublin. No matter who you talked to, you would learn something valuable. I’m glad we chose to keep that attitude for the whole time.
The three-day conference was a long, intensive and interesting trip for us at SIEIDI. I bet that more people got to know of us than the previous six months in total. Only problem we faced that a clock has only so many hours for each day. Still, the best opportunity for us was to exhibit as one of the ALPHA startups on Wednesday as we got to tell our story to countless of people just passing by. A majority of the people we chatted with were other startup entrepreneurs, but there were also angel investors, VCs, game publishers and media representatives. Curious students were also a huge audience at our stand, and we surprisingly got a job inquiry or two on the spot.
A VR demo with Oculus Rift got our attention at the Centre Stage on Monday.
Gaming wasn’t such a big thing at Web Summit (compared to what other amazing things it had to offer), but there were a few dozen companies that had at least something to do with the game industry. Most of the companies were there to pitch their unique game, product or service. I believe there’s a quota after which one just can’t take in any more detail-specific product pitches.When you have only seconds to talk to someone, the first thing you come up with is just vomit your shortest pitch on the listener. That gets really tiresome both for the listener and the presenter soon enough. At least we met that quota on the first day there. So we chose to go team & company first, games second. According to initial responses and discussion it was the right thing to do. Some of the visitors were even overly excited of our visions, at least looking from a “Finnish perspective”.
So the best part was that we finally got to tell about our company in detail and get feedback from a totally new audience. It helps us to define what we want to be as company. The endless loop of telling our story, getting feedback and either consciously or subconsciously altering it for the next listener was invaluable. We have known for a while what we want to do and what is the direction for SIEIDI. But knowing that is just the beginning; telling it understandably and compellingly needs a lot more of that loop of reflection.
Tired and happy as the exhibition day was coming to an end. Ready to hit the night time networking events next!
After a week of recovering, follow-ups and busy schedule of the actual game development we are now prepared for next week. SLUSH in Helsinki will bring together another 10 000 people from the top of the tech world. Our expectations are high, not only for the event but ourselves. We believe to be even better prepared after Web Summit, so next week will show if we have really learned anything.
Even if we come from Jyväskylä and SLUSH is in Helsinki, it’s still a home field for us this time. Because coming from Silicon Valley or China, Finland is all the same. Born global, that’s what need to be.
We also had the chance to promote the Finnish game industry in general as well as local kick-ass events like BeatCon!