Reserve Wednesday and Thursday, 11 and 12 May 2016, for PODIM 2016 – the biggest startup, entrepreneurship and innovation conference in Slovenia and the Alps-Adriatic region! Every year, Maribor’s hotel Habakuk is the place where more than 600 participants from more than 10 countries, and more than 80 esteemed Slovenian and international speakers and investors gather, meet and network!
 
PODIM is an intense two-day event for networking, finding investors, getting motivated and gaining the latest knowledge from the world of entrepreneurship. It’s a conference that reverberates in heads, hearts and business results of all participants long after it ends.
 
 

“Early bird” and 2-for-1 ticket sales

When we announced the first speaker, we started selling tickets by especially affordable prices, giving an “early bird” discount (10 %) as well as a limited amount of two tickets for the price of one. This means that two startup entrepreneurs can get a ticket for about 87 EUR per person. The conference is sold out every year, so hurry up with your purchase!
 
 

Revealing the first speakers

Some have already confirmed their presence at the PODIM 2016 Conference:

• Alex Iskold, managing director of one of the biggest and most prominent American accelerators, Techstars from New York.
• Dr. Jens Pippig, founder and managing director of the ProSiebenSat.1 accelerator.
• Rune Theill, co-founder of the Rockstart accelerator from Amsterdam and best investor in the Netherlands in 2012 and 2013.  
• Howard Kingston, multiple award winning marketing guru of the London startup scene whose startup Adludio works with all the biggest Fortune 500 brands and can get 6 million new users in a year.
• dr. Nadya Zhexembayeva, queen of reinvention, with whom you can reinvent your products, business processes and management practices, much like Coca-Cola, IBM or CISCO that she advises do.
• Rob Bailey, investor and mentor from San Francisco who helped gather more than 50 million dollars of investment into SaaS and big-data startups!
• Poornima Vijayashanker, startup entrepreneur, engineer, computer programmer, esteemed speaker and author from San Francisco who left a deep mark on the American high-tech scene.
• Gary Whitehill, globally renowned entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, mentor, philanthropist and advisor to Fortune 100 companies and government leaders, founder of Entrepreneur Week & The Relentless Foundation.
• Matt Hart, globally known innovator that helps clients such as BBC, Cancer Research UK, Cisco, MTV, O2, Sony Music, Spotify, Telefonica, Unicef, Unilever, Warners and others to build the widest possible audience.
• Piotr Bucki, communications expert and sought-after mentors helping startups in Poland, Slovenia, Chile, Moldavia, Azerbaijan and Australia to perfect their “Why” and marketing messages.
• And many others…

We invite you to see all confirmed speakers at http://podim.org.


Finding an investment, announcing the Start:up of the Year, and networking, networking, networking!
 
This year’s key content segments of the PODIM Conference will be:

• More than 30 lectures, roundtables and workshops presenting global experiences, the latest knowledge and practical advice from the work of rapid and lean companies.
• PODIM Challenge – investment part of the conference with a pitching competition and presentations of chosen startups to more than 30 esteemed Slovenian, regional and global investors.
• PODIM Big & Fast – speed dating and match-making meetings of big established companies looking for new innovative technologies, solutions and products, with chosen startups.
• PODIM 1:1 – organized one-on-one meetings of startups with investors and speakers who can help them with global breakthrough or expansion with their contacts, advice and partnerships.
• Official conclusion to the selection Start-up of the Year 2016 where we will present the Start-up of the Year 2016 finalists and announce the winner who will receive the title “Slovenian Start-up of the Year 2016”.  

PODIM Challenge 2016

PODIM is also an investment conference, annually visited by more than 30 well-known international and Slovenian investors. The investment part includes the pitching competition PODIM Challenge, and organized 1:1 meetings between investors and startups.

PODIM Challenge is intended for finding a seed investment for early-stage startups that already have an MVP and first testing clients. Application deadline is 15 April 2016!
 
From amongst all received applications, we will choose five to seven promising startups from the Alps-Adriatic region who will have a 5-minute pitch in front of esteemed foreign and national investors, PODIM Challenge jury members. Many international and Slovenian investors will also be present in the conference audience!
 

PODIM is for developers what a marketing conference is for marketers!

“PODIM is an excellent opportunity for all developers, innovators, project office managers and idea managers to meet and pick up the principles, skills and energies of rapid, agile and lean development teams,” thinks a regular participant and conference partner Lojze Bertoncelj, co-founder of the consulting company 30Lean and the Slovenian Running Lean movement. “Much like the Staff Congress for staffers, Sales Summit for sellers, Marketing conference for marketing or Manager Congress for managers, PODIM is thus indispensable for everyone who’s in charge of efficient development processes in the company,” illustrates Bertoncelj.
 

Side-conference activities for the Slovenian and regional ecosystem

The PODIM Conference will be supplemented by a number of pre- and post-conference activities in Ljubljana, Klagenfurt, Graz, Budapest and other cities. Organizers will devote these activities to spreading specific knowledge, adapted to individual target groups of the entrepreneurship and startup ecosystem in Slovenia and the Alps-Adriatic region.
 

Partners from Slovenia and the Alps-Adriatic region

The PODIM Conference is organized by the Initiative Start:up Slovenia together with key partners of the Alps-Adriatic startup ecosystem from Austria, Italy and Hungary, the Slovene Enterprise Fund, Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, SPIRIT Public Agency as a promotional partner, and innovation ecosystem of the University of Maribor. The conference wouldn’t be here without partners that enable quality implementation and co-create the programme: ABC Accelerator, CEED Slovenia, 30Lean, RSG Kapital, Microsoft and others that are listed at http://www.podim.org.
 

About the Initiative

Initiative Start:up Slovenia combines the most important stakeholders of the Slovenian startup ecosystem. Leading partners are Venture Factory and Technology Park Ljubljana. Strategic partners of the Initiative are the Chamber of Commerce Slovenia and COINVEST. Members of the initiative are Primorska Technology Park, Pomurje Technology Park, Savinja Region Incubator, SAŠA Incubator and Club of Young Entrepreneurs Novo Mesto.
 
You can get all information about the PODIM Conference at info@podim.org. 

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