Slush 2014, afterthoughts

Slush 2014 has ended. Conclusions have been made, business cards stacked in neat piles and stored into database. And next steps have been agreed.

Now the whole team is working with important tasks with huge excitement. Mood is great and positive, even better than before the event.

What is Slush?

Slush is a two-days event where startup and growth companies' owners and representatives meet investors, press and naturally each others. This year's Slush was bigger than ever. Over 13.000 visitors from 79 different countries. The number of visitors doubled compared to last year.

One notable part of the event are 300 exhibitors. Companies were selected by a group of influential and high profile professionals. 10% of all the applicants were selected. One of them was Cozify.

900 companies enrolled into 5 minutes pitching-competition. From this list, 100 got their chance to convince a group of investors. The winner was granted with 500.000 Euros investment. Enbrite.ly won this year's competition. We wish all the good for the winner.

So, what stuck into our minds this year?

Slush 2014 was our first public appearance for such a big audience. We put a lot effort into everything to make it matter. Materials, booth design, demo and sharpening our business idea took a lot of time from the whole team. Doing everything well and concentrating into details with great passion is a signal to booth visitors showing that we really care about what we do. Our hard work was well rewarded.

We had our own booth on Tuesday. Small four square meter area where we had to fit a table, tv, small shelf and three (not that small) Cozify advocates. Our booth area was fully packed.

The interest towards our service exceeded our wildest dreams. We presented our service and shared our thoughts with huge amount of visitors from various countries and different backgrounds. It was great to notice there was a real interest towards our service. Many of the booth visitors said they had noticed our service already before the event and wanted to meet us in person to discuss and share thoughts.

Kimmo and Antti had their time at spotlights and were pitching our idea to potential investors and partners in several meetings in order to make valuable connections.

We also got some nice attention from the media. For example one podcast spent some time to explain our service and business model.

Listen brief review from 01:01:01 onward:
Techxpatspodcast

Tuesday was a great day indeed!

On Wednesday we had time to get familiar with other companies' products and services, listen to speeches from inspiring people and meet old and new contacts. The whole event area was filled with a positive and encouraging atmosphere. The visitors were on good mood and the surroundings were amazing. The production exceeded the level of Eurovision contest, held in Helsinki in 2007. The exhibition area was simply put great.

A lot of the companies presenting came from different backgrounds. Biisafe, Optiwatti, Haltian, Nimble, Cosmethics and codementor are examples of interesing consepts and products.

A big part of the event were the inspiring speakers. Ilkka Paananen, Jorma Ollila, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Tiina Zilliacus, Marko Ahtisaari and Mikko Hyppönen inspired and gave people something to think about. Not to mention the speakers from the many other countries.

Once again on Wednesday both Kimmo and Antti were giving presentations about our services with great passion and full heart.

Slush has now grown from a baby event to at least to a teenager level. The number of visitors and companies participating the event is simply amazing. An event that has just in five years grows from 200 visitors to 13.000 is an achievement many don't ever reach.

What remains to be seen is, will the event outgrow from its own carcass. With this year's setup the event was extremely useful for startups like us. We will participate next year for sure. We also recommend the event to everyone and wish all the startups huge success and long life.

Read more about Slush from www.slush.org. Now we, the Cozify team, will land back to the ground level and continue our voyage towards our own dream. The launch date is getting nearer and there is a ton of things yet to be done.

Ps. We will select our next pilot program group soon. To be on the candidate list to become a participant in the next pilot, please fill in our preorder form at www.cozify.fi.