I'm proud to be working with a bunch of great people in Trondheim right now to create an awesome innovation conference next month. I'm running most of the digital media channels of the conference, such as the innovation blog, Facebook page, Twitter account, and pushing the conference to international media.
Here's what we're up to and why you should come along.
Technoport 2014 brings together entrepreneurs, investors, business leaders, students, researchers and dreamers in Trondheim, Norway's technology capital, from 28-30 April.
This isn't just a place to talk, it's a place to:
- Use the power of “the crowd” to meet global challenges
- Fund innovative ideas using equity crowdfunding
- Address industry problems with crowdsourcing
- Network with hundreds of like-minded innovators
- Be inspired by new perspectives
- Discover Trondheim, Norway’s technology capital
What I'm most excited about
Personally, I can't wait for the Live Crowdfunding Experiment.
I'm toying with my own experiment in reward-based crowdfunding with my football book Scoring in Norway, but the thought of easily investing in companies through equity crowdfunding is really exciting. Assuming one or more of the startups are worthy of my money, I'm definitely going to invest. Are you?
I'm looking forward to the talk by David Rowan, the editor of WIRED UK. They are busy reinventing the model for magazines with their award-winning native iPad app and continue to provide thought-provoking investigative pieces in a media world dominated by short-form “buzz” articles. He'll be opening the session called Into the Crystal Ball, looking at the potential for transformative technologies in the 21st Century.
I'll also be checking in at Troublemakers, a discussion session with Jonas Kjellberg, who led the global expansion of Skype, and Rolf Assev, of Opera Software fame and now partner at Oslo's StartupLab.
If that's not convinced you, then how about this…
Five reasons to come to Technoport 2014
1 – Network with innovators
Technoport 2014 gives you a unique chance to pick the brains of Norway's most innovative people, plus some inspiring guests from around the world. Click here to see the full list of speakers, but don't forget there'll also be hundreds of like-minded participants there just waiting for you to meet.
2 – Discover new perspectives
Technoport is all about sharing best practice and discovering new ways of doing things. Whatever you job, whatever your field, I guarantee you will learn something new, or be inspired to do something differently.
3 – Learn all about crowdfunding
We'll be examining both reward-based crowdfunding and equity crowdfunding as business models of the future. And I do really mean examine, not discuss. The Live Crowdfunding Experiment will showcase several Norwegian startups willing to exchange equity in their business for your cash.
4 – Share the problem
Businesses of the calibre of Statoil and Ericsson will let the crowd (i.e. YOU!) loose on a problem specific to their industry. Will new perspectives and best practice from other industries help solve them? Come, take part, and find out!
5 – Find a job
A wide range of companies and organisations are involved with Technoport either as funding members or partners, including NTNU, SINTEF, The Research Council of Norway, Innovation Norway, Statoil, the Municipality of Trondheim, Sparebank 1 SMN, Statkraft, and more. Take the opportunity to network with decision-makers at some of the country's most exciting workplaces.
Find out more about Technoport 2014.
