27.11.2008 Finnish start-up scene is booming – if you can make it in the slush, you can make it anywhere!

Slush funding for new creative ideas granted to Illme, Nixarn and Siilein Research

Helsinki, Finland – November 27th, 2008 – The energy levels in wintry Helsinki were turned to max when the eager entrepreneurs attended the very first Slush conference and workshop on Monday 24th November 2008. The event organised by start-ups for start-ups attracted 400 visitors to Korjaamo in Helsinki for a day.

Fittingly themed as if you can make it in the slush, you can make it anywhere the event wanted to draw attention to the fast growing Finnish technology start-up scene and match the local players with the global scene. The conference provided a platform for new entrepreneurs to interact with the seasoned industry players for useful guidance and vision.

“Finnish start-ups need role models to succeed in the global marketplace. We wanted to give them an opportunity to meet with the people who have made it big already. Good start-ups become successful with the right guidance, honest feedback and creative ideas. It is ok to make mistakes and if you hear someone from the top saying that, you are more likely to try out new ideas rather than stay still,” explained Peter Vesterbacka, one of the Slush organisers.

Slush also aimed to change financing history with the Slush Fund that donated the event proceedings to the three most innovative start-up ideas. Illme, Nixarn and Siilein Research all get 5,000 euros to develop their business idea further. Illme aims to remove the common cold by tracking the status updates on the profiles of users on Facebook and other social networks and tie the symptoms to their location. Nixarn’s WhenWorld service will provide information to the users about when certain products will be available in a particular region. Siilein Research’s Eavesdropping game will offer a speech-to-text translation service.

“It is great to see that so many people are interested in running their own business. The Finnish start-up scene is really booming and as we have now seen at Slush there are great ideas to be deployed. You can almost feel the energy levels rising in Helsinki after such a successful event,” summarised the dynamic organising team of Ville Vesterinen from Arctic Startup, Kai Lemmetty from Floobs and Helene Auramo from Zipipop.

The interactive day of panels, keynotes and workshops brought in local heroes in the form of Risto Siilasmaa, founder of F-Secure, Michael “Monty” Widenius founder of MySQL, Ilkka Paananen founder of Sumea (now Digital Chocolate), the man behind First Hop and Jaiku, Petteri Koponen as well as Sampo Karjalainen, founder of Sulake (creators of Habbo Hotel) and Asmo Halinen, founder of Apaja Online. Taneli Tikka and Matt Marshall moderated the very first Slush. Taneli is a serial entrepreneur, who is currently managing RunToShop. Matt is the editor and founder of VentureBeat in Silicon Valley.

Slush will return bigger and better next year, and continue promoting the regional start-up scene with even more new and original ideas. Exact dates and themes can be found from the website nearer to the event.

For media enquiries:
Hanna Manninen, Tel. +358 40 572 4648, email hanna (at) netprofile.fi Christina Forsgård, Tel. +358 40 571 9192 Peter Vesterbacka, Tel. +358 50 555 2682 Ville Vesterinen, Tel. +358 44 555 1666 Helene Auramo, Tel. +358 50 492 1999 Kai Lemmetty, Tel. +358 50 326 2500

For photos, please email christina (at) netprofile.fi

For more information, please visit www.slushhelsinki.com
Slush Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=27694471197
Jaiku channel for Slush: http://jaiku.com/channel/Slush