Entrepreneurs in the making at first Apps4Europe Business Lounge
By Milena Popova, Europeana Senior Marketing Specialist.
The first of a series of 'business lounge' events organised by the Apps4Europe project took place on 29 June in Amsterdam alongside the Amsterdam Hackathon 2013. Apps4Europe, which has the strapline 'Turning data into business', is a support network that provides tools to transform Open Data app prototypes into viable businesses. The project started in February 2013 and brings together 19 partners from 10 European countries.
The Business Lounge event gets underway. Photo by Julian Tait, FutureEverything, all rights reserved.
The Apps4Europe project will build on 20 local and two pan-European open data competitions over the next two years by adding a 'Business Lounge' format, a special programme to guide developers in creating and commercialising apps that have market potential. The best local and EU contestants will be invited to pitch their plans to investors, incubators and entrepreneurial non-profit organisations at the Pitch & Prize event during the FutureEverything conferences in Manchester in 2014 and 2015. Additionally, the project's online Wiki space will offer practical advice on different start-up topics, such as business and policy, data and licensing, media exposure for start-ups, technical tooling and community building.
Experts Milena Popova and Alberto Abella evaluating prototypes. Photo by Julian Tait, FutureEverything, all rights reserved.
During the first Business Lounge event, 16 developer teams from the Netherlands, Finland and the UK presented their prototypes to an expert panel made up of marketing and technical experts and investors. In the morning, the panel (Julian Tait, FutureEverything, UK; Ville Meloni, Forum Virium, Finland; Milena Popova, Europeana, Netherlands; Alberto Abella, Rooter, Spain) conducted 15-minute interviews with each team, developing first impressions of their apps and evaluating their potential using a special scorecard. In the afternoon, the participants’ ideas were explored further in a 10-minute speed-date with experts in capital investment, crowd-funding, incubation and business. These experts represented companies like Peak Investment, Startupbootcamp, Rockstart, Hinsprong, Portugal Telecom, De Investeerdersclub and GetYourGuide. The day’s winner was one who had impressed both groups of experts.
Developing ideas in the Business Lounge. Photo by Julian Tait, FutureEverything, all rights reserved.
The competing prototypes covered themes such as digital community services, education, transport and tourism, legal consultations, housing, app CMS (content management systems) and publication platforms.
iKringloop, an app for peer-to-peer exchange of unwanted belongings, was selected as the best local contestant and will get free entrance to the FutureEverything conference in 2014, including travel costs to Manchester up to 250 EUR, and extra media attention.
Screenshot of iKringloop - the winning app.
The Muse Open Source platform, on which the Europeana Open Culture app is built, came fourth and got very positive feedback from Peak Capital representatives.
Event pictures, short interviews with the participants and more information on the next Business Lounge events will be available shortly on the Apps4Europe website. Stay tuned!