As you can imagine we are very pleased with our own event. We think it is one of the best conferences in the world, really! But don’t take our word for it!
We have asked some entrepreneurs, former speakers and startups to talk about what they got out of attending The Next Web Conference and to share some tips on how to make the most of your time there.
Nimbuzz is a mobile technology company from The Netherlands started attending our conference years ago. We got to know them better over the years when we wrote about their free mobile calling app and their $15 million shot in the arm.
A few years later Nimbuzz has over 40 million registered users with 100.000 joining every day, and is not only the most followed Twitter account from Netherlands but also the most followed mobile startup on Twittter. I asked Andi Piftor to talk about about their experiences and give you a few tips:
Andi Piftor: Drawing from our experience in the startup space we would like to give TNW2011 our vote of approval plus 4 reasons why you should attend.
4 reasons why the TNW Conference is a Startup trampoline
- 1: Mobile and Web Giants
Last year TNW Conference was a great opportunity for us to meet the Nokia Ovi team and build a collaboration that made Nimbuzz one of the most popular apps in the Ovi store.
This year you will be bumping into guys from Microsoft, PayPal, Samsung and Yandex and all of them are scouting for the hottest upcoming talent and business partners, so be sure to “dress to impress” (as in stand out and market yourself, not come dressed like David Beckham :P)
- 2: International Bloggers and Media
Meet the blogger elite and shake hands with the editors of the blogs you read every morning. TechCrunch, Mashable, Wired, TNW and many others will be attending and they’re also curious to meet you ;).
Unlike other conferences, TNW attendees are very approachable. Last year I had the great pleasure to meet to Robin Wauters (of TechCrunch ), and that was pretty easy … since he was sitting right next to me :P.
- 3: Global Influencers
Great speakers will push you to think outside the box and offer new perspectives on your opportunities. Look forward to the likes of Kevin Rose, Chris Sacca and Werner Vogels.
It was inspiring listening to Tim Ferris sharing his 7 principles of dealing with haters. These helped Nimbuzz improve social media conversation by focusing on people that give us positive feedback instead of trying to please everybody at once :).
- 4: Hot Upcoming Startups
Share tips and learn from other startups like you. Find out how they overcome challenges, what keeps them going, and open doors for future collaborations.
The list of hot startups that pitched at TNW Conference includes: Distimo, Brainient (Start-Up 100 finalist), UberVu (Start-Up 100) and CoTweet. I am sure there you will find even more talented people this year :D.
Rest assured there will be plenty more innovative startups and talented people this year.
All the relationships you make during the event with international media, global influencers, hot upcoming statups and mobile/web giants will grant you an extra edge against your competition ;).
Takeaway: what Nimbuzz learned
Remember you need to be proactive, otherwise time will fly by pretty fast and the conference is over before you know it. Here is what we suggest you do:
- take notes – “verba volant, scripta manent”
- introduce yourself – always have some business cards or an app like Bump, just in case you want to talk about introducing mobile payments with PayPal in your app or discuss the WP7 APIs with Microsoft.
- attend the parties – where most of the startups and bloggers will be. (FYI: don’t annoy bloggers while live blogging at the event!!)
- tweet/blog about it – summarize what you learned, who you met and set objectives and goals for your startup. You can always come back to this post and remember that confidence overdose, which will help you in challenging times.
On top of all that learning experience, you will not only be elevated but as on every trampoline you will also have lots of fun! If you want to keep in touch you can follow us @nimbuzz or Like us on Facebook!
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