StartupBus is coming to Europe, and we’ll be on board

As we’ve previously reported, StartupBus is coming to Europe, taking the continent’s developers, entrepreneurs and designers on a pilgrimage to the LeWeb conference in Paris next month. Now we can announce that The Next Web will be joining the journey as it makes its way through five countries en route to the French capital.

The first StartupBus event in Europe, this roadtrip-cum-hackathon will see teams compete to conceive, build and launch a startup in three days before pitching the results to a panel of experts at LeWeb.

It’s not all about sitting on a bus and staring at a laptop though. Along the way, there will be plenty of added fun in the form of meetings with prominent members of the startup communities in the cities we visit. The route is an ambitious and varied one. Starting out in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, the bus will head north to Copenhagen in Denmark, before journeying south to Berlin, then west into Switzerland to stop at Zurich before heading for Paris, France.

The StartupBus concept, which started in the USA, has been brought to Europe by Arne Hulstein, a communications and marketing specialist who has been working with startups since 2007. He then brought serial entrepreneur Timan Rebel on board to help run the tour.

So, if you’re a designer, developer or entrepreneur, how do you get on board StartupBus Europe? It’s invitation only, but we hear that if you contact Arne by email you could request an invite. What’s his email address? Well, his name is Arne and he’s working with startupbus.com so it shouldn’t be too hard to work out.

The cost will be €200 euros for the ticket excluding hotel and food, although Arne and Timan are working to make those expenses as cheap as possible.

Even if you don’t get a ticket to ride, look out for plenty of coverage of the event from The Next Web throughout the three-day roadtrip.