Startup Summit Edinburgh – An Overview
Startup Summit was designed to bring together, inspire and educate entrepreneurs at all levels of business growth. Scotland has a thriving startup scene and a huge amount of enterprise support available; Startup Summit brings all the knowledge and connections under one roof.
At Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, this year’s summit will host over 30 world-class speakers across three themed stages: the Main Stage, the Business Builder Stage and the Impact Stage. Over 1,000 attendees are invited to join in with discussion panels, workshops and the interactive exhibition space. For business leaders at all stages, Startup Summit is an opportunity to engage with experts, build a network and gain valuable tools for long-term success. There are also 30 exhibitor spaces at each summit, which allow entrepreneurs to meet similar business, mentorship enterprises and potential corporate connections.
The theme for this year’s Startup Summit is ‘the power of company culture.’ Experts will be looking at the growing values-led mentality of both consumers and employees, as well as addressing recent controversies and issues such as the gender pay gap results and the gig economy.
Previous years have seen a variety of high-profile speakers and entrepreneurs attend Startup Summit. In 2017 alone, the event hosted James Watt, Founder of Brewdog, Josh Littlejohn, Founder of Social Bite, Chris van der Kuyl, Founder of 4J Studios, Mary Owen, Founder of Ellis Productions and Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon (who launched the Unlocking Ambition initiative). This year, confirmed speakers include:
Alan Mahon, Founder of Brewgooder
Mike Atterley, Founder of BlackCircles.com and CEO of Atterly.
Over the past seven years, Startup Summit has grown exponentially and is now recognised as one of the leading events for entrepreneurship in the UK. Startup Summit has been organised by WeAreTheFuture since 2011, which underwent a merge and is now part of FutureX. The team at FutureX believe that values-driven entrepreneurship is the key towards a more virtuous economy for all. Through unique events, programmes and partnerships, FutureX educate and inspire the next wave of business leaders to grow their organisations with a purpose greater than profit.
Each year, FutureX run a Startup Summit Competition, which will see one UK-based tech entrepreneur awarded a top prize, including a free place on the Silicon Valley Accelerate Programme in Spring 2019. Three finalists will pitch head to head on the main stage at Startup Summit for this unique opportunity. Previous winners include Christopher McCann, Founder of Snap40 and Tarryn Gorre, Founder of Kafoodle.
