In less than a month, on 18-19 July, the Croatian coastal city Rijeka will host RockPaperStartups. The event would be a startup conference if it were only about speakers, networking, pitches, mentors, and venture capital – your classical set. Organised by netokracija.com, RockPaperStartups promises to be more of a festival. The rock-music athmosphere will be provided for by the free entry for participants to the concerts, part of the parallel Republika Creative Festival, and by the late launch of the sessions on conference days – only at around noon.
Targeting the “startup designers, developers and geeks” populace, the organisers have secured participation of quite a few international speakers – Daniel Burka of Google Ventures, Martin Ringlein of Twitter or Carlos Eduardo Espinal from the startup accelerator Seedcamp top the list. Others come from Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia, US, UK, Bulgaria, Romania, Belgium, Czech Republic, Spain and Ireland. As more names flow in, the organisers will detail the conference programme on the website.
The festival’s partnership with Seedcamp has imprinted on Day 0 of the RockPaperStartups – Mini SeedCamp Rijeka will take place on 17 July. If your project is from Rijeka and you apply before 1 July, you might benefit from the presence of the Seedcamp mentors. Following a masterclass for all, the participants will then get a chance to pitch in front of an audience composed of serial entrepreneurs, product/bizdev experts, VCs, business angels and startups. The winning projects will get an invitation to a “big” Seedcamp Week in London.
Another festival partner helps organisers underline the rock’n’roll element: beer-drinking is integrated into the conference days in the form of the Rijeka Pub Summit. In partnership with the Dublin Web Summit and over a pint of beer, RockPaperStartups participants will be able to submit applications and eventually be selected as a finalist of the Web Summit in October.
Registrations for the RockPaperStartups are open and cost EUR 70.
