We’re getting closer to Plugg, the conference that provides an overview of how the web is changing from a European perspective, organized by one of our writers from across the pond, Robin Wauters. The event will take place on the 12th of March in Brussels, Belgium, and will feature a host of top speakers from the continent, a possible 2-hour lunch, and a competition that aims to weed out the best Europe has to offer when it comes to early-stage web and mobile startups.
Registrations for the competition, which is dubbed the Plugg Start-ups Rally, are now open, and the deadline for registration has been set to Wednesday 4 February at midnight (CET). Any European early-stage company with a maximum of only one round of institutional funding can sign up for the competition by entering details about their team, concept and business model until Wednesday the 4th of February at midnight on this dedicated mini-site. All submissions that fit the criteria will be carefully evaluated by a professional jury of pundits and VCs, and twenty will ultimately be invited to pitch at the audience from the main stage at the conference.
Good news for startups: entering the competition is free of charge, so there’s nothing to stop you from registering right now.
We’re giving away two free tickets to the conference, which will go to the commentors that can best give us a humorous take on why they think European entrepreneurs can compete with Silicon Valley’s finest … or why not. Don’t forget to add your e-mail address and to make us smile.
That’s an easy one
We have cheep eastern European working force, you can’t compete with that 
The cheap Eastern European working force is not so cheap anymore. At least not on my end, where it used to be… just few years ago.
Sign up for Plugg for sure, if you’re launching a bit later, you might want to consider The Next Web Startup Rally in April (15 + 16 + 17) in Amsterdam.
Europe hasn’t been competing in the startup scene because we thought we’d let the USA gain a nice lead (although Cuil, Cha Cha are doing their best to sabotage it, zing!) before showing them our true design and entrepreneurial skills.
It’s our nice way of thanking them for saving us all during World War 2.
You should go to http://peterthegamer.com
it has all` the comedy tou want on the weekly blog! And Peter C i like your first name it just looks right and thanks for thanking us American peter C
I have no idea what the above comment is about
More info on the 2hour lunch menù?
Uhm,
Mike regarding your comment about the “two-hour-lunch”:
You know that Belgium and France are two different countries with different mentalities?
Sorry,
but your constant Europe-bashing is annoying.
And assuming that you’ve travelled a lot, you should know better instead of bringing up ridiculous cliches.
It was a joke. Chill out.
For the love of God, if you are going to spam, fix your site, it may then have a chance.
I wonder how many European startups will enter?
Also I’ve never heard of this Plugg before, how “prestigious” is it?
They say Europe’s asset is being “united in diversity”.
So for any web startup it means you need to have 27 language versions at launch. English only will only work after success in the US.
Why:
- European entrepreneurs do not come from countries who would vote George W. Bush into office … Twice!
- European startups can get the best local talent because people here are used to working for little money
Why not:
- Of your startup’s 10 employees, 2 are taking 30 day vacations, 3 are on strike, 2 are on extended “medical” leave, and 2 are stuck in lines filling out government paperwork (they tried the government website first but it was not working). You are on your own.
Well, we (Italians) made Berlusconi our prime minister for three times (almost as bad as Bush voted twice!!)…
http://files.sp...c38ae0f366.jpeg
Forsooth crunchies, Europe simply succeeds by Plugging the gap in the silicon dam with it’s very long, multi-lingual, penniless, disruptive middle finger.
Up yours gets us everywhere.
amartin {at} unitedagents {dot} co {dot} uk , or turn the u of uk on it’s side and hey presto it’s dot…
European and Belgium in particular, where Plugg is held this year and where I am from is the birthplace of 2-hour lunches and gastronomy, Belgium alone has 600 beers. I’m sure you are wondering WHY so many beers in a country with fewer habitants than NYC, well the reason is that we need fuel to get going (mainly because of bad and expensive internet connection and 300 days of rain each year). Nonetheless, european entrepreneurs know how to be at least as imaginative as Americans, we like to get bargains on the net (Lastminute,Vente Privee) and use the internet in a more “traditional” way still, usually to buy a plane ticket or to trash someone in a forum. But with the recent “globalisation” of social networks and Facebook in particular (which can be sum-up as the Wii of the internet world, people like it whether they are 7 or 80), Europe is starting to get out of their way to build imaginative apps that will enhance their market. That’s the reason why I NEED to be part of Plugg rally this year with my new startup http://www.skilto.com (the belgian version has just been release http://www.skilto.be) which is the 1st online community wholly dedicated to skilled people (from accountants to yoga teachers) and which is probably the first belgian startup to fully integrate Facebook Connect (to get realtime activity as well as to find, share and rate skilled people).
See you soon in Belgium!
That European start-ups can out compete Silicon Valley start-ups is simple logic.
Facts
1. Geeks start companies to score with girls
2. Being a geek is less cool in Europe than it is in SV
Therefore European geeks have to work harder in order to score resulting in more successful start-ups! (Simple really)
The Extendance team put together this slideshow for their submission. Keep it up folks.
Plugg-why you should come to Europe…. – Free Legal Forms
http://www.tech...hone-app-store/
This is the link to the slide show. Enjoy.
-Ralf
http://www.slid...pe-presentation
better try this link, the above was not correct, sorry.
-Ralf
I was about to write a post to have a stab at winning those tickets; having just seen the Extendence slides I think there is already a winner so theres little point!…
Truly a winner! I won’t even bother trying to come up with something witty now… Or is it just us, the non-Americans that find it funny
Besides “Plugg” (if this is one of them?) what conferences (top3) is worth attending in EU if you’re into start-ups / investing / web2.0 … the works.
Thanks.
web.start conference in Croatia is worth a visit
It’s my favorite conference in this part of Europe and it attracts some great people. http://webstart...ini.hr/news/en/
The Next Web in Amsterdam is excellent, also LIFT in Geneva and perhaps DLD in Munich, which I think has just gone.
Mobile 2.0 run by Rudy de Waele & co, in Barcelona is excellent if you’re in the mobile space.
European entrepreneurs (not from UK) cannot compete, they start from a competitive disadvantage: the stupid not ASCII characters (à ,è,ì,ò,ù,ä,ö,ü,ß,Ã¥,Ñ and many more) … while I was struggling for setting the connection between PHP and MySQL as UTF-8, the Americans already invented Twitter…when the European will finally understand Twitter, the Americans will have invented already something else…
Some people consider porn the driving force behind internet’s fast diffusion.
What does that tell us about why Americans have a larger appetite for new internet services?
I like very much the writings and pictures and explanations in your adress so I look forward to see your next writings.
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