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The Europas 2017

June 13th was The Europas; a conference and awards ceremony for the European start up scene. Having watched the event from afar for a few years we decided to take the plunge and sponsor this year. We’ve been deeply involved in the start up community right from our inception; from attending the first Future of Web Apps back in 2005, through to helping some of our start up customers achieve successful funding rounds and eventual sale, and even setting up and one or two of our own (like Forkd). All in all it felt like the right kind of event for us to get involved in.

It was my first visit to the Olympic Park. My first thoughts were of how vast it is. I got off the train at Stratford International on a beautiful morning and decided to walk to Here East, which I could see in the distance…

Yeah. Perhaps I should have taken the shuttle bus that was on offer. Or taken the tube to Hackney Wick as recommended. Still, it was good to explore the park, even if I did arrive a little later than planned.

Sadly I wasn’t alone in arriving a little late. Because The Europas caters to a pan-European audience and the main event was in the evening many attendees had chosen to travel on the day, meaning that the morning sessions were a little under-attended. This was a real shame because the stand out talk of the day for those that saw it was Azeem Azhar’s “Will ubiquitous AI lead to artisanal cheese for all?” The title might have been a mouthful (ahem) but the talk was fascinating and wonderfully delivered.

Following on from Azeem on the main stage was an equally positive session with Bess Mayhew of More United; her take on UK politics and how we might best affect it (and how she already is) was genuinely uplifting.

This was the first talk that touched on a theme that would run throughout the rest of the day: #fakenews. Clearly anyone involved in politics is going to be worrying about the fake news phenomenon, and while Bess touched on the subject during her session the next panel was all about it. I’m going to say more on the topic in another post, so I’ll leave this one there, except to say that we – the tech community – currently seem bereft of ideas as to how to address it.

While Azeem’s session was the highlight of the talks the event had two non-talk stand outs. Straight after the excellent lunch (and a brief aside – the way lunch was delivered was very unusual and extremely efficient, a real plus for a conference) was Richard Browning the Rocket Man.

By now the venue had pretty much filled up, so a huge crowd watched him – with earplugs in – circle the courtyard outside the venue. It’s hard to describe how impressive it is to someone who hasn’t seen it up close with the heat and noise of the jets almost knocking you over. Quite how on earth he actually manages to fly the thing I don’t know.

Doug’s breakout session with Roberta Lucca was straight after The Rocket Man’s flight, and we were obviously worried that no one would turn up given the excitement of what was going on outside, but we had a good audience for an intimate and lively chat (and disagreement) about how to best get the most out of your development team, and when and whether to build your own team or outsource. More on that topic to come in both blog post and podcast form…

For us the afternoon ended with Gabrielle Aplin who gave a great talk about how artists are the new start ups (reflecting what we used to say a decade ago, that start ups are the new artists; what goes around comes around, of course) before giving a performance to a slightly bemused crowd.

For me the highlights of the day were Azeem’s talk on AI, the rocket man, and a great breakout panel on privacy, but there were very few dud moments in a packed day.

I left via the canal and Hackney Wick. Far more picturesque, and a much shorter walk!

We can’t thank Mike, Petra and Dianne enough for setting the thing up and running it so smoothly, and for giving us the opportunity to sponsor. We’ll see you there again next year.