News | 22.01.2016
Tech venture Cybus is Hamburg’s ambassador for the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas
Hamburg industrial internet venture Cybus is selected to represent Hamburg at 2016 South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. 7 weeks from now, Cybus will take part in the SXSW Startup Village as one of two startups after a tough selection process.
Hamburg, 22.01.2016 – Last night at betahaus Hamburg, two winning teams were selected by an exclusive jury and have been given the chance to go to Austin, Texas (USA), to represent Hamburg at SXSW festival. Jan Brorhilker (EY), Sina Gritzuhn, (Hamburg Startups), Jeremy Tai Abbett (Google), Jan Kowalsky (XING AG) and May-Lena Signus (next.Media StartHub) had the hardest job last night, to pick two teams out of five strong nominees (Baqend, Cybus, Familo, FLIO, Spottster). The audience was not less exclusive: Future „Die Höhle der Löwen“-Juror Ralf Dümmel joined, as well as the Who’s Who of Hamburg’s startup and betahaus community. No need to mention that this was more a big family gathering than a tough pitch-situation. Though the night was fun for all the competitors and audience, there were only two teams going to legendary SxSW to Austin, Texas in March.
The combined votes from the jury and the audience were close, but in the end, Spottster and Cybus convinced them and made it. Both teams will be sent in around seven weeks from now to Austin, to meet their counterparts from the USA and get the unique chance to build up contacts to some of the most influential people in the industry.
For two weeks, the yearly South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) makes Austin the absolute place to be for creative people and innovations from all different industries around the world. 30,000 leaders and creative minds from film, design, music, interactive and digital technology come together. From March 11th to 20th, they will discuss current trends and innovations in their respective industry at the Austin Convention Center.
From March 11th to 15th, the SXSW Startup Village hosts the SXSW Accelerator and gives nominated startups the chance to get in contact with key journalists, investors, technology partners and multi-national companies to share their vision and discuss their ideas. The City of Hamburg is sending two teams to Austin as its ambassadors. This includes a package of matchmaking and networking events, panels, flights and much more. All of this is made possible by EY and XING as well as the Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft (IHM) and the Reeperbahn Festival. The startup program is enabled by the City of Hamburg as well as next.media StartHub and is designed and realized by Hamburg Startups.
