Vienna hits the bull's eye for international visibility and positioning
International business festival ViennaUP'22 inspires 10,000 participants
The eight-day international startup event ViennaUP'22 is over and the results are in: Up to 10,000 visitors from 67 nations took part in this major event. Over the festival period, 60 individual events took place in 28 different locations across 11 Viennese districts, hosted by around 30 different organizations. The event secured Vienna’s international position as a world-class startup hub, and ViennaUP'22, in its second year, has become a heavyweight contender among European festivals.
"Thanks to ViennaUP'22, the city and the Viennese startup scene have secured a permanent place among the largest and most relevant startup festivals in Europe. We have developed enormously fast as a startup hub in the last two years and have caught up with our more established peers," says City Councillor for Economic Affairs Peter Hanke.
ViennaUP'22 was the framework festival for some 60 individual events, which tackled technology, the environment, social issues and women’s leadership. Hundreds of startups also gathered to network and exchange experiences at the festival home base on Karlsplatz, the famous downtown square. The entire Viennese start-up scene joined forces with the Federation of Viennese Industries, local winemakers and the famous coffee houses Schwarzenberg, Bräunerhof, Wortner and Savoy to offer an experience that combined tradition with innovation.
International startups travelled to Vienna from Asia, Africa, the USA and Canada, among others, with large numbers of visitors from the CEE region. Now, some visitors are considering moving their business to Vienna.
Denby Royal of the startup Arbor, Inc. from Canada says: "We are considering Vienna as our European headquarters. The quality of life and the cost of living are really good for a young company like us. And Vienna is so accessible - it's in the centre of Europe."
“To visit and discover ViennaUp on-site at the invitation of Vienna Business Agency is like winning a golden ticket for your startup,” says Ivelina Atanasova-Genchev, founder of DigitalKidZ. “In five days, DigitalKidZ advanced as much as it has over the last few years. We had a well-organized daily schedule with meetings, pitching events and talks with investors, business angels and consultants and could experience the local ecosystem from every possible perspective. They say ‘doing business is networking’ and I can only agree with that.”
Vienna was an “amazing experience for us at Clynx and it is surely boosting our growth,” says Joana Pinto, Co-Founder of Clynx from Portugal. “The opportunity of staying in the city, having contact with the local network, gaining access to training and being widely supported by mentors has been key for us to immerse into the healthcare market Austria and understand how we can create an impact in digital physiotherapy in the region!"
Gergely Ellenrieder, CEO of Aeriu from Hungary, tells us, "We are here to get feedback on our business model from manufacturing companies and start new talks about funding. We are also preparing to come to Austria and show our solutions locally as a live demo - we have already received a lot of input from the ecosystem for this - thank you Vienna!"
ViennaUP'22’s highlights included the largest European event for business leaders, "Lead Today - Shape Tomorrow", which alone featured over 40 speakers; the world's largest startup competition "Startup Worldcup", the three-day "Sustainable Blockchain Hackathon" and "Connect Day 2022", the central matchmaking event of the ViennaUP'22 for startups, corporates/SMEs and investors. The "Creative Days Vienna" - a two-day focus for start-ups and companies in the creative industries – looked at how digital technology is changing our culture and creative industries.
After a digital-only edition in 2021, ViennaUP'22 was held live in Vienna from 27 May to 3 June. ViennaUP is a decentralized, community-driven startup event for a global audience initiated by the Vienna Business Agency and hosted in partnership with the Viennese startup community. A review of selected events is available at: viennaup.com
Wien, 3 June 2022
