Note that this is separate from the cocktail reception, which will be held from 6 to 8 PM at the event venue.

We're kicking off the after-party at 10 PM in Brasserie Espace53.

Address:

Autoworld Museum - Parc du Cinquantenaire 11  - 1000 Brussels.

Closest metro stop is Mérode. 

See you there!

Plugg 2010 After-party written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: after-party, afterparty, espace53, party

Photos are up on Flickr, videos are up on Vimeo, with more coming soon.

Feel free to use them any way you want, although it would of course be lovely if you could use it for coverage of Plugg :)

Enjoy!

Videos and photos going online in (almost) real time written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: photos, videos

Yubby is live streaming Plugg from the lounge! written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: live-streaming, livestreaming, yubby

Sony Ericsson will be giving away 3 spanking new Xperia X10 phones, the latest Android phone from the company, to 3 lucky participants (value = €499). Furthermore, these persons will be receiving a phone well before its official release date!

If you want a chance to win one of the X10 devices, you can still register for the conference today.

Last-minute sponsor: Sony Ericsson written by Robin Wauters in: default

We looked at the list of submissions and picked the next in line to take their place, and lo and behold Getyoo (from Belgium, no less) was up for the challenge.

Thus, GetYoo, based in Brussels, won't have to travel very far to come pitch at the event.

Good luck to all the startups!

CloudSplit drops out of the Start-Ups Rally, GetYoo seizes the opportunity written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: cloudsplit, getyoo, start-ups rally, startups rally

We've used their product to enhance our speaker and other Web pages with video(s), and I'm sure you'll agree it looks awesome.

For examples, check out the speaker page of GetJar CEO Ilja Laurs (widget is below the bio) and also the overview page with all the videos from last year's Plugg.

Thank you, Yubby!

Check out our awesome Yubby widgets written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: speakers, venue, video, yubby

You can also download or view a copy in Doc or PDF format if you wish.

If you're a member of the press or a blogger-with-an-audience, please contact us for press accreditation.

The *official* Plugg 2010 press release written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: bloggers, press, press accreditation, press release

We finally got around to weeding out our 20 finalists for this year's Start-Ups Rally, and ready to announce the names.

Below, behold the names of the 20 innovative startups who've submitted their profile for this year's competition and were selected out of a total of 116 submitted profiles for the competition by a balanced jury of renowned industry professionals.

There's a separate page with all names, logos, links to websites and other profiles right here.

We should note that this list is tentative, as some of them have still to confirm their participation - if they decline for whatever reason, they'll be replaced by the next in line.

Any changes to this list will of course be announced on our blog and Twitter account.

The 20 startups below will be pitching our judges and audience on stage at Plugg, which will be held 11 March in the lovely Belgacom SURF House in Brussels.

You can still register for the event (and save €150 if you do so quickly).

The full list, in alphabetical order:

- aNEWSMe (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Bulgaria

- Apprupt (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Germany

- CloudSplit (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Ireland

- Collibra (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Belgium

- Datpresenter (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from UK

- Distimo (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Netherlands

- English Attack (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from France

- Fits.me (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Estonia

- Flowr (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Slovenia

- Gigswiz (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Finland

- Hipui (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Finland

- Inbox2 (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Netherlands

- Lumo Research (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Finland

- Raz*War (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Belgium

- Sclipo (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Spain

- Shotools (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Spain

- Smarkets (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from UK

- Stupeflix (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from Germany

- Submate (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from France

- Tweetmeme (website - dotopen profile - CrunchBase profile) from UK

Announcing the 20 finalists for Plugg Start-Ups Rally 2010 written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: 20 finalists, plugg 2010, start-ups rally, startups, startups rally

We delight to inform you, however, that the speaker who will be replacing him on stage for a keynote is Guillaume Van der Stighelen, co-founder of communications agency Duval Guillaume and published author.

Full up-to-date schedule can be found here.

If you haven't registered yet, don't wait any longer - after this weekend the early-bird price expires and entrance fee will increase by €150.

Change of speakers: co-founder of Duval Guillaume will join us written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: duval guillaume, guillaume van der stighelen, speaker, speakers

We're excited to announce that Tom Henriksson, Head of Corporate New Business Development at Nokia, will be opening the Plugg 2010 conference with the first keynote of the day.

From his bio:

"Tom Henriksson heads New Business Development at Nokia’s Corporate Alliances & Business Development, leading the planning and execution of new growth opportunities for Nokia.

Prior to his current position, Tom built Nokia Interactive Advertising from business plan to one of the global leaders in mobile advertising. Earlier he also held roles in Strategy and New Business Development at Nokia Ventures Organization, managing the identification and starting of new business globally."

Check out our full list of confirmed speakers and schedule for the day.

Have you registered yet?

Confirmed speaker: Tom Henriksson (Nokia) written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: nokia, speaker, tom henriksson

We're still confirming some of the timing for keynote slots, one final keynote presenter and some panelists for the afternoon session, but the agenda is nearly complete.

As you can tell, we have a great line-up of renowned speakers from all over Europe, each of which will offer a unique perspective on the European 'new web' scene.

We're pretty excited already!

By the way, if you haven't registered yet, don't hesitate much longer: discounted pricing (€300) is only available until the 28th of February, as in next week!)

Hope to see you all there.

Introducing the schedule for Plugg 2010 written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: agenda, day schedule, schedule

We'll be evaluating the information these startups submitted, run a check if they comply with our pre-defined criteria and send the rest over to our judges for evaluation.

We'll let the finalists who make the cut - as well as contestants who didn't - know what's what hopefully by next weekend.

Stay tuned!

In other news, we've added a couple of really great speakers to the line-up since our last update: Ballou PR's Colette Ballou, who'll be moderating a panel on social media monitoring for brands based on a recognizable case-study, and Astrid Sandoval, VP at Issuu and an expert on the future of the publishing industry.

Don't hesitate any longer: you can register for Plugg at €300 until the end of this month, and at €450 after the 1st of March.

As always, welcome to ask questions or let us know your thoughts via the contact form.

Thanks for your interest in Plugg, and stay tuned for more announcements!

Closing Startups Rally registrations + announcing new speakers written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: european startups, speakers, startups, startups rally, startupsrally

Every year, we go on a quest to find the best European startups for an exciting pitching competition on stage, at the event, in front of the entire audience and a number of professional judges. This year is no different.

As of today, European startups can submit their company and team member profiles, after which the professional jury will decide which 20 of them are deemed worthy enough to compete, based on a set of fixed criteria and their own assessment.

This year, we've partnered with one of our sponsors, Spain-based dotopen, for the registration system. It's fairly simple: all you need to is register for an account here, fill in the necessary details and then add some more information about your startup in a custom form.

Jump to the registration page now!

(click the appropriate link in the box on the right top of the screen to sign up for the Plugg Start-Ups Rally)

Important note: the deadline for registration is 12 February 2010 (Friday next week) so don't hesitate, and notify all European startups you think deserve the opportunity to pitch on-stage at Plugg and the attention that comes with it.

We'll select the 20 best startups - the cream of the crop if you will - the week after and notify all startups of our decision.

Tweet this!

Have questions? Get in touch asap.

European startups: registration for the Plugg Start-Ups Rally 2010 are now open written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: european startups, start culture, start-ups rally, startup, startups

Only two more days left for limited early bird tickets written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: early-bird, registration

More details about both companies are available on the pages linked above, but in short: Hi-Media is a giant online media group and one of the top Internet publishers and digital advertising players in Europe, while Opera has revolutionized the way people are able to browse the Web on their desktops and mobile phones.

I'm also extremely happy to announce that we have added three new speakers to the line-up, with more on the way:

- Jon S. von Tetzchner (Co-founder, long-time CEO and now Chairman of Opera Software)

- Cyril Zimmermann (Founder & CEO of Hi-Media Group)

- Peter Arvai (entrepreneur extra-ordinaire, currently CEO of TED-backed Prezi)

Watch this space for more updates on speakers, sponsors and the imminent opening of the Start-Ups Rally competition registration!

Adding 3 new speakers, welcoming 2 new sponsors written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: cyril zimmermann, hi-media, hi-media group, jon von tetzchner, opera, opera software, peter arvai, prezi, speakers, sponsors

As you can see, we've just launched the new site of Plugg 2010, and we're ready to rumble!

Thanks to our initial sponsors who've been tremendously helpful in getting the third edition of Plugg on the rails.

Big kudos to Netlash and Oxynade, who took care of the information architecture, design and the registration system! Now that we've made the domain switch - you should still be able to visit the Plugg 2009 website here - we're getting ready to spread the word so people can find out more about the date, the venue, the currently confirmed speakers, etc.

A couple of things:

1. We're kicking off with a limited early-bird registration fee of €250 - you'll be able to buy your tickets at that dirt cheap price until the end of this month.

2. European startups will be able to apply for this year's Start-ups Rally before the end of January - we'll keep you informed

3. We'll regularly update this blog about new confirmed speakers, the professional jury we've assembled for this year's startup pitching competition, new sponsors, etc. so check back often.

4. There are still some sponsor slots available, if you're interested please do contact us asap as we're finalizing things at this point.

5. The finalized schedule for the day will be available mid-February

If you have any question or comments at this point, feel free to get in touch asap.

Kicking off Plugg 2010 written by Veronique Pochet in: default

Tags: kick-off, kicking off, plugg 2010, plugg conference 2010

If you wanna attend the conference too, register here with a 20% discount especially for Plugg followers.

See you there!

The Next Web Is Near! (20% discount) written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: the next web, the next web 2009, the next web conference

Innovate!Europe, one of our event partners, is (also) looking for Europe’s top startup, and the deadline to apply is March 23rd.

Innovate!Europe will be hosting Going Global workshops and networking meetups in Europe and Israel from March 30th - April 8th (see below or check the calendar).

Start-ups will receive mentoring and feedback from Guidewire Group’s renowned analyst team on how to improve your pitch and hone the skills you need to compete in fast-paced markets like Silicon Valley.

Best of all, there is no cost to apply or to participate in the Going Global workshops.

If you want to participate in the competition but can't attend one of the workshops, fill out the form anyway. If you're selected, Guidewire Group's analysts will conduct a phone interview with you.

30 MARCH

Bern, Switzerland

Going Global workshop from 9:30 to 17:30: apply now

Networking Meet-up at 18:00 (co-hosted by Orrick Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency CTI)

– RSVP required

1 APRIL

Tel Aviv, Israel

Going Global workshop from 9:30 to 17:30: apply now

Networking Meet-up at 18:30 (co-hosted by Orrick)

– RSVP required

3 APRIL

Berlin, Germany

Going Global workshop from 9:30 to 17:30: apply now

Networking Meet-up at 18:00 (co-hosted by Orrick and SAP)

– RSVP required

6 APRIL

Paris, France

Going Global workshop from 9:30: to 17:30: apply now

Networking Meet-up at 18:00 (co-hosted by Orrick)

– RSVP required

8 APRIL

London, UK

Going Global workshop from 9:30 to 17:30: apply now

Networking Meet-up at 18:00 (co-hosted by Orrick)

– RSVP required

Note: You don’t need to be a workshop participant to join one of the networking meetups. The meetups are also open to investors, journalists and other members of the entrepreneurial community. However, an RSVP is required as space is limited. If you want to follow the competition, learn about the competitors and connect with other members of the ecosystem, subscribe to the blog or join the Innovate!Europe's Facebook and LinkedIn groups.

Innovate!Europe coming up, deadline approaching written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: guidewire, guidewire group, innovate!europe, innovate-europe

To all who have attended, thank you for being there and for all the feedback that was sent our way. Nearly all of it was positive but we can always learn from the negative as well so kudos to everyone, and don't be afraid to get in touch with us by e-mail or simply in comments to let us know your thoughts as well. Whether you've attended or not, we want to share all the material from the conference with you.

If you would like to watch the videos recorded at the event, you can check our Vimeo channel or go to this page for an embeddable widget containing all videos. The pictures are up on Flickr as well, and you can find an embedded slideshow on a special page as well.

We've even put all the presentations on a virtual fileserver powered by NomaDesk, so if you're interested in downloading that material to your computer, you can install their free software suite and it will enable you to synch a folder on your desktop that contains all the slidedecks in the format that it was delivered in. The fileserver also contains the videos for the 10-minute pitches delivered by the 3 finalists: Jinni, Mendeley (the winner) and Myngle (winner of the audience's choice award).

You need to sign up for an invitation to the fileserver, and if you do this before the end of the month you can also win one of the NomaDesk USB modems that will be distributed to 10 randomly selected winners.

Here's how:

- Go to this sign-up page

- leave your details and click on the link in your invitation e-mail

- Create a NomaDesk account, download and install NomaDesk

- Select "I was invited to join this Fileserver"

- NomaDesk will then create a Plugg2009-Public drive on your local computer

- Allow NomaDesk to sync and access the files on the Plugg2009-Public drive

If there's anything, let us know asap!

Videos, pictures and presentations are online! written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: flickr, pictures, plugg, plugg 2009, presentations, round-up, roundup, video, videos, vimeo

This pitching competition has brought 20 startups from all over Europe to Brussels to present their business to a highly relevant audience and a professional jury of industry pundits and investors, and moments ago the winners of the competition have been announced.

The overall winner was Mendeley (http://www.mendeley.com), based in London. They describe themselves as the "Last.fm for research". the startup essentially aims to enable academics to manage and sharing their research paper inventory and at the same time discover like- minded people and papers thanks to a recommendation and matching algorithm.

The audience also cast their votes in the morning session and awarded Myngle (http://www.myngle.com) with the People's Choice Award. This startup, based in The Netherlands, pitches itself as a 'new way to learn languages'. Myngle was founded by ex-eBay employees and operates a platform for online language education where teachers and students can virtually connect and determine if there’s a match for an online course to start between the parties (from both sides).

For any questions about the Plugg conference and the concept behind it, please contact the organizers:

Robin Wauters - robin@plugg.eu

Veronique Pochet - veronique@plugg.eu

Winners for Plugg Start-Ups Rally 2009 announced written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: competition, plugg 09, start-ups, start-ups rally, startups, startups rally, winners, winners plugg 2009

We're ready to go here for the second edition of Plugg, which is now merely 37 hours away from being kicked off at the time of publication of this blog post. The event is shaping up to be very exciting, with a promising bunch of knowledgeable keynote speakers and panelists from all over Europe and from a variety of industries, which is one of the goals we set for ourselves in terms of programming the content. We're also delighted with the quality of the startups that will participate in our annual pitching competition and judging by the content of their presentation slidedecks, things are bound to be getting very interesting.

We can't thank our sponsors, and also our many media & event partners enough for making the event possible in the first place, but evidently we would like to extend this gratitude to all attendees who've registered to participate (we published the participant list on the Amiando subsite so you can see who else is going to be there).

Plugg is not the largest web conference in Europe any way you look at it, but we're proud of the fact that we've managed to make it relevant enough to attract a decent amount of visitors (the same as last year, which is great considering the economic downturn which unfortunately forces some Web 2.0 events to cancel altogether). We'll do our best to make the event memorable and continue to stubbornly focus on celebrating European entrepreneurship and showing the world what we can accomplish here!

Hope to see you soon!

Robin Wauters & Véronique Pochet

PS: if you haven't yet registered, you can still do so until midnight tomorrow (11 March 23:59 PM CET). If you're unable to attend, we would like to inform you that we won't be live-streaming the event, but you can keep track of the chatter on Twitter and we will record a boat load of videos and make them available along with the presentation slidedecks right after the conference. Stay tuned!

Counting down to Plugg 2009 written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: count-down, countdown

- Ashu Mathura from mobile advertising company MADS, a highly experienced entrepreneur, will share his views on the vision of the mobile ad market.

- Dries Buytaert, the original creator of Drupal and co-founder of both Acquia (based in the U.S.) and Mollom (based in Belgium), will share his experience on the difference in conducting web business and raising venture capital in America as opposed to Europe.

- Joining the VC panel is Sake Bosch, founder & managing partner at Prime Technology Ventures. 

Some of our sponsors will also deliver a short keynote, and the speakers they've delegated are top notch:

- Rudy De Waele from dotopen / Mobile Monday Barcelona / Mobile 2.0 Europe

- Dr. M. Claire Van de Velde from IBBT

- Jo Caudron from ONE Agency (one of Arkafund's investments)

Now haven't you still registered for the event? Do it now!

Latest confirmed speakers written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: speaker, speakers

So huge kudos to Sun Microsystems, Arkafund, Amazon Web Services, Gimv, IBBT and Netlash for joining us as Gold sponsors, and thanks to Big Bang Ventures, Voxbone, Oxynade, Netlog, 3Scale, Cruyplants Eloy Wagemans, dotopen and Arjuna for becoming a Silver sponsor.

We heart you!

Shout-out To Our Sponsors written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: kudos, sponsors, thanks

We're now finally ready to announce the 20 finalists that will be pitching at the event, after we got confirmation of their attendance. They're all pretty excited, and so are we!

Here's the list of the 20 nominees that will be presenting at Plugg (in alphabetical order):

ApSynth (Calcul Plus) from France - http://apsynth.com/

BeeBole from Belgium - http://beebole.com/en/ 

Bubok from Spain - http://bubok.com

Burt from Sweden - http://byburt.com/

ContextIn from Israel - http://contextin.com/

Desktop Reporting from Belgium - http://www.desktop-reporting.com/

DPIvision (CannyBill) from the UK - http://www.cannybill.com

Hammerkit from Finland - http://hammerkit.com

iOpus (AlertFox) from Germany - http://www.alertfox.com/

Jinni from Israel - http://www.jinni.com

Mendeley from the UK - http://www.mendeley.com/

Myngle from The Netherlands - http://www.myngle.com

Nulaz from The Netherlands - http://www.nulaz.net

Plista from Germany - http://plista.com

SenseBoard from Sweden - http://senseboard.com

Silentale from France - http://www.silentale.com

Snagsta from the UK – http://snagsta.com

SofaTutor from Germany - http://www.sofatutor.de

Tailgate Technologies from the UK - http://tailgatetechnologies.com

VinoGusto from Belgium - http://www.vinogusto.com/

We wish them all the best of luck and a good time preparing for the event.

Over the weekend, we will update the list of presenting startups and compile a list along with logos and short summaries of their business, so keep checking back!

If you want to see these startups present their wares at Plugg, register now while you can still catch tickets at the discounted early bird fee!

Here's the official press release if you're interested.

These are the 20 finalists for Plugg's Start-Ups Rally written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: start-ups rally 2009, startup, startups, startups-rally

We have a very worthy replacement with Ashu Mathura, founder & CEO of MADS, Europe’s leading mobile advertising network and marketing technology provider. He'll be talking about mobile advertising as it stands now, the technology, trends in the market, targeting and his vision of where he believes it will be in the future.

We're honored to have Ashu as a keynote speaker and we're sure you'll enjoy his talk too!

Update: Pat Phelan not speaking, Ashu Mathura replacing written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: ashu mathura, mads, pat phelan, speaker, speakers

Register here!

Please help us spread the word about the conference so people can still enjoy the discounted price!

Early bird fee expires next Saturday! written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: early-bird, pricing

Of course, you already knew who the speakers were, but we were and are still adding some, so keep following this blog to learn more about that soon. The program won't change all that much, so if you were holding out on registering for the event until you knew what to expect, the currently posted draft day schedule won't be far off.

Draft schedule posted written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: agenda, program, schedule, speakers

The jury is currently hard at work jointly determining which 20 startups they wanna hear more from at the conference because they believe in the potential of the idea and the team.

We expect to be able to announce the finalists next Friday or over the weekend at the latest.

By the way, you should register for the event now (the early bird fee of 380€ still applies)!

Plugg Startups Rally 2009: 126 companies to rate written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: jury, plugg startups rally, plugg startups rally 2009, rating, startups rally, startups rally 2009

Plugg Startups Rally 2009: deadline for registration quickly approaching written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: deadline, startups, startups rally, startups rally 2009

Excellent points!

Mike Butcher: 5 ways start-up culture in Europe has changed written by Robin Wauters in: default

Tags: culture, europe, european, european startup culture, mike-butcher, start culture, startup, startups