European Startup Festival comes to Ireland

European startup festival Uprise will be held in Ireland for the first time - in Dublin’s RDS on October 20. 

Founded by Irishman Paul O’Connell in Amsterdam in 2015, the festival has quickly gained a reputation among startups, investors and enterprises, as a practical event that helps startups attract talent, investment and partnerships. 

"The Uprise Festival is about putting startups first. We turn the outdated conference model on its head and instead focus on removing all distractions, focusing on the practical side; bringing people together to make those all important connections, as well as delivering workshops and panels on a broad range of topics from artificial intelligence to trade marking your business," said Paul O’Connell, founder of the Uprise Festival Europe. 

"We also provide a matchmaking service, matching startups to VCs and investors," he added. 

Ahead of the event, the Uprise Festival is searching for Irish based startups to compete in its "Pitch Battle", which will pit Ireland's most talented startup entrepreneurs against six startups from mainland European and the US. 

Before the Pitch finals, a set of regional heats will take place in Dublin, Galway, Limerick and Cork, supported by Bank of Ireland, to find one startup competitor from each city to go through to the finals in October, as well as two wildcard competitors. 

True to the democratic ethos of the startup community, the power will be in the hands of the audience, who will vote for the startup best able to pitch its business. 

From rte.ie (26/9/2016)