Report on participation in Webit Congress 2012

Last week we participated in Webit Congress 2012 in Istanbul. We were invited to the event as one of the 21 finalists of the Webit Startup Challenge. The organizers provided the exhibition stand and 2 free tickets to all the finalists, which allowed them to participate in all the events that took place within 2 days. The event ended with start-up pitches and award winners. The event is large and not traditional for startups (because startups are only one of its parts) and therefore especially interesting. Detailed report and some photos under the cut.

The program of the event consisted of 2 days and was divided into 5 sections:

1. Digital Marketing and Innovation Conference
2. AppsWorld & MasterClasses
3. Leaders of the future ( startups here )
4. eCommerce Conference
5. Telco Conference

+ free seminars for all visitors and an exhibition.

Participants had different “access rights” depending on the type of ticket: from the entrance ticket - only the exhibition and free seminars (mostly advertising), to platinum - access everywhere and free food :) We, like other Startup Challenge finalists, there were golden tickets that gave free access to everything except food. There is, by the way, it was especially once, because we were essentially tied to our stand - there were a lot of stakeholders and they approached on the whole quite equally and regularly.


Our stand. We write down useful tips :)
')
The event was held in Lutfi Kirdar ICEC (a large exhibition / conference complex in the center of Istanbul), so there was plenty of space, although at times there was a feeling that there were really many people. Each section was held in a separate room, the space between which was occupied by the exhibition.


Central zone


Main stage. There were free seminars and reports of sponsors of the conference, mostly of an advertising nature, although there were quite interesting presentations. In particular, Andrei Sebrant was remarkable.

By the way, Yandex, which started in Turkey very vigorously about a year ago, was one of the main sponsors of the conference, and its representatives participated in all sections of the event, although Yandex did not have a separate stand.


Stand PayPal, also one of the main sponsors


Webit Startup Village. There are startups stand


Stands of companies. A lot of e-mail marketing companies ...


Business conversation


A place to relax and socialize near the main stage


Another place to talk


Part of the stand of Digital Ecosystems


Stand Boomads. In the foreground chocolate fountain :)

We did not have the opportunity to attend all the lectures we wanted, but the Leaders of the future seemed to us to be the most interesting section (perhaps, of course, simply because the subject matter is close to us).


Alexander Galitsky meets startups

In general, investors at the event were not very many, but this, as far as we can judge, was not the main task. Much more interesting for startups (in particular for us) was a meeting with a potential audience and partners. 30 percent of visitors were from Turkey, so the standard question was “Are you already working with us?”.


Wall Street Journal interviews one of the startups.


Pitches

The pitches were at the end of the second day - just before the end of the event (in my opinion, this is not the best time). All startups were really very cool + great presentations and speeches, t.ch. I think the jury was not the easiest task. As a result, the winner was the project mySugr - a mobile application for diabetics with gamification elements and certified as a medical device. The jury especially appreciated the social significance of the project, the involvement of the team (the founders themselves are ill with diabetes) and the excellent, emotional performance. The second was Sellbox - a system for selling content from the dropbox. And the third INFODIF - a company engaged in the recognition of images in the video stream in real time.


Very helpful advice.

The event was organized just fine, except for problems with Wi-Fi, which both went to bed at once as soon as there were a little more visitors. All companies, by the way, warned about this in advance and offered to buy wired Internet, however, at exorbitant prices in our understanding (1 Mbit for 2 days would cost 300 euros). It is clear that for PayPal and other large companies this is not the sum, but most startups were without Internet. Although, in general, we demonstrated our project from the local environment remarkably well, and mobile applications worked offline (once they accidentally clicked Logout in an iOS application, after which they urgently had to search for the Internet), it was impossible to quickly tweet from the scene.

Many thanks to the organizers and everyone who came to our stand. We hope to attend the event next year.

And yes, Istanbul is a very interesting city - lively and beautiful - with a special flavor, but, in general, it is quite European, t.ch. recommend.

I will be glad to answer your questions.