Tallinn Hosts The Estonian ICT Week This April

Estonian political bodies as well as the private sector are have been putting a lot of emphasis into the ICT sector, part of building startup momentum

Last month alone Estonia gained much startup momentum with the rise of the new tech hardware-only accelerator BuildIt and the equally hardware affiliated Garage48 event, which became the most successful of its kind to date.

The next month of April (23-30) will see the Estonian capital of Tallinn swarming with tech folks as the city will be hosting the international information and communication technology week.

The ICT week draws global leaders from the ICT domain to Estonia to discuss and get involved with topics focusing on entrepreneurship in technology and the public sector.

Held on the initiative of the Enterprise Estonia Foundation (EAS) in cooperation with the Estonian Association of Information Technology and Telecommunications, Garage48, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ICT week aims to contributing to cooperation both in Estonia and worldwide.

Estonia is working hard in creating the perfect ground for a thriving startup community, including the president who’s a strong believer in a collaboration between the private sector and the government with aims to “techify” the entire country.

“I am glad that Estonian ICT Week will seek to demonstrate the interconnection between innovation and the culture of startup companies, the awareness of net neutrality issues and the capability to implement IT solutions on the level of states,” said Toomas Hendrik Ilves, President of the Republic of Estonia.

In addition Martin Hirvoja, Member of the Board of EAS emphasizes the importance of tech events hosted by Estonia and underlines the symbiotic relationship such events have with those held in Finland.

“In Estonia, we have already laid the necessary groundwork for excellent events that promote the establishment and development of startup companies in technology and IT. We are now packing them together into one week to create an annual international spring event in Tallinn. To further develop the idea of Talsinki, we need to create a top spring event in Tallinn to complement the Slush conference held in Finland in autumn. Without an event like this, there would be little hope for international financiers and creators of startup companies to gather in Estonia and eventually establish themselves here”, Hirvoja says.

Estonian ICT Week 2014 will incorporate the following events:
– “Change, Quick!”
– Latitude59
– Popular weekend hackathon Garage48
– Nordic Digital Agendas Day
– “Free and Secure Internet for All”
In nutshell, Tallinn could very much be worth a visit next month.