Gothenberg highlights the community this week at #GBGtechweek


    Hack on a boat! Workshops! Party! That’s whats coming to the rocky coast of Gothenburg this Saturday during #GBGtechweek – an action packed week full of events with their largest events taking place this Saturday. With the two connected events, Gothenburg Startup Hack and Startup Arena the goal is to connect the Gothenburg startup scene and educating the public about the city’s rising startup scene.

    “Gothenburg needs these kind of events to kick people in the ass a bit and get noticed,” says Johannes Tveitan, part of the core group of #GBGtechweek. “Gothenburg has sort of a stamp of being an older industrialized city, and we want to show theres a lot more going on.”

    Through Gothenburg Startup Hack, teams will be boarding the S:T Erik at around 8 in the morning to start building the idea they’ve had kicking around in their head. There’s not any restrictions or themes of what to build (other than leaving space for open innovation teams), and the teams will have until the afternoon to work on their concept as the boat cruises through the archipelago

    After the boat the hackers will move to the Startup Arena, a 900 person event free to attend from 15:30 until the party stops. At the startup arena the startup scene and general public will have the chance to attend workshops, watch keynotes, and mingle with the startup scene during the Startup Grind event. At the Startup Arena, the best ideas built on the boat will be highlighted by the judges, which will hopefully activate newcomers to dream big and build something new.

    From an outside perspective, it’s great to see Gothenburg rallying around their startups and promoting entrepreneurship as an option to everyone in the city. “Its such a small city so its easy to get contacts, you just have to pick up the phone. Say you’re just starting out an call the head of Stampen [media group] to say I want to pick your brain over lunch – it’s not impossible.”

    More info about attending can be found on the Startup Arena website.