Well people, it’s time. It’s time we really celebrated the tech scene in Europe with an awards event which we can really call our own. July 9 will see the first Europe-wide awards ceremony for technology innovation. “The Europas”, an awards concept created by myself as a side project and separate from TechCrunch, will honour the best tech companies and startups across the web and mobile scene from across the continent of Europe. The first tranche of tickets are now on sale.
These awards will recognise and celebrate the most compelling technology startups, Internet and mobile innovations of the past year (Summer 08 – Summer 09), with the tech community invited to have a say in which finalists should be recognised. Leading lights of the the tech community will be invited to give away the awards to the winners, so you’ll have the opportunity to meet your tech heroes and heroines. The initial filtering will be done by referencing the database on European companies on CrunchBase (so make sure you are in it), then by public vote online, with the final Award winners to be determined based both on the popular votes received through website voting and by The Europas Advisory Board.
You’ll be able to vote shortly.
The Awards Ceremony will take place in London from 6pm Thursday, July 9, at Delfina. It’s in one of London’s coolest parts of town with 300 places going for the attending audience.
Award categories
Best European Web Application Or Service
Best Design
Best Bootstrapped Startup (less than 3 years old)
Best Social Innovation (which benefits society)
Best Enterprise Startup
Best Cleantech/Environmental Startup
Best Hardware / Real World Gadget
Best Entertainment Application or Service
Best Mobile Startup
Best Mobile Application
Best Startup Founder
Best New Startup in 2008/9
Best European Investor of the Year (VC or Angel fund)
Best Investor Personality
Best Overall Winner
Join the awards ceremony!
On the evening itself we will have a handful of opening speeches in the “GeeknRolla” format of quick-fire information. These will be followed by a short pitch competition of up and coming startups. To be considered for the pitch competition you need to email TechCrunch Europe Editor Mike Butcher, with a one side of A4 text-only pitch, and also include the URL of you company/project/startup etc on CrunchBase (you can add your company onto it if it is not already there). Include: The market “problem” you are solving with your startup, your solution, your competitors, your team, and what you’re looking for (Series A round, etc).
And finally… there will be a special announcement of the launch of a new innovation from Techcrunch Europe.
How it will work
1) You will be able to vote for one of the companies and products nominated which you believe most deserves industry recognition for achievements made in the past year. If you are a site, grab a badge to encourage your community to nominate you for a Europa. Badges will be released when voting starts.
2) The Europas Advisory Board will advise on which entrants should be selected to win from the highest scoring entrants.
3) Join the ceremony!
Following a short pitch event sponsored by UKTI at 6pm, the awards will commence at 8pm. There will be a DJ, an open bar and finger food.
Dress code
This is not a formal “black tie” event. It’s an event to celebrate! But we’ll be encouraging you to “dress to impress” and show off your startup somehow in a cool, fun way.
The Rules
All internet and mobile tech companies from the continent of Europe, the middle East and Africa are eligible for nomination. Nominees will be picked by the Board from our database of companies on CrunchBase, so make sure you have submitted your companies there. Certain awards have specified criteria (i.e. best unfunded start-up or best new start-up launched in 2008) but, otherwise, all companies and products are eligible for consideration based on their accomplishments made between Summer 2008 and Summer 2009. Companies may be nominated for multiple award categories, and companies may win multiple awards. There are no fees to nominate companies for consideration, and no fees to be a nominated company, and no fees to vote. Startups are defined as startup companies with less than three rounds of funding, under 3 and a half years old.
Everyone will be invited to vote on our resulting shortlist of the top companies in each category.
The Europas Advisory Board will advise on the selection of the top companies voted for per award category, winner and, only where appropriate, also advise on the selection of a ‘Highly Commended’ award finalists they wish to recognise.
Finalist companies will be most welcome to join us for the Award Ceremony. Acceptance speeches will be in 140 characters or less.
The Europas Advisory Board reserves the right to discard any and all votes that it reasonably determines to be fraudulent or submitted by bots or other computer-generated voting applications.
The award winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony to be held July 9, in London.
Tickets
The first tranche of tickets are now on sale. To attend the event, tickets will be £60. Attendee identification will be checked at the door. Due to strong demand for tickets, we regret tickets are not refundable. Tickets are not transferable. In some cases we may be able to transfer names on tickets (if we’re asked nicely), this is at our complete discretion and the more people do this the more complicated an time consuming it can get (we are only a small team!). If you use your name to purchase multiple tickets, your guests must arrive with you to check in at the door. If you show up at the event without a valid ticket, we reserves the right to charge the full ticket prive £60 plus £15 administration fee to allow access to the event subject to availability.
Sponsorship opportunities
Sponsors will be able to be creative with their sponsorship, with a pre-award video announcing the finalists and winners. Opportunities include sponsorship of individual award categories, sponsorship of the awards ceremony, after-party, drinks and more… Please contact Petra Johansson petra(at)twistedtree.co.uk for further details.
Press
If you are a member of the press wanting to cover the event, please contact Rassami Hok Ljungberg on rassami(at)rassami.com
Editorial/Awards/Programme
Editorial queries related to the awards, the programme and the pitch competition should be directed to Mike Butcher.
