START Summit: Summit for start-ups in St.Gallen

12 March 2019. The START Summit has developed into Europe’s leading student-organized conference for entrepreneurship and technology. Discussions will focus on new business models generated by artificial intelligence, the internet of things, virtual reality and blockchain solutions.

The speakers will include Igor Perisic, Chief Digital Officer at LinkedIn, Bracken Darrell, CEO at the computer gadget company Logitech, Daniel Sennheiser, CEO at the audio product manufacturer of the same name, and Daniel Graf, former Vice President and Head of Product at Uber. Richard Socher will also be present at the START Summit to provide artificial intelligence expertise from Silicon Valley. American founder Sharon Daniels, Chair and CEO of the company Arria NLG, will demonstrate how firms can use artificial intelligence and robotics sustainably. "We Robotic" founder Sonja Betschart will explain how robot technology is being used in social and environmental projects. She is one of the "100 Digital Shapers of Switzerland 2018". As an expert in self-motivation, elite athlete Natascha Badmann, six-time winner of the Ironman World Championship, will be a guest at the "Startfeld Arena". Wolfgang Fengler, Lead Economist at the World Bank, will talk about how big data can promote prosperity worldwide.

Pitch competition and honouring of the "Founder of the Year"

Students who want to impress investors with their business idea during the START Summit can take advantage of numerous small pitch platforms as well as the chance to win a huge prize in the so-called "START Summiteer Competition": anyone who can convince the jury with their business idea in three minutes on the podium will win CHF 25,000 in start-up capital. On Friday, 22 March 2019 at 11.15 a.m., the "HSG Founder of the Year 2019" will be chosen. The Werner Jackstädt Foundation prize is worth CHF 10,000.

Founder spirit expands network

The network of the student initiative START Global is growing with every START Summit: companies from Silicon Valley in the United States are represented, alongside businesses from Switzerland, Germany, Austria and the booming start-up regions of Israel, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Thanks to these new initiatives, START Global is represented by branches throughout Europe, for example in Lausanne, Erlangen, Munich, Berlin, Warsaw and, from this year on, Helsinki. START Global was established by HSG students in 1996.