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Prince Constantijn to Europe’s start-ups: “collaborate”

The first IBC Startup Forum got underway with media industry entrepreneurs from all sectors speed dating with select IBC exhibitors. The Startup Forum, produced in association with Media Honeypot, also featured a Dragon’s Den style pitching competition in which Startup participants could pitch their ideas to a panel of industry experts.

The Startup pitch entrants were of such high calibre that the organisers found it extremely difficult to select a single winner. A second place prize went to South Korean company Hecas, who demonstrated ultra low latency streaming.

The winner was London-based Jukedeck, which is using machine learning to compose and adapt professional quality music.

The Startup Forum also featured a slate of keynote presentations and panel discussions. Among the guests was HRH Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands, who is Startup Envoy for IBC. His panel ‘The Rules of Engagement’ shared wisdom on navigating the partnerships between start-ups and corporates in a rapidly fluctuating landscape.

The Prince was asked about Amsterdam’s place in Europe as an innovation hub. He talked about the need for European collaboration and a vision that looked beyond cities. “Most of our markets in Europe are too small for big venture capital firms to come here. So I don’t believe so much in this idea of competition.

Each city needs to work on being attractive, but we can all be very complementary. We all need to work to create much more entrepreneurially-friendly climates. We’ll all benefit from it. I don’t see this as a zero-sum game.”