We combine business with “hygge”: Keyvan Thomsen Bamdej about TechBBQ conference

The Ukrainian IT and innovation cluster is actively looking for opportunities for development. Now, in order to develop, Ukrainian teams need to focus on finding foreign partners and creating collaborations of a new format. The Danish TECH-environment is an example of a combination of science, business, value approaches and a vision of big goals. The Danes know how to implement an idea and turn it into a successful company. I asked Keyvan Thomsen Bamdej , Head of PR & Communications, about how startups present their ideas, what the TechBBQ technology conference is like.

Keyvan, TechBBQ is the largest technology conference in Scandinavia, startups prepare for this event every year and wait for it. What was the reason for such success?

We are number two in the Nordics after SLUSH in Helsinki, Finland. The reason for all of our success is that there is an increased interest in the startup and tech scene in Denmark and Scandinavia from all of our national and international stakeholders: partners, investors, tech companies, speakers, community, media etc. They are all showing interest in supporting our mission of gathering The New Nordics — which stands for the Nordics and the Baltics — through two days of quality Summit, where you can meet literally all of the industry thought leaders, keynote speakers, top journalists, etc.

Why is TechBBQ important? What does it give to the innovative community and the world?

TechBBQ is important for the simple reason that we are the only tech Summit that gathers the entire startup community for two days each year in September. In 2022, we celebrated our 10th event, which means we have been around since our inauguration in 2013. We have grown from a small grassroot movement of 300 people to 6.500 — 8.000 the last couple of years. Because of COVID-19, we took a hit, but now we are back on track, and gaining momentum. Also, TechBBQ is important because we happen each year at the same time. This allows us to build on the concept and become known for «that tech summit in the Nordics that combines business with ‘hygge’ (Danish for «having a good time»).

What makes this year’s conference unique? What’s new?

The conference of 2022 was extra special, because the TechBBQ has expanded in size, we got a bigger team, and we moved our event location into a new and bigger space this year for the first time. This was a bold move, as the venue, which is an old Locomotive Shop, is double the size of Øksnehallen. If you look at the event photos, you’ll see that it’s quite a raw and historic place to host a tech conference! Apart from the venue, we had even more international speakers, media, delegations and investors than ever before. We managed to gather 30 international journalists, 15 international delegations, 650 international investors, and some 110 international speakers. On top of this, we had His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Denmark attending as well as Tim Draper, Erika Cheung, Caroline Farberger, Mike Butcher, Larry Madowo and the like visiting for the first time.

Your opinion: what is important for authors of ideas to know when presenting a startup here for the first time? How important is visualization, stand design, elements of creativity in this?

It’s super important to have an eye-catching design at your stand, something visually catchy as well as perhaps a fun gimmick, a popcorn machine, a photobooth, a competition, a drone, or something with VR/AR and the Metaverse. You need to be creative to stand out from the many exhibitors. Think smart, be innovative and do something to engage the visitors to showcase your product or prototype. Also, you can consider wearing some colorful shoes, jersey and/or hat etc. to make sure you don’t blend too much in with the rest of the crowd. You want the attention, so go get it!

This year, 8 Ukrainian Grandfathers are taking part in the conference, and in general, the war made the development of Ukrainian IT even more intense. Under what conditions could TechBBQ be held in Kyiv after the end of the war?

We are super delighted and very pleased to have an Ukrainian delegation present at this year’s TechBBQ. We couldn’t have wished for a better way to accommodate the Ukrainian tech companies and founders than bringing them and their partners to Denmark. We are definitely interested in collaborating more with Ukraine and Ukrainian companies as well partners even more, and also with Kyiv specifically, however, since TechBBQ is a Danish conference taking place each year in September in Copenhagen, I doubt that we will be able to host it in Kyiv or anywhere else for that matter in the future. Our goal is to continue to build a thriving startup ecosystem in Denmark, so we have no plans of moving out, even though we have collaborations with Japan, Italy, Germany, the Baltics among many places abroad.