EU – Baltic States, Forum, Innovations, Internet, Latvia, Technology

This year, you can expect the startups to be bigger, the topics even bolder, and the atmosphere as hot as the weather outside is cold. With investor matchmaking, business expo, networking, and around 20 side events to choose from, there is more to TechChill than just the stage agenda – but it is a great motivator to make the trip to the heart of the Baltics on February 21-22. This year there will be two stages at the TechChill - Superhero Stage and LMT Founder Stage. Speakers will discuss topics such as innovations that affect people in the future, as well as products created by startups that could solve long-standing global problems that previously no one could overcome. Meanwhile, on the LMT Founder Stage founders, executives and representatives will tell about their business experience and share insights on how to build your next success story.

The focus of our agenda this year is IMPACT, or more specifically, how technology impacts not just the startup bubble, but also individuals, regions and societies around the world in the long term. Innovation can be a force of immense good, and no one will dispute that science and technology are the key drivers that improve our lives, making them easier and better. However, as technology permeates our life and seemingly takes over every aspect of it, we are inevitably left with the hard and uncomfortable questions – how to deal with the rapid changes and the consequences technology brings? Is disruption always good? Speakers will talk about such issues like today's rapid change in people's lives caused by technology, how to create tech companies that would be beneficial to everyone, as well as the consequences of disruption. There will be discussions about what, if anything, we as users, customers and citizens should ask and expect from tech brands, corporations and policymakers, and how we can learn to manage the role of tech in our own lives.

TechChill agenda in now live: https://techchill.co/agenda/

“It's such an honor to bring together international tech and startup ecosystem experts here in Riga. I invite not only to listen to their experience but more importantly to meet these people, network and establish international contacts without even leaving Riga,” says Kristine Kornilova, CEO of TechChill.

Both startup founders and experienced investors who invest in big tech companies responsible for millions of customers will share their opinion and experience. Cassie Kozyrkov, chief Google data scientist, will share her insights on the growing role of data and AI in everyone's lives; Ginny Fahs, an activist, and Uber engineer, will talk about the initiative of her, #MovingForward, which is committed to making the next chapter of technology more human-friendly and accessible. TechChill's long-standing guest Stewart Rogers, an experienced VentureBeat journalist, technology industry veteran and co-founder of the Tribe of Why, will talk about balance in tech-life, as well as how entrepreneurship affects mental health. David Ryan Polgar, an enthusiast of tech world's ethical side, who actively debate about Facebook's privacy issues, will talk about digital well-being, and what it means to be a human in the digital age.

Another topic of the TechChill's agenda is the human side of technology - problems, crisis, and how the daily life of entrepreneurship really look like. Experienced entrepreneurs share honest stories about the life of startups - success and failure, challenges, how to build a team in such fast-paced mode, and how to analyze the market and create a meaningful product. Kristel Kruustuk, co-founder of Testlio, will share the daily challenges of entrepreneurs and what it means to leave the place of the CEO. Milda Mitkute, the CEO of Vinted, who just raised 50 million investment, will share her story. Jennifer Kanyamibwa, who will represent Twitter, will share her experience in building a strong team and its culture. Joshua Slayton, co-founder of AngelList and CoinList, will talk about the difference between startup and already stable and well-known company, and how setting rules is not always the best strategy in the early stage of startup, but Casey Fenton, founder of Couchsurfing, will share the experience of introvert programmer creating a company known to be the world's largest reliability experiment.

Last but not least, the startup competition Fifty Founders Battle will offer an insight into the ideas of 50 most promising and innovative startups from 19 countries. On Day One, 50 startups will be on stage pitching their ideas in front of audience of 2000 visitors. Fifty teams this year were selected from nearly 200 applications from 35 countries, and will pitch in five verticals based on their business field - fintech, software as a service (SaaS), deep-tech, hardware & IoT, as well as impact.

About TechChill

TechChill is known as the year’s most ambitious and recognizable Baltic startup ecosystem event and the best opportunity to meet the most promising new founders and ideas from the Baltics. The conference has grown rapidly - from a few hundred participants to two thousand international visitors. Every February, under the TechChill's leadership, Riga becomes a global innovation, business and networking center for a week. The next TechChill will take place on February 21-22, 2019 in Riga. Read more: www.techchill.co

TechChill is sponsored by LMT, Swedbank, and Magnetic Latvia. Our supporters are Accenture, TWINO, Printful, Karma.vc, Taxify, Adyen, TestDevLab, TechHub, RGSL, LIVE Rīga, Altum, Practica Capital, Tilde, AJ, AkzoNobel, and Cobalt. Our friends are SAMSUNG, Ethos, aws activate, Institut Francais, Mežpils, Grimbergen, Mailigen, Kingdom of the Netherlands, Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Latvia, Rixwell, Days Hotel, Wellton, RIJA Hotel, Parrot, WebDev, JCDecaux, Caffeine, Norden and TrueSix. Our media partners are DELFI, 150sec.com, The Baltic Course and Labs of Latvia.