30 startups from the Hanseatic city present creative location and music city of Hamburg to an international audience.
At this year’s South By Southwest Festival (SXSW), so many Hamburg startups are represented as never before. The Hanseatic start-up scene once again underscores its international relevance at the world’s largest creative industry fair, which will take place in Austin, Texas, until Sunday.
A creative scene
What began in 1987 as a pure music festival has long since become an interdisciplinary melting pot of the international creative scene: the SXSW conferences and festivals for music, film and interactive media attract pop stars and newcomers alike, as well as Hollywood directors, successful ones and emerging entrepreneurs and investors looking for the latest trends.
Talents that came from there
In addition to current tech debates, such as opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence also determines the turbulent political situation in the United States reporting on the SXSW 2019: In particular, the current shooting stars of the Democratic Party such as Alexandria Acasio-Cortez, the youngest US Congressman of all Times, and her Texas counterpart Beto O’Rourke will receive similar media attention as the pop and movie stars who are honoring in Austin this year.
Starbucks founder Howard Schultz used his presence on the ground to announce his candidacy for the US presidency. For 2020, the year of the next US presidential election, the trend towards politicization should continue.
Dr. Carsten Brosda, Senator for Culture and Media: “Hamburg and SXSW – this is now a solid connection, the Hamburg creative and media companies continuously offers valuable opportunities for presentation and networking. The size of the Hamburg delegation alone and the record number of startups from Hamburg prove the high innovative strength of Hamburg as a creative location.
Events of the Reeperbahn Festival and the Hamburg SXSW Showcase also give artists from Hamburg the opportunity to perform in front of an international industry audience and at the same time to further increase Hamburg’s international visibility as a city of music”.
Hamburg, a successful present
Dr. Rolf Strittmatter, CEO of Hamburg Marketing and Managing Director of Hamburg Invest: “Hamburg is building on its successful past years with its presence at the world’s most important creative and digital conference in Austin. Above all, our startup unit supports innovative founders in expanding their networks on this international platform. The entire Hamburg startup ecosystem will become more well-known throughout the world. Hamburg is becoming more visible as a future-oriented business location. ”
Sanja Stankovic, founder of Hamburg Startups:
“The Hamburg startups were traditionally very strong again. Not least because we intensively coached the startups for months and were able to organize as many opportunities as possible so that they could present themselves on an international stage. This strategy pays off and was only possible with the support of partners. How the established Hamburg industry and also the city supports the startups has an exemplary character and is unique in its form”.
Timotheus Wiesmann, Managing Director of IHM e.V .: “Even though SXSW has long been a multidisciplinary event – SXSW Music is and remains the world’s largest music industry festival. I am pleased that Hamburg brought exciting artists and a showcase to Austin in 2019 as well. On today’s festival Thursday, we offer the international industry representatives a particularly good networking opportunity when, together with the ANCHOR Reeperbahn Festival International Music Award and the Music Cities Network, we present the third and last year’s Reeperbahn Hamburgers’ Reception. ”
Hamburg on the SXSW
Since March 8, SXSW is already in full swing – and Hamburg is again actively involved. For eleven years, a delegation has traveled from the Hanseatic city to Austin, which presents both the business location with its creative companies and the music city of Hamburg with numerous artists at SXSW. The Hamburg joint presentation is largely organized by the Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft (IHM), the Reeperbahn Festival and the Hamburger Marketing GmbH and includes networking events, company and product presentations, matchmaking, various discussion panels and a music showcase.
In addition to Hamburg investors and established entrepreneurs, this year’s Hamburg economic delegation will include 13 startups from the region: a record. Her business ideas presented in Austin include the Locacyze relocating platform, high-tech plant pots from AIRY Greentech GmbH, Cargonexx, which builds an intelligent transport network for long-distance transport, and sustainable online banking from finance technology startup Tomorrow.
The startup is organized by the private platform “Hamburg Startups”, supported by the startup unit of Hamburg Invest and Hamburg companies with the aim of showing innovative ideas from Hamburg and the diversity of the startup ecosystem on the Elbe in the world. Among them are events such as a US version of the “Reeperbahn Startup Pitches” by Hamburg Startups, the only European event of its kind with SXSW as official partner. Startups from Germany, the USA and Taiwan had the opportunity to present their business idea to an international expert jury and more than 200 US guests on Monday, March 11th. Around 30 opportunities arose to see a Hamburg startup on stage: from pitches to official panels to investor presentations.
“Reeperbahn Hamburgers” in Austin
A Hanseatic SXSW classic is the “Reeperbahn Hamburgers” reception, in which Hamburg presents itself with the ambiguous slogan “the best hamburgers in town”. With freshly prepared burgers, the representatives of the Hamburg digital economy were already able to hold numerous talks with existing and future partners on Sunday and Monday. Women in the digital industry are a dominant theme within the SXSW conference. For example, Hamburg also focused on female founders and in the third year, together with the largest German “Women in Tech” network, invited to the “Digital Media Women Day”. US star investor Sara Brand held the keynote, while Hamburg and US startups shared their experiences in the panel. More than 500 international guests came together.
Another “Reeperbahn Hamburgers” reception under the motto “Hamburg Music” takes place today, Thursday, and offers a networking opportunity for the Hamburg music industry and its international colleagues.
Musical highlights from the Hanseatic city already took place on Monday evening at the official Hamburg SXSW showcase: the indie band Gurr, the pop musician Mavi Phoenix, the Electropop act Lowly and the singer-songwriter Soak performed, presented by the Reeperbahn Festival and the Gender-Balance -Initiative Keychange, and inspired the international audience with their performances. The Hamburg R’n’B-Hoffnung Ace Tee can also record three appearances at this year’s SXSW: After their appearances at the German House on Saturday and at the German “Wunderbar Music Night” on Wednesday evening, the “Bist Du Down” singer will be Tomorrow at the “International Hip Hop” showcase show that contemporary R’n’B does not necessarily have to come from the US.
The Hamburg joint presentation at SXSW 2019 is sponsored by the city of Hamburg with Hamburg Marketing GmbH and Hamburg Invest. Responsible for the organization (Interactive and Music) are the Interessengemeinschaft Hamburger Musikwirtschaft e.V. (IHM) and the Reeperbahn Festival. Together with Sanja Stankovic from Hamburg startups they curate the Hamburg Interactive Program at SXSW. Partners are ANCHOR – Reeperbahn Festival International Music Awards, Digital Media Women, Hamburg Startups, Music Cities Network, NEXT Conference, NIVEA, Next Media Accelerator, Sequencer Tour USA, Sutor Bank, Vast Forward and Wunderbar Together – Germany and the US.
Also published on Medium.