Sweden is Europe’s California; over 22,000 startups as well as some of the world’s biggest brands like IKEA, H&M, and Skype all reside in Stockholm, which boasts a population of 2 million+ people. Still, places like Silicon Valley are heralded as leaders for pulling their resources and holding creative conferences like the Silicon Valley Innovation Summit or the even more popular South by Southwest in Austin.
This year, two individuals will try to change the conversation. Daniel Ek, CEO-Founder of Spotfiy and Ash Pournouri, founder of At Night Management will host the Symposium Stockholm June 8-13 which features the tech & music themed Brilliant Minds Conference June 11 & 12.
“If you’re a technology executive and you want to see how rapidly something can get adopted, look to Sweden, which has the third-highest per capita usage of new technologies.”
-Daniel Ek
The technology he refers to is how Swedes can watch HBO and sports channels without overpriced cable or satellite subscriptions. Major players like Skype co-founder Niklas Zeenstöm, Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg, and ABBA founding member Bjorn Ulvaeus are expected to speak at the invite only conference. Like SXSW, musical events include: the Denniz Pop Awards, the Scandanavian Music Summit, and Summerburst/ AVICII Fest, which is celebrating its fifth year.
Source: Billboard