MLOVE YOUtopia: smart and good

MLOVEI love Harald Neidhardet, the curator of the MLOVE festivals and was lucky enough to present at one of his events in Berlin a couple of years ago; it’s the only event where I’ve ever jumped into a well after being on stage.

This year was the fifth anniversary of the MLOVE ConFestival Europe and took place in a castle south of Berlin and I was gutted that I couldn’t make it this year. It featured speakers and topics from the Internet of Things, smart cities, creative design, brands and mobility, maker movement to Quantified Self and bio hacking… the future, basically.

I can vouch for the open innovation and intense networking at these shows. It brings together those who are creators and is inclusive to those who code, make, think, create, hack, finance and communicate about things that matter most, as MLOVE so succinctly describe the people who attend their events.

Speakers represented Rambus, Google, Microsoft, IXDS, CISCO, IBM, NBBJ, SoundCloud, Automattic, Conrad and inspiring entrepreneurs from Singularity University, HQAfrica, Indiegogo, Spark Plug Labs and Revelflow to name but a few.

“It was great to see the participants and speakers at MLOVE to be so vividly engaged in sharing their vision for the Future of Mobility. We could foster great collaborations to work on combining industry trends like Internet of Things to include the needs and desires of citizens to create ‘good cities’ amidst all the exponential growth of technical innovation”, said Harald.

MLOVE Startup Competition Winners

The following startups pitched at the startup competition and won prizes by Samsung and American Airlines through a partnership with Tech Wildcatters:

* AirMarkr (Berlin), CEO Miho Tanaka – Grand Prize: Flight to Silicon Valley
* Birdi (San Francisco), CEO Mark Belinsky – 1st Prize ‘Internet of Things’
* eFarmer, CMO Michael Utkin – 1st Prize ‘Mobile Apps & Mobility’
* Amazers, Co-CEO Fabio Carlucci – 1st Prize ‘Meaning’

The jury for the startup competition included Nikolaus Röttger (WIRED), Felicitas Hackmann (Venture Village), Fred Becker (GGM Venture Capital), Corentin Cremet (App Developers Alliance) plus representatives from simyo, Rambus, Cisco, IBM, SBB, Alice, TechStars, hub:raum and was led by Andrew J. Scott.

Monty (708 Posts)

Monty Munford has more than 15 years' experience in mobile, digital media, web and journalism. He is the founder of Mob76, a company that helps tech companies raise money and exit. He speaks regularly at global media events with a focus on Africa, writes a weekly column for The Telegraph, is a regular contributor to The Economist, Wired, Mashable and speaks regularly on the BBC World Service.