"Start Summit": First guest event moves into the St.Galler Kantonalbank hall
The international start-up festival, "Start Summit", kicked off the first guest event in the St.Galler Kantonalbank Halle on Thursday, March 21. The two-day event with more than 800 start-ups, over 7,000 participants and 150 speakers put the hall in the spotlight in a unique way. At the same time, Olma Messen conducted a company tour with city and cantonal parliamentarians.
The "Start Summit" has been an integral part of the Olma Messen St.Gallen event calendar for eight years. This year's edition promises a unique staging, as the organizers are using the premises of the St.Galler Kantonalbank Halle for the first time. "When we held the "Start Summit" at the Olma trade fairs for the first time in 2016, we already had the desire to use the new hall for our event. That was long before the ground-breaking ceremony. Now, in 2024, the time has finally come," says Dominik Schirle, Executive Producer of the Start Summit. The relocation of the "Start Summit" to the St.Galler Kantonalbank Hall not only offers a spacious and modern venue, but also underlines the growing importance and appeal of the St.Gallen region for the global start-up community.
Global start-up fever in St.Gallen
Pitching, speed dating, hackathon and matchmaking: the "Start Summit" brought together global entrepreneurship in St.Gallen on Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22 - including major players from Silicon Valley and Southeast Asia. Successful founders, investors and visionaries from world-renowned companies such as DeepL, On and Neuralink shared their experiences, stories and innovations in the St.Galler Kantonalbank Hall over the two days. "With the latest technology and infrastructure, the new hall offers unique staging opportunities that cannot be found anywhere else in Central Europe," enthuses Dominik Schirle, who organized the "Start Summit" together with over 100 volunteer students from the University of St.Gallen.
Think global, act local
Parallel to the "Start Summit", an exclusive tour of the premises and behind the scenes of Olma Messen took place on Thursday, March 21 for municipal and cantonal parliamentarians. This opportunity gave around 25 politicians an insight into the event infrastructure of Olma Messen and highlighted the importance of the "Start Summit" for the region. Christine Bolt says: "With the Start Summit, we were able to show the regional politicians what is possible on our site, true to the motto 'think global, act local'."
Source: www.olma-messen.ch
