Turning the Solar System into our backyard. Let’s play!
On 7-8 April 2016, the first ever Disrupt Space Summit will take place at the GOP Varieté-Theater in Bremen. The event aims to bring together 300 innovators to use entrepreneurship to tackle existing challenges and needs using space.
As space is becoming more accessible due to lower costs and improved technologies, it is creating new opportunities for individuals from outside the space industry. The “SpaceTech” sector is rapidly evolving in North America and has the potential to disrupt the industry – a disruption mainly driven by startups. Traditional government entities, especially in the USA, are now pushing forward in enabling commercial space companies to launch, grow and sustain themselves. The Disrupt Space Summit is an initiative born in Bremen to bring this innovation into Europe’s space sector.
“The Summit will bring together key stakeholders from Europe and beyond, bridging corporate representatives, investors, entrepreneurs, and government officials to drive innovation forward through a unique, interactive event format.” said Magni Johannsson, Co-lead of the Disrupt Space Summit. “It will be the perfect place to develop innovative entrepreneurial space ventures.”
Disrupt Space builds on the success of the 1st StartupWeekend Space in Europe, which took place in April 2015 in the city of Bremen. In total 80 people from 18 countries attended the event to develop entrepreneurial space concepts within 60 hours. A simultaneous sister event took place in Shanghai, the first of its kind in Asia. The entire weekend demonstrated a strong creative spirit in both locations, resulting in a total of 18 startup concepts. Currently four international teams formed at the Bremen StartupWeekend Space are continuing to make headway in bringing their products and services to market.
Space is increasingly international. The Disrupt Space Summit seeks to transform this international collaboration into entrepreneurial action using space. Aspiring entrepreneurs are being encouraged to develop business concepts to tackle global challenges submitted by government and industry partners. On-site mentoring will be provided at the summit with subsequent follow-on support to turn these concepts into sustainable businesses incubated in the city of Bremen.
Bremen was recently awarded the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in 2018, one of the world’s largest aerospace events. With the congress in mind there is likely to be an upsurge in interest in space startups in the region. It is therefore a significant opportunity to build the infrastructure to harness this momentum.
“I am very pleased to see a continuation of StartupWeekend Space.” said Hans-Georg Tschupke, Head of Innovation at Bremen Invest. “Disrupt Space will take the concept to the next level by bringing together innovators across Europe and beyond to help make Bremen the hub for space entrepreneurship.”
Space and non-space entrepreneurs, government officials, corporate representatives and investors can now sign up at: disruptspace.io for a chance to receive early bird tickets for the summit.
Follow Disrupt Space on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn together with hashtag #DisruptSpace.
CONTACTS
Magni Johannsson
Co-lead, Disrupt Space Summit
E-mail: m@disruptspace.io
Tel: +49 176 81 589 303
Hans-Georg Tschupke
WFB Wirtschaftsförderung (Bremen Invest)
E-mail: h.g.tschupke@wfb-bremen.de
Tel: +49 421 96 00 10
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The Disrupt Space Summit will provide the 300 attendees a hands-on environment to engage in tackling regional and global challenges through the use of space. The summit will also serve as a platform for thought leaders and established entrepreneurs to inspire, share and interact with other participants.
Startup Weekend is a global grassroot movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest global community of passionate entrepreneurs.
The organising team are a group of space professionals who organised the first Startup Weekend Space in Europe in Bremen and Asia in Shanghai, and also participated in the Space Studies Programme (SSP) at the International Space University (ISU).