Slush has taken its first steps towards creating a global network of 100 different and most importantly, local Slush’D events, organized by extraordinary teams around the world, having now chosen the first six first ones for 2022.

On top of the Slush brand, all organizers will receive tools, mentorship, and loose guidelines on how to put together a Slush’D event with the Slush ethos. The fun of all this lies in the fact that the events are bound to look different from one another. This is simply the mission of Slush’D: gathering the local startup community under one roof to address the bottlenecks present in the local ecosystem. We ultimately envisage that this will initiate a conversation towards lasting change.

The application period for becoming a Slush’D organizer was open only for two weeks and the team at Slush was amazed by two things. First, the quality of the applicants was insanely good. Second, the number of applicants. These two factors showed us that Slush’D is something that would be needed to answer very different local ecosystem needs on all continents and that one day, Slush’D will be a global community of a hundred local events being hosted every year.

Now to the fun part – out of the amazing applications that we have received, 6 dedicated teams are now in the process of putting Slush’D together in the following six locations around the world:

• Aarhus, Denmark
• Maputo, Mozambique
• Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
• Heilbronn, Germany
• Trondheim, Norway
• NYU’s Campus in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Now, let’s dive deeper into the issues these events aim to tackle! As the essence of Slush’D is to give the organizers the freedom to organize an event which would best fit their local ecosystem’s needs, the ball was in their court. Let’s hear it from the project leads:

“What are your expectations for Slush’D?”

Aarhus Slush’D, Denmark

Aarhus Slush’D is organized by Startup Aarhus, aiming to boost the startup ecosystem of one of the youngest cities in the Nordics. The potential is definitely there: the city features one of the top-ranking universities in the Nordics and 7600 active startups.

“At Aarhus Slush’D, we’ll gather 400 entrepreneurs, investors, and community builders for a full day in the name of entrepreneurship. The day starts with workshops that are spread out across the city where founders and employees from Unicorns will host deep dives into topics such as Talent Attraction, Raising Capital, and more. In the afternoon, we’ll open the doors to a crazy conference in true Slush-style (lazers included), and end the day with a Townhall party; a few inspirational talks, many free beers, and networking.” – Lasse Chor, Startup Aarhus

Maputo Slush’D, Mozambique

Ideàrio Hub is planning to bring the local ecosystem together in Maputo around the theme of unlocking an emerging creators’ economy. The organization aims to boost the entrepreneurial mindset of people by promoting personal economic freedom in the African markets.

“It takes an ecosystem effort to raise a successful Emerging Creator operating in a formal or informal African economy. We believe that Maputo Slush’D 2022 can become a value-added platform that bridges the Mozambican entrepreneurial ecosystem to global markets. Our primary expectation is to create experiences that remind the stakeholders what a collective effort can unlock for present and future generations of Emerging Creators.” – Alfredo Cuanda, Ideàrio Hub

Dar Es Salaam Slush’D, Tanzania

The Slush’D magic is also happening in the neighboring Tanzania, where SheFound, together with Ambitious Tanzania, are organizing an 150-person event to expose university students to opportunities to become a founder or work for a local startup. What they have in mind is a day of celebrating entrepreneurship:

“We expect Dar Slush’D to increase the number of university students and young people in Dar Es Salaam and Tanzania in general getting exposed to the startup and technology world, with the dash of intentional inclusion of women. The focus of the event is on accelerating the launch and growth of startups in Tanzania focusing on solving some of the major issues like employment, education, digital inclusion, financial inclusion and talent upskilling and acquisition.” –Vanessa Kisowile, SheFound

Heilbronn Slush’D, Germany

In the university city of Heilbronn in Germany, Campus Founders aims to inspire, educate, and most importantly accelerate the journey of current and future founders.

“By hosting a Heilbronn Slush’D event in the fall of 2022, we plan to give our community a fun way to meet and hear from startups, innovators, investors, community members, and other ecosystem stakeholders. From the networking, workshops, and pitches that happen, we hope to see new partnerships, high-value connections, and startup investments catalyzed in our startup ecosystem. Our team is very excited to have been chosen for this opportunity, and we are looking forward to working with and learning from the organizers of Slush!” – Corey Wright, Campus Founders

Trondheim Slush’D, Norway

The third edition of the first-ever Slush’D event, with a twist of something different. They say third time’s the charm, and knowing that the two earlier events have been great, Trondheim Slush’D is definitely positioned to be one of the local ecosystem’s highlights of 2022 with 6AM Accelerator as the organizer.

“This time, the event is focused on interaction and transaction with and within the global startup community – founders, investors, incubators and accelerators, heroes and troublemakers. Most developing ecosystems are hardwired to operate regionally, but we want to find out if there is a way to hack this. In a wider context, we want to touch upon globalization in a startup context, especially in this day and age where protectionism and nationalism is on rise.. “-Thor Richard Isaksen, 6AM Accelerator

NYUAD Slush’D, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

The most student-driven Slush’D of the year is being organized by a fully female-founded university VC community, Violet Ventures. This is a student-run venture capital community located in New York University Abu Dhabi in the UAE, with the aim of inspiring more founders and educating about VC investing for pre-seed startups.

“We envision hosting a dynamic, interactive, and vibrant event that breaks away from the traditional events we often encounter in the UAE. The bottleneck that we target is the lack of investment in pre-seed startups, as well as the minimal presence of youth and university members in the startup ecosystem. We hope that this event opens a space for thinking creatively, encourages ambitious youth to embrace innovation and critical thinking, and incentivizes them to tackle problems that exist in our society through startups.”  – Anne Salmela, Violet Ventures

The team at Slush could not have hoped for a better group of six extremely high-quality Slush’D organizers taking the magic to their local ecosystems. There is no better way to re-launch our international expansion than seeing the local organizing teams grow and answer major bottlenecks together with their community.

Knowing that the size of the Slush’D community is bound to at least double in 2023, we will open the application period to become a Slush’D organizer again later this year. And this time, we promise that the application period will be open for more than two weeks!