3 Crowdfunding Conferences in Europe You Should Attend for Networking

Attending conferences is a great way to enrich your Instagram profile, get a pat on the back from your boss, or get exposure and find valuable connections for your crowdfunding business. 

In Europe, entrepreneurs and investors visit crowdfunding conferences to keep up with the regulations which are just taking place, trends, and first-hand insights from the industry influencers. 

Whatever’s got your interest in EU crowdfunding conferences, we review several of the biggest ones which we’ve heard of or visited ourselves:

• ECN CrowdCon;
• OurCrowd – Global Investor Summit
• EU-Startup Summit. 

Additionally, you may look for local crowdfunding events and conferences at CrowdFundPort or CrowdSourcing Week (CSW). 

ECN CrowdCon

ECN stands for European Crowdfunding Network is a non-profit organisation which focuses on promoting and bringing transparency to the EU crowdfunding market, its influencers, and companies. 

“ECN executes initiatives aimed at innovating, representing, promoting and protecting the European crowdfunding industry as a key aspect of innovation within alternative finance and financial technology.”

CrowdCon is the name of the annual conference organised and held by ECN. By creating a collaborative environment, CrowdCon attracts over 150 highly-interested attendees each of which can make an impact on your business. 

This year, 2019, we visited the conference to find out more information about crowdfunding regulations, business development, market environment, and pain points. 

As a crowdfunding platform development services provider, we must understand what’s going on on the EU market – take, for example, the Proposed Regulation on European Crowdfunding Service Providers (ESCP) for Business.

Since we are responsible for our product, LenderKit, as well as the clients to whom we provide our services, we must keep up with the slightest market changes and adjust our product’s functionality or advise our clients on the best possible solutions. 

Several points we were particularly interested in the Trialogue (Commission, Parliament, Council) positions are: 

Maximum offering size

“… €8 million is a sensible level at which to set the limit”

An increase of the limit of an offering by €7 million is a huge step which will allow SMEs attract more high-quality investors and raise more funds for further development. 

Bulletin board deals

“…a CSP’s (Crowdfunding Service Provider) bulletin board should not include internal matching systems which execute client orders on a multilateral basis,” but in many cases, “ …investment will be held through SPVs which require the CSP to manage execution of the transaction…”

In other words, as a crowdfunding bulletin board, you’re not allowed to operate as a trading system but are allowed to manage the transactions by redirecting investors to the required destinations. 

Marketing communications-restrictions

Marketing communications must be fair, clear and not misleading and shall be consistent with KIIS (Key Investment Information Sheet); no restriction on marketing live campaigns.”

This is great news for crowdfunding platform in Europe, because you may soon be able to run marketing campaigns and promote the most prominent or all of your offerings and close deals more efficiently. 

The only problem is that current provisions and commentaries have not yet been implemented but will only take place in the “Common Approach.” Some way or another, any of the positions may be accepted either of Commission, Parliament, or Council. 

The mission of the ECN now is to lobby what they feel to be the best interest of the public, investors, and fundraisers. 

In addition to crowdfunding regulations, the European Commission is currently developing capital markets in Europe to establish a healthy environment for savers and investors. At the CrowdCon conference, ECN presented a report on the 8 Capital Market’s Union-Key Performance Indicators which are used to track and assess the development of the EU financial market.

The Capital Market Union report was a great contribution to the conference and is now publicly available for you to learn more about the European market performance. 

Plenty of numbers, statistics, and charts which you can analyse and get insights for your particular business domain. 

Global Investor Summit

Announced by OurCrowd, Global Investor Summit is an annual event which takes place all across the globe. In 2020, the conference will be held in Jerusalem, Israel. 

Global Investor Summit is not targeting crowdfunding experts or Fintech investors directly, but on the general scale, one should definitely be able to find the necessary connections among 18,000 people from 189 countries. 

As the event promises, you will have an opportunity to get:

• corporate meetups;
• VC forums;
• access to accelerators;
• touring opportunities,
• lounges and dedicated meeting spaces.

Global Investor Summit is focused on creating opportunities for exploring startup ecosystems, people behind the startups, challenges, solutions, and innovative technologies in various industries.

The event is a great place for expanding your industry’s focus and learning more about what’s going on in the world while getting insights as to what you can implement in your crowdfunding project.  

In collaboration with Social Finance Israel and IVC Research Center, OurCrowd is also actively taking part in analyzing the Israel investing market. 

According to the report, the size of Israeli impact investment market has grown from $130 million in 2016 to $260+ million in 2018. 

You may find value in the report and data especially if you’re focused on the P2P personal loans, medical loans, and crowdfunding for personal projects or needs. 

The impact investing is one of the major topics at the Global Investment Summit, according to the Summit 2019 report. You can check it out to develop realistic expectations of what you can learn during the Summit and whether it’s worth your time.

EU-Startup Summit

Where do you find 1,500 founders, startups enthusiasts, VCs, and investors a fair portion of which works in Fintech? 

EU-Startup Summit is the place to go. The event will take place in Barcelona on May 28-29 in 2020. 

Unlike other events with speakers, booths, lounges, meeting spaces, the EU-Startup Summit is also organizing a pitch competition with an opportunity for startup teams to win a decent amount of money. In 2019, for example, the winner of the pitch competition would go home with a €75,000 prize package in his pocket. 

We don’t know what agenda and members of Summit 2020 are, but in 2019, such companies as Startup Wise Guys, Techstars, Wayra, APX, and Rockstart were among startup accelerators.  

Also, relevant to the investing and crowdfunding niche, there were companies like Seedrs, Go Beyond Investing, Crowdcube, Funderbeam and Startupxplore. 

So, if you’re looking for investors, clients to provide development services to, or networking opportunities, then EU-Startup Summit will be a nice contribution to your list of must-visit crowdfunding conferences in Europe.