The Next Web NYC - Grand Opening

TheFNDC.com Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to the co-founder of The Next Web, Boris Velthausen Van Zanten. Good morning. Welcome, everybody. I'm saying welcome to you, but I feel like you should say welcome to me, because I'm the visitor to this city, to this country, really. My name is Boris. My whole name is Boris Veldhuizen van Zanten. I also have four first names. I'll spare you those. But you can just call me Boris if you meet me somewhere and are up for a chat. I'm one of the founders of The Next Web, together with Patrick Deleve, the other tallest guy in the building wearing a suit. And we started this company 10 years ago as basically a hobby. We threw the first conference. 200 people showed up. We got a taste for it, and we figured we'd do another one. And out of that grew a company that is now known around the world. There's not a country in the world where they don't read our news. And this is the 17th event we're doing. So this is the 17th time I'm on stage opening one of our events. We did 10 in Amsterdam. We did three in Sao Paulo. And this is the fourth one in New York. And of course, it's still nerve-wracking to be on stage for a crowd like this and having to open an event like this. You know, the tension is high. It has expectations, high expectations. And then I got to open and set the mood for the day. So you can imagine that it's still exciting after all these years. And what I want to tell you today is that when we first started our conference, people said, well, that's a dying business because it's all going to be digital, right? You can just conference or read about it online. Nobody needs to be in the same room anymore. But we quickly figured out that technology is all about emotions and about purpose. the personal context, the phone you have your pocket is the most personal device you have. There's more or more secrets on the phone than anybody in the world knows about you. And we can demonstrate that by taking one of your phones and going through your photos and see how uneasy you can get within a few seconds, so technology is personal, and the personal connections we make are important. And that's why these events are so great to attend because you meet people in youross and you also might find entertainment in the process. hear personal stories from founders or people just like you experiencing the same problems. So today we've got a bunch of great entrepreneurs on stage and they'll talk about momentum, the momentum they gained in their business. So at what point in their business did things change? We think that's going to be very educational and sometimes entertaining. And I think that's another part that you'll notice today that we don't mind entertaining you a little bit. That's why this armband is so important. It's for the after party tonight. I'll mention it a few times because we all know that over a drink you really become friends and learn even more than you'll learn today. And then you'll take a photo and it will be a personal memory that you might be embarrassed about. And that's all fine. So I hope you have a great day. If you see me walking around and you want to ask me a question, please do. When you're on the toilet, there's no toilet paper. Tweet at me. I'm at Boris on Twitter and I'll come and save you. This will make it a great event together. And with that, I want to invite Justin Halsall to the stage, my friend from Amsterdam, who's going to be your host today. Justin. Thank you very much, Boris. Hello, everyone. Hello. Hello. So is Boris. As I said, my name's Justin Halsall. And during my normal day job, I work for IBM's Global Entrepreneurship Program. And we help out startups. And we see a lot of startups with really gaining momentum. But we also see startups that, you know, slowly wither and die, unfortunately. So we try and help them out and try and get them to gain that momentum that they really need to break through. But today, today's special. Because today, I get to guide you through the amazing spectacle that is the next webinar. So I'm super excited because we have some really amazing speakers here today. We also have some really cool startups that are battling it out in the pitch competition. And we also have some industry captains that are going to be talking with you at the end of the day. And they're going to be helping out you. And you're going to be sharing what you're working on. So before we get into all of this, I have a couple of announcements to make. First off. First off. Instagram launched Snapchat. I mean, stories. And the next web wouldn't be the next web if they didn't jump on that bandwagon. So you can follow the next web. If you've been following them already, you've seen that this whole event has been built up. And you've been able to kind of like share along in the crazy madness that it takes to build up this conference. Apart from that. You need to get online, of course. So there's Wi-Fi. And if you want to get onto the Wi-Fi, use the password thenextweb. No spaces. All lowercase. Spelled out completely. And please use this official hashtag. TNWNYC. That way we can all connect with each other. And speaking of connecting with each other. There's also an app. So you can download the app. If you type in TNWNYC in the app store. You'll find it. And it has an up-to-date schedule. One of the things, unfortunately, that happened is Danielle Morrill is ill today. So she can't make it. So that will be reflected in the app. We send our love to her. Hopefully next year she'll be back. We also have a drone giveaway. So TNW Deals and TRND Labs got together. And they're giving away 10 drones. Okay. The drone. Can you come up with the drone? Yes. Perfect. So these are quite cool. You can hook them up to your phone. And you can really annoy everybody around you by taking a selfie. If there's anybody with toupees, you definitely need to take a selfie with them. Because that would be hilarious. So we're giving away 10 of these. And I only really know how to give away one. So is there anybody here that wants to see this drone fly? Here we go. I think that's a lot safer than throwing it. So if you're as ballsy as this man over here and you want to win one as well, please follow the next web, New York City, on Twitter and you'll find out. So apart from the drones, if you have any friends that have fear of missing out and they couldn't make it for any reason and they're at a therapist right now trying to deal with their anxieties, just send them a tweet. Because we're live streaming this whole thing. And then they can, you know, it's way cheaper than a therapist. Please don't all go onto the live stream because it's actually happening in front of your eyes. And the internet will die. It's powered by 23. Thanks, 23. We also have a water sponsor. It's Bevy. You can have some great water. Sparkling water. And you'll see the little machines around. Thank you very much, Bevy. And then at the end of the day, we also have an after party. So this is going to be lots and lots of fun. It's at Rough Trade. New York Tent of Partners and Expenditure are going to be sponsoring it. We only have space for 500 people. So make sure you get there early. And I'm really looking forward to this. It's going to be lots of fun. You'll be able to give me a high five and you'll be able to give anybody, that's working at the Next Web and that's made this amazing conference possible, you'll be able to give them a hug. I'm sure they'll really appreciate it. Okay, so first, first speaker of the day. He's the current CEO of Reddit. For those of you that don't know Reddit, it's kind of like 9Gag, but you get everything a day early. Or it's like 4chan, you get everything a day late, but your eyes don't bleed. It's really good. He, if you see me and him dancing very vigorously at the after party, you'll know that there's some really garbage house music going on. Rumor has it he's a big fan of that. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me by welcoming him.