Organizers
The Host Institution for the European Stanford REE 2010 is the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. The Primary Sponsor is Informatics Ventures, a project of the School of Informatics that is funded by the European Union.
The University of Edinburgh is a world-leading institution of higher learning, ranked 20th in the recent Times Higher Education Rankings, behind Stanford University (16) and Cornell University (15). The University is home to a dedicated student enterprise effort that cuts across a variety of departments and schools, including those in informatics, engineering, business, architecture, and law.
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Organizers
Host:
School of Informatics
http://www.inf.ed.ac.uk/
Host City
Edinburgh
The Inspiring Capital of Scotland
http://www.edinburgh-inspiringcapital.com/visit.aspx
“Edinburgh alone is Splendid in its Situation” – William Hazlitt
Edinburgh, the Capital of Scotland, is a magical, small university City whose population is approximately 500,000. At the centre of the dense City in the physical, emotional, and intellectual heart is the University of Edinburgh, a global research university, with a student population of 26,000, and a proud tradition of over 400 years of intellectual leadership. There are three other universities as well in the City, leading to a student population of over 50,000. Edinburgh is diverse, besides the university, intellectual, and creative inhabitants of Edinburgh, there exists a thriving tourism industry (Edinburgh has the highest hotel occupancy rates in the UK), and a growing financial industry (second to London in the UK and the fastest growing in Europe), an established biotechnology and medical devices sector, a growing software industry, as well as an emerging cleantech sector.
Edinburgh is known as the City of Literature. Edinburgh’s recently famous “creative entrepreneur”, J. K. Rowling, who holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, penned her successful Harry Potter series from the coffee shoppes of Edinburgh (you can visit one of them when you are here!). Recently, she graciously donated £4 million to MS research at the University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh has been crowned the Best Small City of the Future and Top Location for Economic Potential 2010/11 by The Financial Times Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) Magazine. Edinburgh also achieved the best position of any small city in the overall rankings. This places Edinburgh ahead of major cities, such as Madrid, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Manchester, Munich and Dublin.
Visitors and residents alike consistently rate Edinburgh highly for its attractiveness and quality of life, winning the Inspiring Capital numerous ‘Best City’ accolades. Edinburgh has also won many awards for its environment, economy, innovation and architecture.
Titles include:
- UK’s most competitive large city in the 2010 UK Competitiveness Index - compiled by The Centre for International Competitiveness, The University of Wales Institute
- Best Small City of the Future and Top Location for Economic Potential 2010/11 - The Financial Times, Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) Magazine
- Favourite UK City - Guardian/Observer Travel Awards 2009, for the tenth year running
- UK’s best destination port - cruisecritic.co.uk, October 2009
- Top Must-See UK City - Travelodge, August 2009
- UK’s most desirable City - YouGov poll, July 2009
- A world top ten city - Wanderlust 2008
- Top Ten European destination and 27th in the world - 2008 Trip Advisor Destination Awards
- Top Small European City - The Financial Times, Foreign Direct Investment (fDi) Magazine, 2008
- Sixth Best Overall City in Europe and second best in Europe for Human Resources. This places Edinburgh ahead of major cities such as Frankfurt, Madrid, Brussels, Barcelona, Geneva and Dublin - Foreign Direct Investment magazine, 2008
- The UK’s best place to live - Location Location Location, Channel 4, 2007
- Edinburgh Science Triangle: Scottish winner of the Enterprising Britain 2007 Awards
- European City of the Year 2006 - The Academy of Urbanism
- Britain’s most satisfying city - MORI 2006
- The UK’s only ‘Ideopolis’ outside London: a city of ideas, where knowledge, creativity, enterprise, connectivity and the quality of life combine to create a dynamic local economy - The Work Foundation, 2006
- The Award of Excellence for Innovative Regions - European Commission, 2002
Royal College of Surgeons
The supper on the Thursday night of Accel REE Europe 2010 will be held at the Surgeon’s Hall at the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.
Primary Sponsor
Informatics Ventures
Commercialisation, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
http://www.informatics-ventures.com/
Supporting and inspiring globally ambitious software companies in Scotland
For over half a century Scotland has consistently demonstrated global leadership in Informatics and Computer Science research, with a cluster rivaling Boston, Pittsburgh, Kyoto and Silicon Valley. Testament to this is the recent opening of a major Informatics science hub in Edinburgh by Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, which is the highest-quality in the UK, biggest in Europe and in the top four globally.
Informatics Ventures has been established with funding from the University of Edinburgh, Scottish Enterprise and the European Regional Development Fund with a mission to increase the economic impact of this formidable base of research and innovation, nurturing Scottish entrepreneurs to create global software blockbusters.
Informatics Ventures seeks to engage Scotland’s high-tech serial entrepreneurs and investors for advice and wisdom. The initiative will support ambitious software startups and contribute a significant entrepreneurship agenda to the Informatics and Computer Science base across Scotland.
Many entrepreneurs, academics and policy makers are passionate about creating and growing more software and web companies in Scotland, creating wealth and prosperity and as Guy Kawasaki would say, meaning. Informatics Ventures has been set up with catalyst funding from the following sponsors:
- Scottish Enterprise
- School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh
- The European Regional Development Fund
The Agenda
Over three years the initiative will develop and deliver an agenda of:
- growing the global aspirations of Scotland’s nascent entrepreneurs
- practitioner led entrepreneurship education (i.e. for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs)
- community networking and resources (online & face to face)
- supporting teams, leaders, mentors and management talent
- connecting startups to sources of venture capital and angel investment
Events
Informatics Ventures has sponsored a variety of events that benefit the Scottish entrepreneurial community. In addition to the European Stanford REE in 2010, Informatics Ventures is again sponsoring “Engage, Invest, Exploit” and TechCrunch Europe in 2010. This event will also be held at the University of Edinburgh, in the School of Informatics, in the new Forum.
Contact Persons
Conference Content Organizer:
Michael Clouser
http://edinburgh.academia.edu/MichaelClouser
PT Lecturer, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh
(Lectures Informatics Entrepreneurship and The Digital Marketplace)
-and-
PhD Candidate, School of Business, University of Edinburgh
(Entrepreneurship and Innovation research focus)
Michael.clouser@gmail.com
Tel: +44 131 650 4436
Skype: +1 (607) 821-1749
Event Organizer:
Ronnie Johnson
School of Informatics
vjohnsto@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 131 650 9979
Assistant Organizers:
Laura Rich
Informatics Ventures
School of Informatics
Laura.Rich@ed.ac.uk
Tel: +44 131.650.4432
Victoria Farnworth
School of Informatics
Vicky.Farnworth@ed.ac.uk
Tel: + 44 (0) 131 650 9992
Fax: + 44 (0) 131 650 3474
Danny Helson
Informatics Ventures
dhelson@inf.ed.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 131.650.4427
Photographer:
Joanna Rae
Jae Rae Photography
Conference Coverage
Start-up Cafe
http://startupcafe.co.uk/
Event Sponsor:
Andrew Mitchell
Informatics Ventures
http://www.informatics-ventures.com/
andrew.mitchell@ed.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 131 650 9935