Reflect Festival May 2024
The past 2 days I was attending the Reflect Festival in Limassol. The Event was all about tech startups and entrepreneurship. I met a lot of interesting people and got some new ideas. But how did it Start?
Monday evening I made up my mind to attend the Reflect Festival. I was not sure if it was worth it, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to meet new people and get some new ideas. I was not disappointed.
I bought my ticket in the evening, booked a Hostel in Limassol from Wednesday until Friday and Wednesday came super quick.
It was a cool adventure to drive to Limassol with a friend on her Motorbike, I got to see very beautiful places on the way from Paphos to Limassol. Arriving in Limassol, I checked in at the Hostel and went to the first Opening Party.
That Evening I already understood the vibe of my first proper Entrepreneurship Event. I met a lot of interesting people and had great conversations. I got to learn what it takes and what it means to position myself as an entrepreneur. So I was talking with a potential Customer about his problem in Programming and their Software Development Process.
I thought for myself it would be a great project, because my way of programming with Event Modeling as the Project Management Methodology would be a great fit for his problem. He had his Company in Germany and outsourced his Software Development to India. But his main Problem was, that the Software is not documented and he does not have a Software Architect. Sounds to me like a big mess and a great opportunity to help him out.
In the Evening I went to the Hostel and met a young Startup founder named Marc from Berlin. We had a short chat and decided to walk together the next morning to the Festival.
The next morning I was pretty excited to see what the Festival has to offer. My new friend was busy sitting in the startup pitch competition, while I was attending the opening ceremony. Unfortunately I missed the pitch of my new friend Marc.
The festival had lots to offer, great workshops, talks and interesting people to network with. I was talking to investors and understood their vibe of talking, which is very straightforward and it seems like a weird dynamic if you are looking for funds.
The dynamic seemed to me of “The investors has the money and the startup founder is the desperate one”. I was not sure if I liked this dynamic, but I understood that it is a game of power and money.
I was attending a workshop about “How to pitch your startup” and I learned a lot about how to present my idea in a way that investors understand it. I was also attending a workshop about “Revenue Revolution - elevate your pitch game” and I learned again it’s all about positioning yourself.
The next day I met Wes, Martin and Tas. It’s a very interesting trio of people who are helping people building their brand. I was hanging around with Wes and he gave me lots of good opportunities to learn more about the world of branding and it’s stability curve.
The party in the Evening started not so good music was too loud, atmosphere was a leaving/ending and dismantling one. But after the Sun went down lights lit up and the DJ changed to a more upbeat and danceable music.
So what are my biggest takeaways from the Reflect Festival?
- Positioning and Networking is key
- The way to pitch myself to not overwhelm the other person and to be more clear and precise about it
- Getting more experience in the world of entrepreneurship
- Understanding the dynamic of investors and startup founders
- Building the first touch points with potential customers
- Seeing Sales person network and how they are positioning themselves
- it’s actually very simple, be authentic ask good questions and listen to the other person
- make them more engaged in the conversation by making them feel understood and to sometimes challenge their thinking
Also I learned how important it is to connect with like-minded people so I decided to join the Event Modeling workshop in Berlin besides my little amount of Resources I have. I use it as an opportunity to learn more about the world of Event Modeling and to connect with them. Let’s see maybe something great will happen, see you in Berlin!
