EU Creating New Jobs for the New Economy the Role of Accelerators and Entrepreneurship Programs

New York City, NY, September 22, 2015 (Newswire.com) - EU Creating New Jobs for the New Economy: The Role of Accelerators and Entrepreneurship Programs

An Evening Symposium & Panel Discussion

www.euroinnovation.org

This EU-sponsored event is free and open to the public.

EU New jobs for a New Economy is an evening of panel discussion and networking in the elegant setting of Luxembourg House. The event brings together leaders of public-private economic accelerator initiatives in both New York and the EU. Please join us to learn how these initiatives are providing capital to launch and grow hundreds of entrepreneurial companies and organizations across Europe and New York.

October 14, 2015

6PM - 8PM

The Luxembourg House
17 Beekman Pl
New York NY 10022
Phone: (212)935-3589

Opening Remarks by

• Jean-Claude Knebeler

Consul General Luxembourg in New York

investinluxembourg.us

Jean-Claude Knebeler currently serves Consul General of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in New York City, with jurisdiction over the States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Furthermore he is the Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office covering the Eastern half of North America, facilitating both US and Canadian investment in Luxembourg as well as commercial development of Luxembourg companies on the North American market.

Panel Moderator

• Brian Smiga

Operating Partner at Alpha Venture Partners, Founder of TheNavesink / TEDxNavesink, Startup Coach

Alpha Venture Partners

As a Venture Partner of Alpha Venture Partners, Brian evaluates investment opportunities. In addition, he provides product, marketing, strategic partnership, and operating expertise to AVP and its portfolio. Alpha Venture Partners is a next generation growth and expansion stage venture capital firm that focuses on accelerating venture backed companies. To these companies and their investors, we offer an option to quickly fill out a growth or expansion stage financing round in a friendly and rational manner.

Prior to Alpha Venture Partners, Brian was the CEO and founder of Preclick, (sold to Smilebox), where he developed popular photo software licensed worldwide by HP, 3M, Sandisk, Walmart, Costco, CVS, and Walgreens. Prior to Preclick, Mr. Smiga was CEO at 3Path, an Intel and Goldman-Sachs backed startup, and the SVP of Marketing at 1ClickCharge, where his product launch resulted in a sale of the company to CMGi.

After first working with Mr. Brotman at 1ClickCharge, Mr. Smiga has advised SAVP-backed portfolio companies: Altruik, Headliner, Knovel, and Mobile Commons. In the 1990s, Mr. Smiga began his career as a developer at Booz & Co, and in Silicon Valley was cofounder and President of Portfolio Software and Actioneer, where he co-authored six software patents and licensed top-rated software to Apple, IBM, Microsoft, AOL, 3Com, Acco, and others. Brian received a BA in Liberal Arts from Swarthmore College, and a Masters of Philosophy in Literature from Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Brian is executive director of TEDxNavesink, hosted at Two River Theater, Red Bank, NJ.

Panel Speakers

• Diego De Biasio

CEO at Technoport Ltd. Board Member at Neopixl (Luxembourg)

technoport.lu

Technoport is a technology-oriented business incubator in Luxembourg. It helps individuals validate and bridge their ideas to success through three main platforms : the business incubator, the coworking space and the digital fabrication laboratory. Over 100 startup companies have been officially accepted since inception and 45 left since. Out of these 45 one third got acquired by international groups. The main objective of Technoport is thus to contribute to stimulate the eco-system around startup creation and development by offering a range of services startup companies typically lack during their launching phase.

• Francesca de Chiara

Representative FINODEX Accelerator

Finodex

Finodex is one of the 16 accelerators of the Fiware Accelerate Programme. It is co-funded by the European Union to support SMEs and Web Entrepreneurs to develop products, services building upon FIWARE technologies and reusing Open Data and is part of the EU Future Internet-Public Private Partnership FI-PPP, offering €80 million euros of direct funding, mentoring, networking and other acceleration services to promote the use and adoption of FIWARE technologies and to help entrepreneurs create innovative Internet applications.

• Jan Fried

Director of East Coast Operations, CzechInvest

Czech Invest

CzechInvest advises and supports existing and new entrepreneurs and foreign investors in the Czech Republic through its services and development programmes. CzechInvest also promotes the Czech Republic abroad and acts as an intermediary between the EU and small and medium-sized enterprises in implementing structural funds in the Czech Republic.

• Laurie Giddens

Senior Vice President, Partnership Fund for New York

Parnership Fund for New York

The Partnership Fund’s mission is to create jobs, spur new business creation and to expand opportunities to participate in the economy to all of the city’s residents and neighborhoods. We are an “evergreen” fund — realized gains are continuously reinvested in deserving projects. Since inception, the Fund has invested in excess of $135 million in over 150 exemplary projects.

Our enterprise tech programs—including the FinTech Innovation Lab, NY Digital Health Accelerator and NY Fashion Tech Lab—leverage NYC’s concentration of corporate customers to accelerate growth of early and growth stage tech companies in key sectors.

• David Gilford

Vice President & Director, New York City Economic Development Corporation

NYCEDC

NYCEDC is accelerating the transformation of urban systems and infrastructure and helping to solve the most pressing sustainability challenges facing NYC and other cities globally. From deploying resiliency technologies to supporting the entrepreneurship ecosystem, NYCEDC is making NYC into the world’s model for a smart, sustainable, and resilient city.

• Antonio Parenti

Head of the Economic, Trade and Development Section, EU mission to the UN

EU @ UN

The EU's commitment to effective multilateralism, with the UN at its core, is a central element of its external action. As a UN observer with enhanced status, the EU delegation coordinates with its 28 Member States to speak with one voice. The EU also works closely with the UN secretariat and its agencies, funds & programmes, partnering on a range of global issues and challenges.