In other countries around the world congresses and conferences about crowdsourcing are being celebrated (especially in U.S.A.): CrowdConf in San Francisco or CrowdoPolis in New York are just two examples. The crowdfunding has also received much attention: The crowdfuncing conference in New York, Silicon Valley Crowdfund Ventures in California or CrowdFuture in Rome.
Although in Spain various workshops about crowdfunding have been conducted for small number of people (Goteo or Injoinet have done some of this, for example), the reality is that, in the peninsula, any big conference about crowdsourcing or crowdfunding has yet been celebrated. But the thing seems to start (only start) to change.
In Madrid, april the 11th, 12th and 13th, will be held for the first time what is known as ZINC SHOWER. This event aims to be a meeting point for entrepreneurs, investors and professionals in the field of cultural and creative industries, it looks for the support and promotion of projects (100 of the 900 innovative projects that have been presented) and the promotion of collaboration and exchange. Among all the activities to be celebrated (fixed spaces to expose projects to fund, called Showers Area, participatory roundtables, called Jacuzzi Express, moments for networking, etc.) there are little nods to crowdsourcing.
Carlos Jean, whom I have written in previous posts, will be there talking about his experience; there will also be a face-off between Adtriboo, a creative crowdsourcing platform, and Álvaro Sobrino, designer and blogger (Crónicas de Pseudonimma – Pseudonimma Chronicles), who has already participated in this blog through the comments on the posts “Designers Vs Creative Crowdsourcing” (1, 2, 3 and 4). Besides these little nods to crowdsourcing, there is a section reserved exclusively for crowdfunding.
On april the 12th in the morning, the CROWDFEST will be held. It basically consists of the presentation to entrepreneurs and other participants of different financing platforms in their various formats, i.e. crowdfunding platforms. About this section, I have to highlight that I have been invited to open it (big and great surprise for me) with a brief introduction of 20-30 minutes about crowdsourcing in general, and crowdfunding in particular. Also, if there is anyone interested in attending to this event, Bee Social Media has told me that they offer 50 entries with 35% discount for the readers of this blog.
In short, while it is true that ZINC SHOWER is not dedicated solely to crowdsourcing, it’s a start. Even so, when there will be a conference of various days about crowdsourcing and crowdfunding here in Spain? Do you think it would be successful or it’s still too early?