Connecting changemakers – our Journey of Building Upstream Festival
I never imagined myself as an event organizer, yet here I am, on the cusp of the fifth edition of the Upstream Festival, the community led startup festival.
It’s been an incredible journey, filled with challenges, growth, and moments of magic.
About 15 years ago, I defined my personal mission: “to help people grow.” By 2018, this mission evolved into “I connect bold changemakers [….] to drive positive change.” This guiding principle led me to an unexpected adventure.
In late 2019, I took stock of the startup events happening around Rotterdam and Delft. We counted over 150 events per year, each operating within its own micro-ecosystem. The fragmented landscape got me thinking: what if we could create a unifying force to connect these events and build a cohesive community?
In January 2020, a small group of ecosystem leaders – dubbed the innovation mafia – came together with a collaborative idea: to create a festival that would unite the ecosystem. Upstream was born, scheduled for September 2020.
Then, the world turned upside down with the outbreak of a global pandemic. Despite the uncertainty, all partners involved embodied the Rotterdam spirit of #makeithappen. When many initiatives were postponed, we pivoted quickly and moved our event online. In September 2020, we hosted a five-day virtual festival with live talkshows from a professional studio set up in an airport terminal. It was a challenging yet invaluable learning experience, and one I hope we won’t have to repeat.
Our second edition in September 2021 marked our first offline event, held at the newly opened Stadshaven Brewery. It was perfectly timed between lockdowns, allowing us to create magical moments and forge significant connections.
This edition also saw the birth of our Scale-Up CEO Dinner and Superconnectors. We also brought a sharper focus on the key challenges faced by startups: talent, capital, and customers. This targeted approach helped us attract the right audience for each day, featuring a career fair, meet-the-buyer sessions, and an investor house.
The third edition, hosted at Bird, at a very central location in Rotterdam, allowed us to better combine the main program with side events taking place throughout the region. We moved away from (long and winding) talkshow formats to 12 minute fireside chats, roundtables. And we added dedicated speeddating areas.
Last year, we moved to the larger and more central venue of Poppodium Annabel, located in a creative neighborhood with a beer garden. We hosted main events in the afternoon, so our partners could organize city events in the mornings. Refining our format based on past experiences. We welcomed more than 2000 attendees over the course of three days.
Through these iterations, we learned valuable lessons. For example, we realized that Talent Day is more effective when held on campuses and universities throughout the year. We also found that combining investors and corporate buyers on the same day made sense, leading to more meaningful interactions. And we learned that bigger is not always better, as we’ve seen with so many commercial events that lost their original charm due to commercial seduction.
For the 2024 edition, we’ve further refined our approach. We’ve combined two afternoons into a full day and reserved a full ‘Day zero’ for side events. Most importantly, we focus on maintaining a balanced ratio of founders, investors, and other attendees, taking inspiration from events like Slush.
We made the daring move to limit the number of tickets for each category. This year, our attendee tickets sold out quite fast, emphasizing our commitment to quality over quantity.
As I look ahead, I’m contemplating passing the baton to someone else. This journey has taught me the importance of relaxation and trusting in the power of a formidable team, despite yearly changes in team composition. This year, things feel more under control than ever before as I celebrate my birthday with my wife and kids in relative relaxation two days before our event.
Let’s enjoy the moment and look forward to what Upstream 2024 has in store. 🙏
Www.upstreamfestival.com
