Online Demo Days, Conferences and Summits for Sustainability Entrepreneurs ‍

Online Demo days can be an amazing opportunity for founders to showcase their products to potential investors, customers and partners. Airbnb and Dropbox were both discovered at demo days, with investors helping them get off the ground back in the late 2000s. Typically they involve a series of short presentations and pitches where startups present their ideas and show how their product or service works ( 🫣🤞). 

Putting yourself forward for demos are great exposure for your business, but even better for your confidence. Not only will you get the praise and attention your hard work deserves, but you’ll also receive honest feedback and fresh ideas to strengthen your idea even more; something that friends and colleagues might not have got round to doing just yet (👀). 

These events are a chance to get in front of a bigger audience and embed yourself into a startup ecosystem full of valuable relationships, inspiration and resources. They can help you to:

🚀 Generate leads with customers

💸 Meet investors willing to invest in your startup 

🧠 Receive feedback from other entrepreneurs, investors and experts

🤯 Expose yourself to the competition and stay in the know with the latest startup trends

🤝 Build relationships with other founders, mentors, investors and customers which may lead to future collaborations and partnerships 

🦸 Practise your public speaking, networking and pitching skills 

👏 Build up some confidence for your startup and ideas 

‍

Here are some online demo days coming up to consider attending:

StartOut Dem Day - May 12th 

A virtual demo day for LGBTQ+ founders and entrepreneurs sponsored by Amazon Web Services. Top prizes include $5k for first place, $3k for second place, and $2k for third place winner.

Go Focal VC - May 18th 

Focal is the hub for early-stage fundraising, accelerating the process and driving better results. Apply now to pitch in front of investors and mentors. 

Future World’s Demo Day - June 14th 

This may not be online, but head down to Southbank, London for a chance to watch impact startups from Southampton University pitch their ideas. A great chance to take notes and learn from other entrepreneurs if you’re still in the early stages of your idea.

‍

Sustainability conferences in Q2

Conferences are a great time to network and meet investors. Although you won’t be pitching for as long as you can in demo days, most conferences have a “startup competition” “fair”, “stage” or some sort of pitching opportunity. Or, if you’re not ready to pitch just yet, they are a great opportunity to see other entrepreneurs, meet investors, and learn from the experts. 

‍Cambridge Tech Week
May 8th-12th | Cambridge
CTW brings knowledge, insight and experience together to fuel innovation and foster connections to change how we do things. It will attract entrepreneurs, founders, corporate leaders, investors, media, government, academia, influencers and international peers.

Sustainable Investment Forum
May 9th | Paris
Climate Action will host the 6th annual Sustainable Investment Forum Europe in Paris on 09 May 2023. In partnership with UNEP FI this forum will facilitate the sharing of best practice for effective ESG risk management and disclosure to combat greenwashing.

Hack Summit 
May 11th-12th | Lausanne, Switzerland
Featuring a “start up stage” for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas, this climate tech fair will be swimming with inspiration, investors and ideas. It has an impressive line up of climate tech speakers, a startup fair, a chance to try some “futuristic foods” deep networking sessions and panel debates. Startup tickets still available here, startup booths sold out.

There’s also a Hack Summit London Warm-up (for those attending the summit) on April 27th (next week!) at 5pm at WeWork in Aldwych House - get tickets here.

Climate Transformation Summit 
May 11th-12th | Online 
If you don’t fancy the trip to Switzerland, The CLIMATE TRANSFORMATION Summit is the first 100% online conference that brings diverse experts, scientists and decision-makers from the field of business climate transformation together in interactive panels, workshops and a best practice exhibition.

ChangeNOW
25th - 27th May | Paris
ChangeNOW 2023 is a three-day summit that brings together the most innovative solutions and impactful changemakers tackling our planet’s biggest challenges, to take action, together. ChangeNOW builds bridges between the entrepreneurs, business leaders and policy-makers to accelerate change.
‍

Reset Connect
June 27th-28th | London 
Reset Connect London is the UK’s leading sustainability and net-zero event for business, investors and innovators. Offering present & future net-zero business solutions and the financing to implement them. We bridge the gap between sustainability change-makers, business leaders, government and funding and are proud to be a flagship event of London Climate Action Week.‍

European Women in Tech
June 28th-29th | Amsterdam 
As we move from resilience to the building blocks of the future, we’ll explore the most essential technologies in today’s quickly changing world and the new revolutionary concepts in business and workforce that are radically changing our future. Experience Inspirational keynotes, unrivalled networking opportunities and gain access to the insight you need to be more effective in your role, your team and to drive change within your organisation.‍

Green Future Conference 
June 1st- 2nd | Croatia 
We bring together international and domestic technology leaders, companies, institutions, policy makers, scientists and other stakeholders from the sustainable development sector.

There are loads of other events and opportunities out there that can meet the same needs as online demo days. Accelerator programmes, venture capital firms, angel investors, crowdfunding, government grants and programmes and networking are all useful avenues worth pursuing. Sign up to our newsletter Sustainability Roundup for weekly opportunities such as online demo days and grants for impact startups - straight to your inbox.