The biggest and most exciting startup event in the Baltics, the TechChill, gathers founders, investors, tech geeks and entrepreneurs for a two-day meetup. Since the first edition in 2012, TechChill has grown from a small gathering to a conference with over a thousand participants and several side events. This year’s agenda will focus on the experiences and insights at the core of startup life – the Human Side of Tech.

TechHub Riga, a non-profit NGO, is the organizer of the event. The NGO was founded it 2012 to help local young entrepreneurs become more competitive and learn about founding their own startups. Since then, it has served as a community center that organizes regular meetups, offers a co-working space for over 30 startups and provides multiple networking opportunities. The alumni of TechHub Riga include some extremely successful Latvian startups such as Infogr.am, FROONT, Edurio, Sellfy, Monea or Fullcontact.

Ten selected startups will have a chance to participate in Pitch Academy – an intensive 1-day bootcamp – and in the Pitch Battle, one of the main events taking place during the conference. The Pitch Battle is a great opportunity to showcase your company to over 1000 people, including global investors, business angels and media representatives. The main prize is a fully paid trip to Silicon Valley with an agenda full of meetings with selected investors. Previous Pitch Battle winners include startups such as TrackDuck, Edurio or Nordigen, that have all attracted several millions in funding.

The Pitch Academy and the Pitch Battle are hosted by Startup Wise Guys, one of the leading startup accelerators in Europe. “In startup world, pitching is at the very heart of sales process and investor attraction. With our Pitch Academy we will get 10 startups better at that, so they can thrill the audience on the stage, but also significantly increase their chances of attracting team members, clients or investors in future,” said Cristobal Alonso, global CEO of Startup Wise Guys.

Additional side events during the TechChill conference are FinTech Talks, organized by TWINO, and Riga Venture Summit. The first one will be dedicated to disruptive innovation and shared economy, and will include thought-provoking talks of industry experts. Riga Venture Summit is an invitation-only roundtable regarding startup ecosystem policy.

TechChill is also a great way to get your first look at the Baltics, the region booming with innovation and full of startup talent. Riga, the city with one of the fastest internet speeds in the world, is favored by many startup founders because of reasonable living costs, friendly regulation system, access to amazing talent and a great geographical location.