Ulli I know this is a concern, I actually had same opinion on both sponsors and iHR competitors earlier last year. Mostly an opinion based on others feedback and experiences, not my own.

On sponsors – Thomas touched on this aswell re American vendors so for anyone that was there you probably have a smile on your face no matter which side of the Atlantic you sit on. My experience is that there are lots of US vendors planning EMEA entry and are picking up some of their best customers in Europe – so its a good playground for them to get to know who’s who – not all solutions being bought at our event have to consider language/culture. On iHR, I hear your point. Do note that last year we had 2 US based company involved as finalists and one of the 6 is relocating to The Valley ;o) My personal view is to keep the competition global to make it more competitive (one company was also from Middle East this year) That means we are sourcing the best startups in the world and remember its a mostly European judging panel (+14) whom voted in TalentBin! Our members are global companies, it raises the bar for the competition and ultimately it makes it more competitive for the competitors – both in terms of the product demo and how they perform on stage – they need to sell their ideas and product. If they don’t get their message across to our audience then they know afterwards what its going to take and ultimately, what they must do to be successful/survive. It really is a great opportunity for startups, I also believe its dangerous for startups to get on stage – so well done to each finalist for braving it! We also had “applicants” from Asia Pacific this year but they didn’t make the cut. Most of applicants are EMEA startups. Its also worth noting that it is difficult even from +100 applicants to find real disrupters. The final 6 deserved to be there, TalentBin deserved to win and I think the other 5 finalists will tell you – they learned so much from this process (Creating 5 min videos for application process alone is a massive awakening/job/undertaking – actually most startups should do a 5 min video!) I think they have taken many ideas on how to take things forward from their fellow finalists, the audience and the judges. Also for us finding disrupters for 2013 against the 12 great finalists we had in 2011 and 2012 (hard act to follow!!). Will bring this up on our next meeting so thanks for the feedback.

Matt Charney
@mattcharney