Semana do Empreendedorismo de Lisboa – a Startup Portugal Guide

Every year, Made of Lisboa (MoL) puts up a week-long event set to promote startups and innovation, as well as all the best tech businesses operating in the capital. It’s a must for the entrepreneur’s calendar, as well as to all corporates, VC, BA and players of the ecosystem, who rarely shy away from joining in, promoting their own parallel events, or even partnering with MoL.

This year the whole schedule just blew and tripled the number os events in the program. This is one of the reasons why SEL 2020 is an unmissable opportunity to know more about Lisbon, its innovators, but also to understand how it can be reflective of Portugal’s entrepreneurial culture. Also on the news side, there are curators who make sure they can contribute with deep knowledge of their specialty, as well as perks coming from all the partners (from coworking freebies to our own Startup Hub). You get the gist: this is huge.

Due to the pandemic, SEL will not play out in the usual way, but it will not stick with the new normal as well. Meeting in the middle, Made of Lisboa’s efforts will bring us in-loco events with limited capacity and following all safety measures, exclusively online events, workshops, and even tours of the capital’s ecosystem in its most various formats, from sheer innovation to cultural and artistic outputs.

This a Startup Portugal guide to Semana do Empreendedorismo de Lisboa.

Monday 21

Opening Session – 3 pm
(watch live)

Usually, opening sessions do not go further than the protocol, but this one in particular will be different. Our sources in Made of Lisboa stated SIBS and InformaDB wil join the event to share relevant data on how the city’s economy reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic. It does not come as a novelty that Made of Lisboa and its partners weight in on the past year of operations, but for this term, and thanks to the new players pitching in, besides the information on employment, accolades, and milestones reached, the Municipality will be able to share information on business transactions, money spent by locals and how deeply it impacted Lisbon’s business life.

Financing Solutions for Sustainable Entrepreneurship – 12 pm / 5 pm
(watch live on our LinkedIn and Facebook page)

Venture Capital is always one of the KPIs to have in mind to consider relocation or to just measure how such and such a place is fairing. For this event in particular Made of Lisboa rounded up some of the most relevant players in the VC part of our ecosystem to understand and map the funding and financing solutions available in our ecosystem.

Tuesday 22

4.ª Lisboa Robotics Talk – 3 pm
(live via Zoom)

Makers are often overlooked in more traditional entrepreneurial circles, but SEL is playing a rather inclusive game here. Lisboa Robotics Talk is not only about robotics, but about innovation, FabLabs, and the culture of invention and pure innovation, looking to close in the gaps with new hardware. Also, it’s one of the biggest events on the subject in Portugal.

Future of Work in a Post-Pandemic World – 6.30 pm
(webinar with registration)

Let us just kick this one off by saying: not even the World Economic Forum is missing this one. The key speakers for this keynote are Olivier Woeffray (World Economic Forum) and Paulo Soeiro Carvalho (IF Insight & Foresight), kicking off the theme of the year: how can we get things going with physical distancing.

CMX Connect Portugal w/ SPEAK – 6.30 pm
(webinar via registration)

Community management is an essential part of growing businesses and bringing users close to your products and services while making sure their experience serves as a proper example of what it can accomplish. In Portugal, although, it is still a rather new discipline, something that CMX Connect Portugal, joining efforts from community managers hacking at Unbabel, Outsystems, Made of Lisboa and, a “yours truly”, Startup Portugal, are trying to turn it around and generate relevant content for newcomers and long-timers. For this session in particular the PT-based chapter of CMX Connect is inviting Ricardo López Páramo, SPEAK’s Community Experience Specialist, to share his thoughts on how a single person can build and empower a whole community.

Wednesday 23

Sustainability Projects in the Portuguese Ecosystem – 3 pm
(webinar with online registration)

Sustainability and Portugal have one thing in common: the future. Portugal is still on the rise as a European ecosystem, with lots of opportunities still to be explored. Sustainability is no different and is taking a lot of space in our entrepreneurial and tech scenes. This is what Demium will be addressing on this panel.

Village Underground Lisboa – 7 pm
(free entrance at the venue with registration via email: contact@vulisboa.com)

Village Underground has been a key player in merging culture, artistic endeavours and entrepreneurship in Lisbon and for this year’s Semana do Empreendedorismo de Lisbon it will not be any different. Bringing all the attention to various art forms, from dance to music, VUL will be the arts hub of Lisbon from the 23rd to the closing day, on the 27th.

Thursday 24

Remote & Digital Readiness — Is your company ready for 2021? – 3 pm (online with registration)
Is Lisbon a good place to build Remote Tech Teams? – 4 pm (online with registration)
Upskilling and Reskilling — what’s coming next? – 5 pm (online with registration)

This trio of events, promoted both by Future.Works and Landing.Jobs, will be all about the so-called new normal and managing work in a post-COVID19 world. But there will be more. The future of work didn’t start being written in March. It has been on the works, and it is happening. If you’re being impacted by the pandemic, consider relocating to a different, more remote location, or just shifting your focus, this is definitely up your aisle.

Weekly Lisbon Digital Nomads Meetup Together with the Week of the Entrepreneur – 8.30 pm
(at Casa do Capitão, Beato, with registration)

Portugal is already a paradise for Digital Nomads, and it is only getting better. From an e-Residency program, to flat income taxes, to an unmatchable quality of life, all nomads hacking new solutions and adding value feel (and are) welcome. SEL will promote a meetup in Casa do Capitão, an arts venue in Hub Criativo do Beato, to showcase the future hip area of Lisboa. No office? No problem.

Friday 25

Cerimónia de Entrega do Prémio João Vasconcelos – Empreendedor do Ano 2020 – 5.30 pm
(online event with registration)

João Vasconcelos’s legacy lives on through our work, through Startup Lisboa’s work, and through SEL, obviously. It makes perfect sense that the second edition of the award created by Startup Lisboa in honour of his founder, Startup Portugal’s founder, entrepreneur and former secretary of state takes place during this week. It will definitely be one of the highlights and the perfect way to get to know Lisbon’s entrepreneur of the year. Remember: last year’s winner was Daniela Braga, and we all know how that turned out to be.