Despite the statistics and the mood of markets, there was no lack of entrepreneurial spirit and positive outlook at this event. Even from two start ups who were just looking for seed money to the Swedish mobile language learning tool seeking 10 million, both VCs and start ups were talking business.

Some highlights included the amazingly and oddly interesting commentary by the keynote  Dr. Thomas Meyer an Economist for Deutsche Bank Research who, despite his youthful looks, talked about an aspect of economics that held everyone’s attention – the economic benefit of start ups to this particular economy in terms of keeping a fire burning in the business cycle – making the market more flexible and rich in diversity.

Charles Van Costenobel, Director Eurecan and Ester Palomar, Eurecan Cataluna

The Summit also had a large contingency of Spanish start ups as part of the work with Eurocan – led by the dynamic duo Charles Van Costenobel and Ester Palomar.  OK  first we have to just point out that they are with Caja Navarra which is Civic Banking – yes you heard right – Civic Banking a new and truly pioneering concept in banking.

CEO Davorin Gurnick and COO Dennis Gurnick, Intera

Tattletech’s favorites at the Summit were the Slovenian Intera rolling out software as a service for the Enterprise in the emerging Central European markets as well as German markets. Their competitive advantage lies in their business model and approach to market as well as the platform focusing on social media tools for the enterprise. We also liked IRL, led by a young and dynamic team out of Amsterdam. They had the business model right when it came to location based social networking because they also had a platform for corporations as well. (video to come!) They were passionate about their product but also extremely realistic and cautious about investment and how to use that money to correctly roll to market. Also, Yasmo LIve which is a mobile application for networking at conferences – in other words lets you know who is there so you can get some business done and provides a revenue producing opportunity for conference organizers and promotional options for sponsors. The company was led by the only female entrepreneur at the event, Areti Kampyli.

As we said before, Spain seemed to dominate and three other favorite Spanish start ups were Intelliglass which improves energy efficiency of buildings; La Cupula Music,  founded by another Dutchman, is focused on the digital distribution of music for the Spanish and Latin America markets; Zentym led by the one of the most dynamic CFO’s we have ever met – Jaime Pont who is going to revolutionize and make profitable (he claims) advertising models, distribution and relevancy for MobileTV, and then of course Tattletech’s personal favorite, nuubo. So many reasons we like nuubo – because they have taken smart materials and combined them with  innovative software & wireless communication systems in order to make bio monitoring clothes or equipment to improve health or save lives. Sure that is one of them. Because he went along with a little semantic joke, or  because they had one of the best presentations for a start up that we have ever seen, because they are already working with Telefonica Mobiles to bring this to market or because their General Manager Rodrigo Miranda Beltran is just the most charming, deeply intelligent and ultimate gentleman on the planet universe.

Arican Wegter, Internet Entrepreneur & Angel Investor and Dorte Wiene, Regional Director, e-Unlimited and bGrand Advisory Board

We also found that angel investors like Internet Entrepreneur and Angel Investor Arican Wegter, former founder of Lovefilm (Europe’s NetFlix) but he embraces the true spirit of the entrepreneur – providing funding, business support and direction to help them get off the ground successfully with the right business model and foundation for growth.

This week we will post a series of video interviews with many covered in this post. So stay tuned.

But besides ther product which is incorporates from the ground up cloud technology and semantic logic, this company is designated a Family Friendly company and carries that seal of approval proudly.  Their philosophy is that the only way a company can be successful is to provide our employees with a good working atmosphere, pleasure, health and reconciliation of family. It is this energy and devotion which consequently improves a company’s image and character. Yes we just wrote that. And after having dinner with both Dennis and Davorin last night, we were quite actually speechless at their passion and strong belief that their company must keep this and grow this philosophy if it is to be successful. Refreshing, you betcha!