The Next Web: Ultimate Guide For Ecommerce Community

The Next Big Thing in European tech community is going to happen on May,9, when annual The Next Web conference will gather thousands attendees, shiny startups and famous speakers in one place.

The speakers line-up and topics impresses and makes it tough to plan where to be as sometimes you may want to be at 2 venues simultaneously.

To keep it easier, I handled all the speakers and topics from Day 1 and sharing my The Next Web “must visit” guide for marketplaces community.

Building Online Communities that Thrive

• When: 10:20 — 10:40
• Where: Venue 3: SPRINT / The Next Women Summit
• Who: Chris Slowe, CTO, Founding Engineer Reddit

Community is a fuel for many marketplaces which helps to not only get loyal users, but also to make them ambassadors who spread the word about a platform, bringing more and more followers.

However, community has to be nurtured and grown which requires a lot of efforts to do. Starting at a neighbourhood or a small group of early adopters, interacting with them and sharing their interests and needs, marketplaces become something more than just a platform, but a part of the community's life.

"Reddit is a network of communities where individuals can find experiences built around their interests, hobbies and passions. As of 2019, its popularity has surged to 330 million monthly active users discussing everything from r/skincareaddiction, r/streetwear, r/science and r/documentaries. In his session, Chris Slowe, CTO and Founding Engineer of Reddit, will bring attendees behind the curtain to see the technology that makes these communities possible. He will explore three key pillars: helping people discover and join communities, empowering community moderation, and providing a performative and efficient infrastructure".

The Power of Kindness and Building Brand

• When: 10:45 — 11:05
• Where: Venue 1: Re:Brand
• Who: Louise Troen, International Marketing & Communications at Bumble

Founded by a Co-Founder of Tinder, Bumble is an app or actually even a social networking platform with “women make the first move approach”.  The platform brings together dating, friend-finding, and career-building. Fighting for accountability, equality, and kindness, created Bumble Fund to help women entrepreneurs and already got Serena Williams and Priyanka Chopra as investors onboard.

This keynote will highlight how Bumble’s values of kindness, respect and equality set the foundation for the estimated billion dollar company’s success.

This session will take you through the Bumble story — from fighting misogyny to launching disruptive creative campaigns whilst highlighting how Bumble successfully launched in multiple markets with one core message — women go first. Bumble took a problem in society and utilised tech function and creative innovative marketing to spread this message like wildfire. Troen has been critical to the expansion and consistency of this and will walk us through her thinking behind this. This key note aims to showcase marketeers that focusing on mission first as a brand, whilst leading with kindness as a business, is key to building a thriving company in today’s modern world

Future of Tech in Europe

• When: 11:10 – 11:30
• Where: Main Stage
• Who: Gillian Tans and Lauren Valbert, CEO at Booking.com

Gillian Tans, the CEO of Booking.com, definitely doesn’t require an introduction. She successfully runs the largest marketplace since 2016, participates in numerous events and makes an impact into Women in Tech community.

Whether you are an early-stage marketplace or already have good traction and metrics, there’s still so much to learn from Gillian and Booking.com. So you literally can’t miss this speech.

Europe doesn’t make it easy for tech companies. With a heavy emphasis on regulation and not enough on funding, the EU should place higher priority on incentivizing talent and startup growth while the tech industry itself must look inward to solve for its diversity issues and improve recruitment if the continent hopes to gain notoriety as an innovative ecosystem. Join our conversation with Booking.com CEO Gillian Tans to get a Dutch CEO's perspective on the future of the tech industry in Europe.

Reality Check: Monetizing Your Personal Brand in the Digital Age of AI

• When: 13:15 — 13:35
• Where:  Venue 1: Re:Brand
• Who: Christine Souffrant Ntim, Award-winning Forbes 30 Under 30, Entrepreneur

A strong personal brand helps a lot when pushing forward the idea of your product and what you care about. Building a brand requires so much dedication and cutting off everything which is not necessary or doesn’t relate to your focus.

Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur who has been featured in TEDx, Forbes, United Nations, and Harvard Business Review for her work building tech hubs in emerging markets- shares the secrets to monetizing your brand in the age of Ai automation where the future of work will bring you opportunity instead of fear.

Role of Influencer Marketing

• When: 14:00 — 14:20
• Where: Venue 3: SPRINT / The Next Women Summit
• Who: Emilie Tabor, Founder & CMO at IMA — Influencer Marketing Agency

The details about this topic aren’t announced yet, but last 2 years have a growing trend of launching marketplaces for influencers of different level, more and more brands use influencers power to promote their values and products.

In terms of marketplaces, they bring together advertisers and influencers who share their values and helps to reach out to their audience in a very smooth way.

Source of Funding: Early Stage VCs or Angel Investors?

• When: 14:05 — 14:25
• Where: Venue 5: TNW X
• Who: Ton Van Noordende, Yasmin Tumer, François Paulus, Sander Vonk

One of the most important questions is how to get more money to test the assumptions or accelerate the growth of your project. More and more startups reject investors offers due to numerous reasons, trying to control 100% of processes and grow constantly.

To make a better decision on financing the startups, you need to know the difference between early stage venture capitalists and angel investors, and what each investor can offer. In this panel session, angel investors and early stage venture capitalists will discuss what each investor is looking for when it comes to investment, which to choose for receiving first funding, and how to collaborate with both investors.

Building A Lifestyle Brand in the 21st Century

• When: 15:40 — 16:00
• Where: Venue 1: Re:Brand
• Who: Cyd Crouse, Meg Donovan and Mihai Botarel, Uber | Muse

Building something cool which becomes a part of people’s life is a real challenge. With a lot of buzz around every day, brands are doing their best to break through it and catch your attention.

That’s it for Day 1, hope you found something really interesting or even have put some events on your calendar. Either way, the official schedule of The Next Web is here, so make sure you don’t miss something amazing.

If you liked the article, please let me know about it by leaving a comment or subscribing to my account. The Day 2 schedule for marketplace community will be published next week.

If you have an idea of a marketplace or need help with growing an existing one — feel free to contact me and discuss what I can do for you.

Stay tuned and see you at The Next Web!