It's a strange idea to come to

[Shishirgano9]

Helsinki at this time of year, when the sun rises after 10am and disappears at 3pm, …when it wants to rise. The magnet that attracts entrepreneurs, startup dreamers, investors, party-goers and volunteers is called " Slush ", the conference-festival-fair originally organized by Finnish students, little relayed outside the Scandinavian countries.

Yet, there would be something to talk about. This cyprus mobile database 11th edition of "Slush" brought together 3,100 start-ups , 1,800 investors, 20,000 visitors of 130 nationalities, 2,400 volunteers, 450 business leaders - all at an outside temperature of 2°C for two days in December. One more reason to find yourself warm inside in a half hygge, half nightclub atmosphere, after a visit to the Finnish forest offered to some of the event's privileged partners.

Maybe it’s the lack of daylight (only 1 short hour in winter) that inspires coders, but the fact is that the Nordic countries are leading the most innovative countries in Europe . With only 3% of the European population, they represent more than 50% of the billion-dollar stock market valuations since 2005. Home to successful companies like Skype, SoundCloud, Klarna, Rovio (the Finnish creators of Angry Birds) and especially Spotify (based in Stockholm), the Nordic countries alone provide 10% of the world’s startups .