Surprising as it may be, my internship was not about being in the office all the time—and I do not mean the great garden to sit if the weather was fine. I had the chance, however, to spend 3 days in a completely different place, as we visited the Pirate-Summit Startup Festival in Cologne, Germany.
I had never been to such a festival so I had been looking forward to it! After taking off from Budapest early in the morning, it took only two hours to arrive to Cologne, and we could check in to our hotel which was a 10-minute walk away from the festival venue in the afternoon. The venue was very interesting, because the entire event was in a local techno club named “Odonien” which—in addition to laying in a relatively large area—has both open and closed parts as well.
At the entry everyone got a unique badge and a small Pirate package which had a nice yellow sock, some candy and a wristband which we needed for identification.
The opening image might not give the best picture, but there was a zipline track arching over the entire area, and people could have a go on it as often as they liked during the day (or during the event, to be more exact). As it is usually the case, we spent the first day making multiple rounds around the venue and getting to know the setting. The thing that seemed weird to me at first, but was made clear at a later stage, was that it was actually a huge networking party for investors and company founders. There was not such a rush start on the first day, but the next two days saw some interesting talks and speeches, and pitches, and all the startups arrived and set up their stands, and one could check and try their products there. To be continued!
