From 23-24 November 2016 REVEAL participated in the 2016 NEM Summit in Porto, Portugal. We showcased some of the project work at the NEM exhibition and participated in a pitching session in which we presented our research outcomes to potential investors.

 

About 250 people attended the 2016 edition of the NEM Summit, organised by the NEM Initiative. It took place from 23-24 November in Porto, Portugal. We were there, too, represented by Nikos Sarris (Athens Technology Centre), Petter Bae Brandtzæg (Sintef), Paul Walland (IT Innovation) and myself, Jochen Spangenberg (Deutsche Welle).

Most of our time was spent manning the REVEAL stand. There, we showcased our work, talked to people interested in the field of social media sourcing for news and verification of user-generated content, and investigated potential future cooperation opportunities. We picked up some promising leads. However, our overall expectations regarding exposure and visibility were not completely fulfilled. The exhibition hall was difficult to find and not well promoted. And it probably also had to do with the fact that, in parallel to the exhibition, some very interesting conference tracks and expert talks were hosted.

On Thursday, day 2 of the event, Nikos Sarris then presented our research outcomes to potential investors in a kind of ‘elevator pitch’ (he was given eight minutes – a rather long elevator ride…). This special session was organised by the i3 project, an EU-funded initiative whose main goal is to coordinate and support efforts and activities in the social media convergence domain. Five projects and businesses took to the stage, with REVEAL being one of them. The jurors were interested in what we have to offer, provided very useful feedback on market opportunities as well as sectors to target outside the news media business, and gave other valuable input.

 

Overall, we were mostly happy and content with the way things went. If it hadn’t been for the weather… It was cold and rainy most of the time. Not what we had expected of Porto. But at least, this way we could fully focus on the primary task that took us to Porto and the NEM Sumit 2016: spread the word about REVEAL and tell anybody interested in our work and outcomes about what we have to offer. (NB: If you want to trial and test some of the REVEAL components, we suggest you go to the summary article of our September 2006 workshop. There, URLs are given for trialing and testing individual features.)