Start & Scale Week is back in Porto from May 5-11 with activities aimed at reinforcing the role of Porto as a reference to the ScaleUp movement on a national and international level.

Under the ScaleUp Porto initiative, the week-long Start & Scale event promoting entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology in the city of Porto will include a hackathon, conferences, meetings, startup and industry tours, street activities, and much more.

In the two previous editions of the Start & Scale Week 36 activities were promoted, involving more than 3,500 people.

The Hackathon, May 5-6

The Hack For Good Hackathon is a development marathon organized by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to foster the development of technological solutions to real social challenges.

Prizes include €5,000 for first place, €2,000 for second, and software licensing for the top three projects.

The top winners will get direct access to the Gulbenkian bootcamp. There, they will get the boost they need to achieve the product development, pilot, and investment phases.

The bootcamp agenda, which falls outside of Start & Scale Porto, considers mentoring and training sessions, two of them in person, and much of the content in digital mode.

Successful projects at the Bootcamp will then have the chance to go to the Web Summit in Lisbon.

MasterClasses and Tours, May 7

Business Agility has become a buzzword. But how do we find agility useful and how did we acquire agility? With working experience both in manufacturing and software in Japan, Kiro Harada will lead a masterclass focused on agility and its importance in the optimization of management, addressing Agile, Lean, TPS and other movements on May 7.

On the same day, Start & Scale joins forces with Porto Tech Hub to bring attendees the opportunity to get to know some of the Scaleups they can find in the city through a walking tour to discover these companies from the inside.

Start & Scale participants will also visit different industries in the region to discover their best practices on innovation and promote cooperation between different players.

FIWARE Global Summit, May 8-9

On May 8 and 9, the FIWARE Global Summit conferences will gather developers, entrepreneurs, political decision makers, thought leaders, business executives and investors to exchange views and developments on how the Internet of Things and Open Data solutions can be implemented in the areas of Smart Cities, Industry 4.0, and Agriculture.

The “Problem Solving with Data Science” conference will address the reality of data scientists and the fact that they are the new generation of problem solvers, joining statistics, tech and domain understanding.

The “Scaleup for Europe” conference will bring opportunities in increasing the collaboration between companies and cities, boosting business connections for companies, and access to new products and services for cities.

On May 9 participants will share their constructive feedback & plans for the future of the Porto’s startup environment with the Vice Mayor and City Councillor for Innovation and Environment, Filipe Araújo.

Business Meetings and Problem Solving, May 10

The morning of May 10 will see business meetings between startups and corporates to explore synergies while the afternoon will consist of “Problem solving with data science” and the “Scaling with the city” workshop.

At “Scaling with the city” participants will explore needs and pain-points of the city and understand the stakeholders involved in the city environment. Attendees will be able to deconstruct their solutions by analysing their technology under a new perspective, oriented to the city as a customer.

For the problem solving workshop, data scientists are the new generation of problem solvers, joining statistics, tech and domain understanding. Which problems are being solved and what exactly is needed to solve them?

Ninja Challenge, May 11

On the final day of Start & Scale, the finest Ninjas from across the realm will compete to crown the best JavaScript Hacker.

The Ninja Challenge is comprised of 4 levels of increased difficulty that require JavaScript knowledge and creativity.

Additionally, May 11 will see two more Masterclasses. With “Defense-in-depth techniques for modern web applications and Google’s journey with CSP,” participants will learn about promising new defense­in­depth techniques to protect modern web applications from old and new classes of bugs.

The Masterclass “Rewarding Talent” will discuss ways to attract and retain the best talent through rational and fair compensation.

ScaleUp Porto aims to be a catalyst for the creation of an innovation, entrepreneurship and
technology ecosystem and a network of individuals and organizations that share the vision of a scaleup program.

Read More: Porto. launched ScaleUp Porto. and announced ScaleUp for Europe

It is a coordinated program that is included in a broader municipal strategy for innovation and competitiveness, to foster employment, the economic development, internationalization and the well­being of citizens.

This year ScaleUp Porto supported the Cleantech Camp entrepreneurship support program in the field of clean energies with the aim of transforming projects into business realities.

Read More: Cleantech Camp is on the prowl for clean energy startups for March program

Cleantech Camp, which takes place in Porto, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain, is a program to support entrepreneurship in the field of clean energy with the aim of transforming projects into business realities. It looks for solutions with a high impact potential and supports them in the technological transfer to the market.