As you might have seen on our social media, this month Rebartek went to Austin Texas to check out the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival. Now that we’re back and have had time to digest the whole experience, we’d like to share some of the highlights of the trip with you.

Tech festival in Texas

Rebartek was invited to join a delegation from the Agder Counties on this trip. We jumped on the opportunity to experience SXSW which has grown to be a huge technology and culture festival. Certainly the biggest tech festival in Texas. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people turn up to see the myriad of technology talks, films and concerts. We were there for the “interactive” week, which mostly focuses on tech, innovation, politics and startups.

Traveling with startups and the Mayor

With us on this trip were several representatives from the public sector in Agder, Kristiansand mayor Harald Furre, for instance. We were also joined by other startups from our region in Norway such as: BiTMESH, Intoto, Sharebox and AppSens.

Pitching competition

Before we traveled to Austin, we applied to take part in a pitching competition that takes place in Austin and is hosted by International Accelerator. Right before we left Norway, we were told that we had made the cut. So the first couple of days in Austin, we were busy with this event. Coaching from several different business mentors was the theme of day one. On day two, it was pitching time. Many of the other startups from our delegation also pitched on the same day.

Rebartek takes 5th place

Rebartek ended up in 5^th place in the International Accelerator competition, and we’re very happy with those results. You can read more about Accelerator program here.

Inspiration and networking

Needless to say, we were pumped to have gotten great results in the competition, but Austin had more to offer. The rest of the week at SXSW was spent on attending interesting talks and sessions on innovation and tech, as well as a couple of meetings. Additionally, we also had an opportunity to network with both the Norwegian startups and the public officials in our delegation from Agder, which is a valuable takeaway from this trip.

Back in Norway, we hit the ground running with several exciting meetings with potential investors, partners and customers.

More travels are coming up soon, and Rebartek will be visiting Stockholm, Brussels and München. And if you want to have a talk with us, please do not hesitate to reach out!