Finnish founder networking extravaganza Slush will make its North American debut in Québec City next spring as Slush’D.
The economic development agency Québec International (QI), which supports business development in the province’s capital region, is hosting the one-day conference on May 7, 2025, with an undisclosed amount of financial support from Québec’s tourism ministry. QI’s associated incubator, LE CAMP, will help organize the event along with the municipal tourism department Destination Québec cité, and Espace CDPQ, the venture capital (VC) hub of the Caisse du dépôt et de place du Québec (CDPQ).
“After experiencing Slush for the first time in 2023, I was amazed by how the event prioritizes creating genuine connections among its participants.”
Sébastien Tanguay
LE CAMP General Manager
Slush’D Québec City is set to be the very first North American satellite event of Slush, the popular Finnish startup and tech conference. Slush’D Québec City will feature a similar format, with speakers, activities, and pitch competitions designed to facilitate connections between founders, venture capital (VC) investors, and other ecosystem players.
Sébastien Tanguay, general manager of LE CAMP, hopes that the event will inject new momentum into Québec City’s startup and tech ecosystem, in a similar way that Slush has for Helsinki.
“After experiencing Slush for the first time in 2023, I was amazed by how the event prioritizes creating genuine connections among its participants,” Tanguay wrote in an email to Betakit. “It’s incredible how an event with 13,000 attendees can feel so personal and tailored.”
Québec’s edition of the event, which is aiming to attract roughly 500 attendees, will focus on “bridging the gap” between local startups and large corporations. Mentorship opportunities and speaker stages will feature best practices and success stories for local founders to learn from.
In Finland, Slush is typically held in the depths of winter, when daylight hours are limited. When it ran last week on Nov. 21, the sun set at 3:36 pm local time.
Though Québec’s edition will be held in May, Carl Viel, president and CEO of QI, said in a statement that Québec Slush’D will “stay true to this Finnish concept” by turning the city into a “vibrant hub.” Viel also hopes to strengthen the relationship between the Québec and Finnish capital cities.
The one-day conference coincides with another key meeting of VCs in the Québec ecosystem: the Annuel du Capital de risque, an “Investor-Day”-style event put on by Espace CDPQ on May 6. Tanguay said that he hopes it will attract VCs from across Canada, the US, and Europe.
Espace CDPQ will also offer an exclusive Investor Lounge and networking application for founders to secure one-on-one time with investors during Slush’D.
High-profile speakers at the 2024 edition of Slush, which was held earlier this week, included Nvidia founder Chris Malachowsky and Twitch co-founder Justin Kan. The conference also hosted several side events, including mini-conferences on deep tech, life sciences, and Roblox and Fortnite gaming tech, as well as a climate tech summit.
Thirty-three satellite Slush’D events have been held outside of Helsinki, with 14 events so far in 2024 alone. The first edition of Slush was held in 2008, when local entrepreneurs envisioned a gathering for Finland’s small tech and startup scene, and has now grown to welcome over 13,000 attendees. Building on its local success, it expanded to global outpost events in 2015.
While Slush in Helsinki is run by students and early-career entrepreneurs, who often move on to found their own companies, QI has experience hosting events and conferences in a number of sectors, including tech. The non-profit receives support from municipal, provincial, and federal governments to sustain economic development in the region.
QI’s license agreement to host Slush’D was confirmed four weeks ago, Tanguay said, so the organization is still in the early stages of confirming a list of speakers and activities.
Feature image courtesy QI.
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