Ambassador Luis E. Arreaga has been a big supporter of Startup Iceland. When I decided to organize this conference, I reached out to the US Embassy in Reykjavik and ask them to help in the effort. The US Embassy in Iceland has done more than that and Ambassador Arreaga’s leadership is cleary demonstrated in their participation and sponsoring the event. For those of you who have not followed the Ambassador’s Blog, yes, the Ambassador blogs about his experience of being in Iceland. How cool is that? When I reach out to him and ask him to help, he always tells me “I cannot promise you anything, but we will give it our best effort” so far the efforts have been fantastic at least from the Startup Iceland Conference perspective. The US Embassy in Iceland was the second Sponsor after Icelandair. The sponsorship was awarded through a Federal Assistance Award by the U.S. Department of State. Applying for the grant and ensuring all the relevant information is filled out is a lot of work and the Team in the U.S. Embassy did a great job and got us the Sponsorship… it allowed for the ticket prices to be discounted so that all students, young startups and entrepreneurs can participate in Startup Iceland. Once again there is a lot of leadership within the Community here in Iceland, I have always maintained the Embassies can play a critical role in bridging the gap between the Island of Iceland and mainland, which is something all entrepreneurs need to start thinking about when you are launching a business. In addition, this comes back to my perspective that there is no local business anymore all businesses are Global because we live in a globally connected world. Those entrepreneurs who realize that take advantage of the fantastic opportunities that exist in Iceland to solve the Global challenges are making a difference in this world. This blog post is filed under the category of Sponsor Profile, I am doing two series related to the Startup Iceland Conference Category:

  1. A Speaker Profile
  2. A Sponsor Profile

Although the Ambassador will not be a featured speaker in the Conference he has graciously agreed to introduce our two main guests Brad Burnham and Brad Feld before their session in the Conference. The Ambassador will say a few words about the importance of Entrepreneurship.

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