 aising finance can be a terrifying process, however, and even the best investor proposals need to be presented with conviction and professionalism. The Forum's high success rate is due to the thorough preparation offered at the Venture Academy.
"If Metcalfe's Law is right, and the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of its nodes, then the European Investment Forum is one of the most valuable networks there is," said Rosalie Zobel, Director of the Information Society DG responsible for new methods of work and electronic commerce. There is certainly no shortage of applicants for the Forum. Because it offers the coveted opportunity to make a one-minute 'elevator pitch' and a full 12-minute presentation to 400 investors ready to pounce on the next big idea.
The first European Investment Forum took place in 1996. The event in Helsinki in November 1999 proved such a success that it was repeated in Berlin in April 2000 and again in Nice in parallel with IST 2000. It is planned to continue the six-monthly pace.
A year ago, 239 firms applied, 44 made presentations, and 15 raised money - in total  63 million - while four more are still talking to investors. "Since the dot.com crash, venture capitalists are putting greater emphasis on people than on technology - and this makes face-to-face contact even more vital," says William Stevens of organisers Europe Unlimited. "The Forum is not just about connecting technology and finance, but about connecting people."
Since 1999 Europe's venture capital market has matured. The stock market slump in internet companies means that investors are now considering a broader range of propositions. This year's successful applicants have found that the choice of partners is broader, and the investment decisions more rational, now the internet bull market has abated. In fact, the worry now is that venture capitalists are being too cautious.
School of hard knocks
At the preparatory Venture Academy, selected young entrepreneurs present their business plans to their colleagues and to sponsoring financiers, and get expert feedback. The process of putting themselves in the investors' shoes gives them a much better understanding of the effect they need to achieve. They also benefit from concentrated coaching and advice from more finance experts than they would normally meet in a decade.
One testimony to the effectiveness of the method came from Riku Autio of Dome Information Services, which grew rapidly after he founded it in 1991. "I was able to make an exit much earlier than I had expected," he recalls. "The Venture Academy was brilliant. It enabled me to prepare a very focused ten-minute presentation - and also encouraged me to step back from day-to-day matters to think about what sort of profitability and growth I should aim for. I received an offer within one hour of approaching some likely investors, and had sold out in under a month."
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EUROPEAN INVESTMENT FORUM