Last week, the Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) launched their inaugural ‘European Collaboration in the Gig Economy’ conference. As Europe’s largest on-demand staffing platform, Coople was extremely pleased to attend the coveted event. Our founder, Viktor Calabro, was chosen to be one of the four Dragons for the gig economy Dragons’ Den, voting for the start-up they deemed to have the most chances of success within the sector.
Collaboration in the Gig Economy Conference
John Nurthen, SIA’s Executive Director of Global Research, kicked off the one-day event:
“It’s great to see the world’s largest buyers of contingent labour come together with the supplier community to spend a day exploring ways to collaborate and improve the talent supply chain. This event recognises that wherever you are in that supply chain we can best succeed by empathising and supporting each other.”
Following the keynote panel, SIA President Barry Asin spoke about how the £2.5 trillion gig economy is all about connecting work with workers in a more responsive and flexible way. He said human cloud firms such as Uber have proved that if you “make it easy for people, they will work.” By drastically shortening and simplifying the recruitment process, Coople has also created the possibility for people to find work flexibly in a legal and sustainable way through the platform, where once staff are fully registered, they can simply accept or decline a job notification without the need for long interviews. With flexible staff increasingly wanting autonomy to decide when and where they work, large and small organisations are having to rethink their recruitment processes, looking to offer flexibility all whilst drastically speeding up the response speed at which they fill their jobs.
The Gig Economy Dragons’ Den
To round up the day, the attendees converged on the highlight event of the conference, the gig economy Dragons’ Den. Staffing Industry Analysts chose Dragons which are leaders and influential figures in the world of the gig economy.
The Dragons
- Viktor Calabrò, founder, Coople
- Kelly Griffith, Head of The Adecco Group X UK&I
- Kevin Green, CEO, What’s Next Consultancy
- Bryan Pena, SVP, Contingent Workforce Strategies, CCWP, Staffing Industry Analysts
Providing a great opportunity for each start-up to gain valuable exposure amongst industry leaders, the Dragons listened and judged pitches from a range of innovative gig economy start-ups. The hopeful gig economy newcomers also got the chance to win the very first European Collaboration in the Gig Economy Innovation Award. Pitching under the gaze of the Dragons, the contenders had five pressurised minutes to present their business case of why they thought their business had the greatest potential to succeed within the Gig Economy. Although the finalists had very limited time to introduce and explain their business case, all the pitches were well received and got a round of applause from the audience. After careful consideration, the Dragons crowned their favourite, the staff management software Sirenum as the winner of the European Collaboration in the Gig Economy Innovation Award 2018.
Viktor praised Sirenum’s victory by saying,
“Their go to market strategy was so defined and clearly presented that I believe they have what it takes to take their idea and make a huge success of it.”
Audience and judges favourite! Sirenum wins @SIAGigE Dragons’ Den session. Thank you all for this experience and opportunity! @SIAnalysts@viktorcalabro @CoopleSchweiz @CoopleUK @CoopleSuisse @kevingreenwnc @GoodRecruitment @AdeccoGroup @btpena @BarryAsin #GigE2018
— Sirenum (@Sirenum) April 26, 2018