With the recovery of the venture capital industry now firmly underway, it’s ‘back to business’ for the European venture capital community. The 2005 EVCA Technology Investment Conference focused on the issues that our industry needs to address to fully flourish in the coming years.

The new cycle of the European technology venture capital industry is having an impact in several important areas:

•	The boundaries of our industry are expanding as venture capital becomes an increasingly global business. Our portfolio companies address global markets, their competitors are global, and they are able to outsource increasingly complex aspects of their business outside of Europe. Can venture capital firms survive without a global approach to the industry? Can single country technology venture capital funds survive in this changing market?
•	Relationships between venture capital firms are evolving and deal syndication is changing. While the choice of syndicate partners is still based partly on personal relationships, venture capitalists are now choosing their syndicates in a much more rigorous manner. What makes a good syndicate partner and what kinds of syndicates lead to problems?
•	Venture capital management companies are expanding from a handful of founding partners to larger, more structured firms. We will debate the importance of specialisation within the firm, both in terms of investment activity and function. Can generalist venture capitalists thrive in an increasingly competitive environment, or is the trend towards specialisation inevitable?
•	The relationship between general partners and their limited partners is changing as the influence of limited partners is on the increase. More than ever before, limited partners are in a position to influence fund terms and conditions, and even management company structure. Is this a healthy development for the industry or has the pendulum swung too far?

The 2005 EVCA Technology Investment Conference considered these and other issues confronting our industry today. In addition, we brought back the popular technology tracks which included sessions on semiconductors, software as a service, medical technology, clean-tech, open-source software and wireless/broadband.

By popular demand, we also brought back both the location, Barcelona, and the moderator, Paul Deninger, of the successful 2004 EVCA Technology Investment Conference. With the participation of our industry’s leading venture capitalists, limited partners, entrepreneurs, and advisors, the 2005 conference had the ingredients to be an exciting and stimulating event.


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