Stuart At The European Business Summit

Yours truly attended the European Business Summit (EBS) last week in Brussels. The themes of the 2 day business gathering revolved around the heightened need for environmental care in business and government.

The EBS event gets some very high-profile politicians and business folk. This year they included the top-man at the European Commission, Barroso, and President Gul from Turkey.

I was there to interview some of these great and good for my employer. In actual fact, I didn’t interview anyone. I would circle the halls looking for the high-profile people (moderators and speakers mostly) and then try and talk them into a short video interview. The really high-profile people would generally have an entourage of handlers and bodyguards making them impossible to approach.

Of all the people we spoke to, only one really stood out in finance and investment terms. I spoke to a “clean tech” venture capitalist. He is an investment manager for a firm here in Belgium, GIMV. Whether his work could be classed as ethical investment or environmental investment, I’m not sure.

So here is Bart Diels, a genuine VC being interviewed about the way funds are drying up and the VC cycle as it relates to environmental technology.