This week, Tech City Investment Organisation is proud to be hosting the Entrepreneurs Festival, which will see some of the world’s best and brightest entrepreneurs join a business boot camp in London’s Tech City, Europe’s fastest growing technology cluster.

Organised as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week, Entrepreneurs Festival is the largest event of its kind staged in Europe. It is a unique opportunity for companies to take part in mentoring sessions and to showcase their companies to leading entrepreneurs and investors.

You can find out more about what’s going on by looking at the schedule here, or by following the hashtag #entfest on Twitter.

As part of Entrepreneurs Festival, we’ve asked some of the attendants to guest-blog about their experiences. First up, from New York via Tokyo, is Heather Russell of Rinkya Inc:

I am Heather Russell, founder and CEO of Rinkya Inc, and director of our Tokyo, Japan branch for 11 years. What does Rinkya do? We help anyone in the world get what they want from Japan. Need a car part? An entire car? A guitar? Kimono? Hello Kitty? A Limited edition Louis Vuitton bag? How about a Godzilla toy, or Bon Jovi’s Japan Tour album from 2001? We got you.

Next month, I hope to come back to the United Kingdom with a Visa in hand, to start the reverse model of Rinkya Japan and help Europe sell to Japan and Asia. Here we go again!

I’ve been eating, breathing, sleeping and refining this pitch for the past 2 days at the Entrepreneurs Festival hosted by Tech City Investment Organisation. Mentoring sessions lasting only 12 minutes force me to make it a quick one so I have time to gain invaluable feedback from business owners and professionals that Tech City has provided for us.

Enough about me. Let’s talk about the other people I’ve met, because that’s the second important part of the festival: meeting your peers. People JUST like you, who are engaged in the ritual of blood, sweat, tears as well as many sleepless soda and pizza nights.

How about the 5 young guys from South Africa who met with Sir Richard Branson yesterday morning? They have an original and fascinating visual arts, graphics & animation company. The passionate girl from the South of France who is starting up an online education system where people share skills. And for sports aficionados everywhere, the guy from Spain who has created a way for you to find out where there is a football game you can join in and play in the area.

The Entrepreneurs Festival is about meeting people from all over the world. The diversity and ingenuity is presented in ways you could never imagine on your own. It’s your duty to find out what their company does, what stage they are in and how they got there, or even how they are going to get there. Doing this builds confidence to talk about your own ideas, but also forces you to listen to others. Where did they make a mistake, where did they win? Take notes, my friends and learn!

Our company Rinkya doesn’t just think outside the box: our motto is “we think outside the country”. What if you could buy or sell to anyone, anywhere in the world, without language, cultural, or logistic barriers? We have successfully solved that issue for you. Tech City Investment Organisation is solving this problem as well. They have given us the chance to buy and sell our ideas with no barriers, no matter where we are coming from with this awesome festival concept that brings us all together- to share the wealth of ideas.

It’s not Silicon Valley here. This is a different tech phenomenon.

If you want Europe, this is where your immersion should start, Tech City.

How can this girl, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, pick up and move to Tokyo, become an expert in Asia, and then try to come to the United Kingdom? It’s easy. The world is becoming a smaller place with larger opportunities for everyone willing to go get them. Tech City certainly is a welcoming environment with a myriad of accessible resources. After being in Asia all these years, I’m not going home yet. I’ve just stopped at a place with Rinkya that certainly feels like it.

PS: The food they give us is pretty good too….

Ganbatte kudasai ne! (Good Luck!)

You can follow Heather on Twitter here, or find out more about Rinkya here.