Stage Manager (Long Term Intern)

Nordic-Africa Startup Summit at TechBBQ 2026

Location: Matrikel1, Højbro Plads 10 Copenhagen K.

Duration: Long-term internship (pre-event preparation + onsite delivery at Bella Center, Copenhagen)

About the Nordic-Africa Startup Summit

The Nordic-Africa Startup Summit is a flagship, policy adjacent summit within TechBBQ, designed to create credible, balanced and high quality dialogue between founders, investors, academia and policymakers from the Nordic and African regions. The summit is sector-focused reputation sensitive and intentionally bridge-building across regions with different power dynamics and expectations.

This is not a generic startup stage. It is a high-trust environment where operational excellence, cultural awareness and diplomatic sensitivity are essential to the summit’s credibility and impact.

The Role

As Stage Manager (Long-Term Intern), you will play a central role in ensuring the flawless execution, narrative flow and onstage integrity of the Nordic-Africa Startup Summit in co-creation with the Project Lead and team of select volunteers. Working closely with TechBBQ producers, partners, summit leads, moderators, AV teams and speakers, you will act as the operational, diplomatic and cultural anchor of the stage, supported by the Project Leader.

The Stage Manager is not only responsible for timing and logistics, but also for safeguarding the summit’s tone, neutrality and cross-regional balance. Your work directly affects how the summit is perceived by founders, investors, public institutions, media and international partners.

Key Responsibilities

Agenda & On-Stage Flow Management

You will steward the agenda and ensure smooth transitions between sessions, formats, and speaker types, including founder showcases, investor perspectives, academic insights and policy debates. This includes managing timing with sensitivity to translation lag, cultural differences in speaking pace, and protocol constraints for public sector speakers, ensuring the summit feels cohesive rather than fragmented.

Speaker Readiness & Cultural Safety

You will be the final point of clarity and reassurance for a highly diverse speaker group. Responsibilities include confirming correct name pronunciation, titles and affiliations; briefing speakers on session intent and audience composition; and providing calm, neutral backstage support - especially for African founders new to Nordic flagship events, policymakers unfamiliar with startup style panels and academics balancing rigour with time constraints.

AudioVisual Translation & Livestream Coordination

Technical smoothness is reputational, not cosmetic. You will coordinate closely with AV teams, operators and media partners to confirm slide compatibility, microphone formats, recording cues and broadcast readiness. You will proactively flag and resolve issues to ensure all speakers - Nordic and African alike - feel equally supported on stage.

Panel & Debate Dynamics Support

Protecting the summit’s core goal of collaboration over confrontation. You will help orchestrate panels that bring together different communication cultures by ensuring correct seating order and stage layout, briefing moderators on time signals and voice balance and discreetly supporting interventions when discussions risk becoming unbalanced or unproductive.

Policy & Protocol Awareness

With ministers, agencies and public institutions on stage, you will act as a soft protocol guardrail - ensuring correct order of appearance, introductions and titles, and coordinating discreetly if speakers need to leave early or discussions approach sensitive political ground. Maintaining visible neutrality on stage is essential.

OnStage Contingency Management

When things go wrong, you will protect the summit’s tone and audience experience by handling technical failures, missing or delayed speakers, heated debates, or sessions running long - solving problems without transferring stress to the audience.

Backstage Operations & Speaker Flow

You will manage backstage operations like mission control: tracking speaker arrivals, call times, who is on deck and who needs escorting, while coordinating closely with TechBBQ producers, summit leads, hosts and moderators. No one steps on stage unless you are ready.

Experience & Narrative Quality Control

You will help ensure clean transitions, confident stage presence and a consistent sense of respect, parity and ambition reinforcing the summit’s mission to reframe African startup ecosystems in the Nordic context.

Who You Are

• Highly structured, calm under pressure and detail-oriented

• Able to balance authority with humility and kindness in fastmoving situations

• Comfortable operating in international, highstake and reputationsensitive environments

• Culturally aware, diplomatically minded, and respectful of different communication styles

• Interested in startups, policy and impact, international collaboration and live event production

What You Will Gain

• Hands-on experience at a flagship international summit within TechBBQ

• Direct exposure to founders, investors, policymakers and ecosystem leaders

• Practical skills in stage management, stakeholder coordination and live event execution

• A frontrow seat to cross-continental collaboration between the Nordic and African startup ecosystems

One Line Role Summary

The Stage Manager (Long-Term Intern) ensures flawless onstage execution, speaker readiness, protocol awareness and cross-regional flow for the Nordic-Africa Startup Summit enabling credible, balanced and high-quality dialogue at TechBBQ 2026.

Join us :-) We look forward to your application.