MA Family

Yury Molodtsov

Best European Tech Conferences for Founders

A white lighthouse on a rocky coastal hill overlooking a blue sea in warm evening light.

Should founders go to conferences? Most of the time the answer is no.

But there’s a place for them. Once the work is done you sometimes need credibility to create FOMO, raise funding and attract the best talent. Or secure a key partnership. Keynotes and conferences are one way to do so.

They also get visited by dozens if not hundreds of reporters, so if you have something meaningful to announce, your comms teams can line up multiple interviews on the same day.

Unless you’re in a specific vertical, only a few events in Europe make sense for most companies. The landscape changed recently: as AI took off, many conferences reshaped themselves or suddenly became more important, while new ones appeared on the calendar.

Here are the ones we care about for the next 12 months.

2026

  • 26–27 August — TechBBQ, Copenhagen. For early-stage and scaling founders targeting the Nordic ecosystem; go for concentrated investor access, founder relationships, and introductions to regional technology partners.
  • 4–8 September — IFA, Berlin. For consumer-tech, hardware, smart-home, and device founders; go to launch products and meet international buyers, distributors, corporate partners, and technology media.
  • 22–24 September — HumanX Europe, Amsterdam. For AI founders seeking enterprise customers, investors, and high-level commercial relationships; go to meet senior executives, policymakers, technology providers, and other founders focused on deploying AI at scale.
  • 28–30 September — Bits & Pretzels, Munich. For founders raising capital or expanding across Germany and the wider DACH market; go for its dense network of venture investors, operators, and experienced scaleup founders.
  • 7–9 October — Wave by Vento, Turin. For European technology founders seeking capital, partnerships, and visibility in Italy and Southern Europe; go for investor meetings, media access, and practical scaling conversations.
  • 7–8 October — World Summit AI, Amsterdam. For AI founders selling to enterprises or working on infrastructure, governance, and applied AI; go to meet buyers and investors while tracking the technical and regulatory direction of the market.
  • 9–12 November — Web Summit, Lisbon. For founders seeking broad international exposure; go to meet investors, corporate partners, technology media, policymakers, and potential customers in one large global gathering.
  • 18–19 November — Slush, Helsinki. For venture-backed and fundraising technology founders; go for unusually high investor density, focused meetings, and strong access to European startup media.

2027

  • 10–11 February — World AI Cannes Festival, Cannes. For applied and enterprise-AI founders; go to meet corporate buyers, investors, policymakers, and technical leaders working on commercial AI adoption.
  • 1–4 March — 4YFN / MWC, Barcelona. For mobile, software, connectivity, and digital-product founders; go to demo alongside MWC and reach global investors, corporate buyers, telecom leaders, and international media.
  • 19–21 May — Latitude59, Tallinn. For early-stage founders interested in the Baltic and New Nordic markets; go for accessible investors, regional partners, and expertise in digital government and technology infrastructure.
  • 26–27 May — Dublin Tech Summit, Dublin. For B2B, enterprise-technology, AI, cloud, and cybersecurity founders; go to meet corporate technology buyers, partners, investors, and operators in Ireland’s international technology ecosystem.
  • 7–11 June — London Tech Week, London. For founders entering or expanding in the UK; go for access to investors, enterprise buyers, government, global technology companies, and the wider London startup network.
  • 16–19 June — VivaTech, Paris. For startup founders seeking European corporate partnerships and international visibility; go to meet investors, innovation teams, governments, and technology media at one of the continent’s largest events.
  • 21–25 June — AI for Good Global Summit, Geneva. For founders building responsible, regulated, or impact-oriented AI products; go to engage with UN agencies, policymakers, standards bodies, researchers, and prospective public-interest partners.