5 European Tech Conferences

In Startup Scene by Sébastien FluryLeave a Comment

Spring is really busy with interesting tech events and many new ones are also popping up almost everywhere in a continuous way (is there a tech event bubble?). As an entrepreneur, you could spend almost 100% of your time in tech conferences… but that would be wrong of course. As well as you sometimes (often, depending on the quality of the conference) make great business contacts that will maybe convert in the coming months, you’d better select carefully the events you go to to maximize the Return On Investment!

So here are 5 interesting tech conferences that you should consider attending (depending on your current focus and your industry):

  1. Pioneers Festival, Vienna – 28-29th of May 2015: Pioneers Festival is one big Europe conference, and probably one of the must attend conference for every entrepreneur of the DACH region (Deutschland, Austria, Switzerland) as well a East-European countries. Traditionally happening in October/November (conflicting with WebSummit the last 2 years), the 2015-edition is taking place in May. More than 1,600 startups from 90+ countries applied to meet over 400 investors in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, Vienna. And only 50 ones were selected for the event (from 21 different countries and in the following industries: Robotics & Manufacturing, Mobility & Transportation, Smart Data & Business, Digital Worlds & Entertainment, Energy & Environment, Financial Services, Life Sciences). The Festival is limited to 2,500 participants and is almost sold out. You can get a 10% discount on every ticket by registering here (if there are still tickets available)!
  2. Connected Conference, Paris – 28-30th of May 2015: Connected Conference is a new conference initiated by American France-shaker Liam Boogar (founding editor of the must-read blog The Rude Baguette). The Internet of Things (IoT) is a trendy topic among tech innovation and is starting to change completely our daily lives. Many common objects remain unconnected today, but it’s changing really fast. The conference highlights innovations that connect Physical & Digital is bringing together key players from the value chain of the Connected Hardware ecosystem. The 3-days program covers topics like the connected consumer, industrial transformation and startup growth. Visitors will be able to discover around 50 startups active in IoT and test products during the conference. You can get a 20% discount here by using the code startupolic
  3. NOAH Conference, Berlin – 9-10th June 2015: NOAH is an invitation-only startup conference, taking place twice a year, once in Berlin, once in London in November (check my post about the last edition). In a 2-days intense format, you can discover plenty of startups on a strong growth path, with speakers as Blablacar CEO or Oliver Samwer (famous Rocket Internet CEO). NOAH Berlin will be a platform for digital challengers and industry leaders to discuss disruption in 10 industrial verticals (Insurance & Finance, Advertising, Healthcare & Science, Fitness & Wearables & Sport, Education, Mobility, Media & Telecom and Gaming, Home Automation, Retail, Travel & Tourism).
    Populated by CxO executives and investors, it is definitely a conference worth attending, where you can network with senior executives and establish new business relationships. To ensure a great quality in the attendees, NOAH selects attendees. Register and get a 20% discount with the following code: N15BER-Startupolic (20 tickets in total – First Come, First Served)
  4. MoneyConf’, Belfast – 15-16th June 2015: powered by Paddy Cosgrave (famous founder of Web Summit) and his team, this new event focus exclusively on fintech. Gathering speakers like John Collison (founder of Stripe), Amy Nauiokas (Anthemis), Jacob de Beer (iZettle) and many other top founders and executive of the fintech world, this event is probably a must-attend for every young fintech startup. You have to apply to the conference and they are selective on who they accept. Conference is limited to 2’000 participants to help better networking. They don’t give discounts publicly, but you can ask MoneyConf’ for a discount in the attendees selection process (a Skype call).
  5. The Hello Tomorrow Conference, Paris – 25-26th June 2015: About 4’000 trendsetters in science and technology will gather end of June in Paris for the 2nd edition. After a fierce competition, 30 startups have been selected for the conference (among 3’555 applications from around the world). A startup village will provide an opportunity to visitors to meet the best startups in six different industries (Food & Agriculture, Materials & Manufacturing, Transport & Mobility,  Healthcare, Energy & Environment, Information Technologies). Alongside startup pitches, inspiring keynotes from people like Alana Ackerson (Thiel foundation) or Philip Möhring (Angelist, Europe), among other ones. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any discount for you for this event, but the price is still reasonable.