(Editor’s note: This round-up of AI events across Europe is part of our Tech Tuesday series and will be updated regularly. Dispatches covers technology because so many of our highly skilled internationals are computer engineers, developers and investors. By the way, for better or worse, this post was curated and written by an actual human, not an LLM.)
Back in the day, we used to run lists of the best tech startup events and conferences across Europe. The TNWs, the Slushes and the Web Summits. But as tech emerged into the mainstream and being in a startup became a “lifestyle,” the events went from meetings of the minds to being celebrity events, with Kevin Spacey and other completely irrelevant people as headliners. Or they were marketing events for the sponsors.
Now, though, the adoption of artificial intelligence and large language models is the driving technology across industries – from CPUs and edge devices to medical diagnosis to weapons.
We’re going to keep this brief and tight but update the list on a more regular basis. If you have a better idea, email me at: terry@dispatcheseurope.com
World Summit AI
7 & 8 September at Taets Art & Event Park, Amsterdam
This event/conference modestly bills itself as “the world’s leading AI summit.” And to be fair, this event is 10 years old, up and running waaaaay before Chat GPT debuted in 2022. So, World Summit AI is for the people who’ve already moved on to the next wave of artificial intelligence innovation. Or as the World Summit AI website puts it, “Across the summit, global leaders, pioneering researchers, ambitious founders, and forward-thinking enterprises come together to explore the technologies, ideas, and collaborations defining the next era of AI.’
Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?
This is another gigantic marathon, with more than 300 speakers. They include everyone from the CTO of chipmaker AMD to policymakers from Taiwan and Sierra Leone. (Not sure why on that last one.) Actually, the only names we recognize are VC George Robson from Sequoia Capital and Axelera AI co-founder Fabrizio Del Maffeo. But hey, the whole point of these things is making new connections.
This is another stupid expensive event (we say that with all due respect), with tickets starting at 1000 euros. You can get yours here. BUT, they’ve come up with a clever way to help us nobodies pitch World Summit AI to our bosses with a free business case template. No, seriously ….
Human[x] – Amsterdam
22 thru 24 September at RAI
This is what we’re looking for now for our lists … no paid speakers at an event designed to connect people. Now, if they could only get ticket prices under 1000 euros. Human [x] is an industry event, designed to connect the most influential executives, innovators, investors and decision-makers. So, the assumption is that you’re a CEO or VC with unlimited resources, or part of the team of a well-funded Unicorn. And you’ll need those limitless resources here, with tickets starting at 1000 euros and topping out at 5000 euros for the VIP passes.
The list of speakers includes Yamini Rangan, CEO of Hubspot, Colin Jarvis from OpenAI, Kareem Ayoub, a VP at Google Deepmind as well as people from every media outlet from Time to Fast Company.
There are also several VCs including James Wise from Balderton Capital and Zhenya Loginov from Accel.
AI2FUTURE 2026
28 & 29 October in Zagreb
For the last couple of years, Dispatches has documented Croatia’s transition from a post-war travel destination to a tech innovation hub, with robotics, artificial intelligence and drones at the forefront. Gideon (robotics), Daytona (AI agents) and other companies are getting funding and growing quickly into market leaders.
So, it makes sense that Zagreb would have its own event. In fact, AI2Future is 10 years old, a combination of hard core tech talks as well as those inspirational sessions by successful entrepreneurs. Those successful entrepreneurs this year include Valentina Zadrija, Gideon’s director of AI and Toma Puljak, senior software engineer at Daytona.
Tickets are a comparatively reasonable 225 euros, and there are student tickets for 45 euros. You can get yours here.
The AI Summit Brainport 2026
12 November at the Evoluon in Eindhoven.
This summit wouldn’t get much traction if it were anywhere else but Eindhoven, which has several break-out AI startups including Axelera AI and Euclyd, not to mention ASML and NXP. It’s held in a funky ’60s building designed to look like a UFO, a facility that’s way too small. But a small space makes it more likely that you’ll meet the people you need to meet including Axelera’s top people or Euclyd founder Bernardo Kastrup as well as a lot of talent from the local uni, Eindhoven Technical University.
The 2026 theme is:
“AI at work. Use it or lose it?” How are humans and AI to cooperate effectively? What tasks will or should remain the domain of humans? How will cooperating with AI affect humans? What happens if you choose not to use AI? Can you still make that choice? And how do we prepare organizations and people for the changes that AI tools are and will be forcing?
This is a down-home conference with an actual pitch competition and probably some of those robot dogs people here can’t get enough of.
The best part? It’s free, but you have to register for the tracks you want to follow. You can do that here.
Big Data Conference Europe
24 thru 27 November in Vilnius, Lithuania
This is – how do we put this? – one of those brainiac conferences. No rock stars, no VCs. Just a bunch of people who know the minutiae of Big Data, High Load (whatever that is), Data Science, Machine Learning and AI. The conference includes series of workshops and sessions, aimed at bringing together developers, IT professionals and users, to “share their experiences, discuss best practices, describe use cases and business applications related to their successes,” according to the website. In other words, you can apply here to speak or to lead a workshop. Which might be the way to go since tickets start at – you guessed it – 1000 euros. You can get yours here.
The event is designed to educate, inform and inspire and is organized by people who are passionate about Big Data and Data Exploration.
Web Summit AI Summit
9 November thru 12 November in Lisbon
This is the AI-dedicated event from the OG tech conference, so it’s gonna be big. Big names like Sam Altman have spoken in the past at the AI Summit, and, yeah, this veers a bit toward being a celebrity celebration, with Ryan Reynolds, Amin van Buuren, Pharrell and Serena – both last name Williams but not related – previous speakers.
But, hey, this could be right for you if you have the next Unicorn. You can still apply as a startup here.
You will see the future tech giants, and this event draws the biggest names in venture capital including Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn founder who’s now a partner at Greylock. Startups raised more than $715 million after last year’s event. Weirdly, at 775 euros, tickets are less than most of the other events on this list. You can get yours here.
AI Summit Europe
24 thru 27 November in Vilnius
The Baltics have always been where the action is for tech. Niklas Zennstrom may have founded Skype, but Estonians Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu, Jaan Tallinn, and Toivo Annus actually wrote the software. So, AI Summit Europe should be on your list.
This is an event for people who want to cut through the AI hype and get to the real-world applications. There are five tracks including AI Strategy and Organizational Transformation and AI Innovation & Emerging Technologies. You can see the full schedule here. No tennis players or Dutch EDM DJs. Sorry, not sorry.
Tickets start at – that’s right – 1000 euros and you can get yours here.
This is in Vilnius at the same time as the Big Data conference, so Vilnius must be a lot bigger than we thought.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
