Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Tech.eu Summit 2.0

As a media organization, how do you see the future of the event industry? Would you say media companies like Tech.eu are better positioned to monetize events like the Summit?

As we’ve learned from the Covid-19 years and its aftermath, people are always going to want to connect with others in real life. Online events have proven to be merely complementary to physical events, not a replacement by any means, even if strong hybrid elements have upped the quality of certain events in remarkable ways.

From a media point of view, in that sense not much has changed, even though you can feel that the bar has been raised for people to still want to physically travel to an event. You have to make it really worth it for them – and I think being in the media business (especially for trade publications such as Tech.eu) just helps to keep the fingers on the pulse about what people want to hear about, and who they want to hear from.

At the end of the day, great events will always have a strong enough value proposition to make the numbers work. Being a media organisation does not necessarily put us in a better position than others in that regard, only putting on the best events we can possibly organise will do that.

It also depends on things like market downturns and economic challenges which the industry as a whole are currently grappling with, making it easy for no one.

blank

Tell us about the growth of the Summit this year and what you’re projecting for the future. Are you aiming to become THE Tech event in Belgium?

When we started organising the Tech.eu Summit last year, Belgium was still in complete lockdown, so there was more uncertainty, and less time. For this edition, we had more time to prepare, but are faced with other challenges such as the general market conditions, energy crises, geopolitical turmoil and the general slowdown in European Tech.

But the event will be bigger and better than last year, despite not having changed anything format-wise (same venue, one day, two stages, etc.). I expect in the next 2-3 years we’ll be able to grow attendance to 4-5,000 people, after which we’ll likely want to stop growing and double down on consistent content quality. I don’t think it would work if it was any bigger than that.

blank

What role is politics playing the programming of the event, if any? Will there be an opportunity for founders to connect with the elite from the European Union? What is your take on policy making in tech?

When you organise a technology event in Brussels, you have to be careful not to make it too much about policy unless of course that is your goal. There are tons of events related to digital policy in this part of the world, so we differentiate by making it a clear-cut technology industry event featuring Europe’s foremost innovators, founders, investors and operators.

That said, there’s no conversation about the future of the European tech ecosystem(s) without touching on crucial policy issues, so we’ll have people from that ‘world’ as well.

Last year we were joined by Belgian PM Alexander De Croo and EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel for the opening ceremony for instance, and by the Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter and Mayor of Brussels Philippe Close at the VIP reception the evening before.

This year, we’ll have people like European Innovation Council head Jean-David Malo, European Investment Fund CEO Marjut Falkstedt, Secretary General of the European Tech Alliance, Victoria de Posson, and plenty more.

blank

And last but not least, what about the networking platform for this 2nd edition of the Tech.eu Summit? Are you still using your own tool and if so, why?

That is a good question, and the honest answer is we are not sure yet.

We want to maximise the experience of attending Tech.eu Summit in person, and if a certain networking application helps us in that sense, we will not hesitate to have it in place!

blank

Check out who else will be at Tech.eu Summit this year smrs.link/TES23

you might also like

blank
Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

blank
New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

blank
New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter!

Stay at the forefront with our curated guide to the best upcoming Tech events.