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Top 60 Venture Capital Conferences & Events in 2021 – Selected


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Top Venture Capital conferences in 2023
Freshly updated with the best upcoming Venture Capital conferences in 2023.
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Based on the overwhelming response to our Top 75 Startup Events & Conferences in 2021, we received quite a few messages from our Venture Capital friends asking for a VC-specific rundown.

Top VC events in January

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CES 2021

January 11-14, Virtual Event

#exhibition #technology #consumer #healthcare #mobility #creative #entertainment #blockchain

CES is the world’s gathering place for all who thrive on the business of consumer technologies. It has served as the proving ground for innovators and breakthrough technologies for 50+ years – the global stage where next-generation innovations are introduced to the marketplace.

The all-digital CES 2021 will continue to be a platform to launch products, engage with global brands and define the future of the tech industry.

Biotech Showcase Digital 2021

January 11-15, Virtual Event

#conference #healthcare #healthtech #biotech #pharmaceutical #innovation

Biotech showcase is an investor and networking conference devoted to providing privasmall- and mid-cap biotechnology companies an opportunity to present to and meet with investors and biopharmaceutical executives during the course of one of the largest annual healthcare conferences that attracts investors and biopharmaceutical executives from around the world.

Future Investment Initiative 2021

January 26-28, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia​​

#conference #investment #innovation #humanity #impact

​​​The Future Investment Initiative (FII) is an international platform for expert-led debate between global leaders, investors and innovators with the power to shape the future of global investment. It is focused on utilizing investment to drive growth opportunities, enable innovation and disruptive technologies, and address global challenges.​

The third edi​​​​​​​​tion of FII will continue building active, global networks of influential decision makers to explore the emerging industries that will shape the global economy and investment landscape over the coming decades.​​

AVCJ Southeast Asia Private Markets Outlook 2021

January 28, Virtual Event

#conference #asia #market #industry #outlook

The event is organized by AVCJ and will bring together regional private markets leaders to discuss the key questions front of mind for industry. Hear how firms successfully dealt with the challenges and what opportunities they anticipate in the future.

AVCJ, an Acuris company, is the leading provider of Asian private equity and venture capital information and intelligence.

Top VC events in February

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LSX World Congress 2021

February 1-5, Virtual Event

#exhibition #healthtech #biotech #medtech #startup #showcase

LSX World Congress gathers the founders and CEOs of innovative start-ups through to publicly listed life sciences giants, and everyone in between.

It represents the breadth and depth of the cutting-edge research and technology driving the advances in the industry right now and in the near future.

SuperTechnology North America 2021

February 2-3, Virtual Event

#conference #technology #equity #america

SuperTechnology North America’s inaugural event brings together senior executives from buyout, growth equity and venture capital firms, along with institutional investors to interact and explore the latest trends, best practices and market challenges in technology investments in North America.

Startup Grind Global Conference 2021

February 22-25, Virtual Event

#conference #startup #technology #innovation #ecosystem

Presented by Startup Grind, the 2021 Global Conference will bring together startups from around the world. The new virtual and choose-what-you-pay model makes this year’s event more accessible for startups globally than ever before.

Join 15,000 others for conversation and collaboration around tech, startups, and the future of innovation.

Top VC events in March

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SAVCA 2021 Private Equity Conference

March 3-4, Sun City, South Africa (Hybrid)

#conference #africa #ecosystem #privateequity #VC

This event is organized by the Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA).

SAVCA has presented an annual private equity industry conference since 2008. The conference is a highlight of the industry calendar and a key deliverable by SAVCA to the private equity ecosystem in Southern Africa.

You will meet representatives from private equity and venture capital fund managers active in South Africa, Southern Africa and other parts of Africa.

Paris Space Week

March 9-10, Virtual Event

#conference #spacetech #aerospace #mobility

Paris Space Week gathers the World’s Space Tech Ecosystem under one roof for 2 Days. The event brings together the brightest space agencies, large groups, SMEs, and start-ups and investors. And naturally, the international press and thousands of enthusiastic space executives.

The OurCrowd Global Investor Summit 2021

March 9, Jerusalem, Israel

#conference #technologies #startup #innovation #corporate

The Summit provides unprecedented insight into the world of startup venture capital, with exclusive exposure to cutting-edge technologies, the entrepreneurs behind them, and the corporate leaders deploying them.

Wolves Summit 2021

March 24-26, Warsaw, Poland (Hybrid)

#conference #cee #startup #VC #angel #investor

The event connects angel investors, VC funds, tech talent, and corporations with the most promising startups in the CEE region to help ambitious founders scale and foster international economic growth.

Emergence 2021

March 24-26, Virtual Event

#conference #VC #government #investment

Emergence 24 Hours Conference is the congregation of venture and angel investors, investment groups, government bodies, and large corporate entities from around the world for one whole day of discovery of over 100 investment opportunities.​

Step Anywhere 2021

March 29-31, Virtual Event

#conference #technology #emerging #markets #startups

Step Anywhere brings together a global audience of startups, investors, digital enthusiasts, brands, and more over 3 days online. Step Anywhere’s first edition in 2020 featured 6 tracks of live talks and panels, workshops, various startup programming, exhibition and showcasing opportunities, and live entertainment.

Top VC events in April

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MedCity Invest 2021

April 19-23, Virtual Event

#conference #healthcare #biotech #medtech #startups

MedCity INVEST unites active investors with corporate business development executives to facilitate investment opportunities with the most promising healthcare startups.

For more than a decade, biopharma, diagnostics, health IT, medical devices and beyond have presented here to investors.

Bio€quity Europe 2021

April 13-14, Dublin, Ireland

#conference #biotech #pharma #technology

Bio€quity Europe is the industry’s international showcase for financial dealmakers and pharmaceutical executives to assess and network with rising biotechs.

For the 21st anniversary meeting, more than 80 hand-picked companies will present their stories and participate in the thought-leading program. The agenda will allow for maximum financial networking through both ample breaks, receptions, and 1×1 meetings using EBD Group’s partneringONE® conference networking solution.

Collision 2021

April 20-22, Toronto, Canada

#conference #technology #academic #entertainment

The Collision Conference is  Canada’s biggest technology conference to date. Run by Web Summit, a company from Ireland that holds events across the globe, Collision hosts huge names in the business, academic, and entertainment spaces to talk about the role of technology in today’s world.

“Collision is one of the world’s biggest tech conferences.” – Bloomberg

“Collision buzzes with startup electricity.” – HuffPost

EU-Startup Summit 2021

April 29-30, Barcelona, Spain

#exhibition #startup #innovation #technology #showcase

The Summit showcases a selection of Europe’s hottest startups and come together to learn from some of the most successful European entrepreneurs of our time.

The two-day event is a great opportunity for networking, and a meeting point for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors who are aiming to build international tech companies.

Top VC events in May

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2021 ACA Summit

May 4-6, Oregon, Portland

#summit #VC #angel #investor #entrepreneurship #inovation

The annual Angel Capital Association Summit is the world’s premier professional development event for angel investors. ACA members, other accredited investors and professionals in the startup ecosystem are invited to attend this industry leading event, which includes essential new information and top networking opportunities for the people attending.

Capital Camp

May 25-27, Columbia, Missouri

#festival #VC #startups #networking

Capital Camp offers a unique event experience with serious investing conversations in shorts and sandals, interactive programming and a variety of outdoor activities.

This event is for curious, kind and thoughtful investors, capital providers, entrepreneurs, and executives pushing the frontiers and breaking new ground.

Startup DAYS

March 26-27, Bern, Switzerland

#conference #DeepTech #innovation

Discover the best Deep Technology available from the most promising startups from Switzerland and abroad.

New things are created when people come together and get involved with drive. This is what the startup days promote and thus make an active contribution to the evolvement of the Swiss startup ecosystem as well as to the innovative and competitiveness of Switzerland.

Startup Village 2021

May 27-28, Moscow, Russia

#conference #startup

Startup Village is the most large-scale startup conference in Russia and the CIS countries for technology entrepreneurs, organised by the Skolkovo Foundation in collaboration with the Foundation’s partners.

Top VC events in June

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Invest Canada ’21

June 8-9, Canada

Every year, the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) brings together the Canadian and international private capital community to its signature event, the Invest Canada conference. Invest Canada is Canada’s venture capital and private equity conference. Each year, Invest Canada brings together the brightest minds and biggest names in the industry to make connections,

VivaTechnology 2021

June 17-19, Paris, France (Hybrid)

#exhibition #technology #startups #innovation #showcase #impact #change

VivaTechnology brings together people, from startups, corporates and VCs, to ignite growth, business transformation and positive change.

The 3-day annual conference has become, in only 4 years, one of the biggest gateway in Europe for innovation actors worldwide.

EBAN Congress 2021

June 14-16, Cork, Ireland

#conference #entrepreneurship #private #investment

The EBAN Annual Congress is widely recognised as one of Europe’s largest international private investment & entrepreneurship events.

The event will take place over a three-days, including Investor Led Workshops, Keynotes, pitching sessions, round table workshops etc.

Latitude59 2021

June 17-18, Estonia

#conference #startup #technology

Latitude59 is the flagship startup and tech event of the world’s first digital society. Latitude59 is THE place to be for various networking opportunities, in-depth discussions with top international players, several pitching rounds for both startups as well as investors, and an overall chance to get together and reflect on the crazy strenuous months behind us and forge new plans for the future.

4YFN 2021

June 28 – July 1, Barcelona, Spain

#exhibition #conference #startup #innovation

4YFN is the startup event of the world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry, GSMA MWC. The goal of the event is to support startups, investors and companies to connect and launch new business ventures together.

At the core of 4YFN 2021 will be keynotes by influencers and pioneers, discussions among top experts of the industry, exhibition area – as well as insightful startup pitches.

Top VC events in July

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Sustainable Business Summit Global

July 13-14, Virtual Event

#summit #sustainability #business #finance

The Bloomberg Sustainable Business Summits bring together business leaders and investors globally to drive innovation and scale best practices in sustainable business and finance.

This global event will span key markets and time zones, leveraging Bloomberg’s unrivaled markets expertise to convene conversations uniquely focused on the risks and opportunities for corporate executives and forward-thinking investors in a 21st-century economy.

GCV Digital Forum 2021

July 21-25, Virtual Event

#conference #global #innovation

Industry leaders will use the GCV Digital Forum 4.0 to share their thought-leadership, portfolio companies and startups will debate with investors, and all delegates will be able to network via the intuitive online platform, which will also feature the GCV Connect platform powered by Proseeder and the GCV Analytics tools. All of the content will remain available for delegates to access for a period after the event has taken place.

Top VC events in August

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sTARTUp Day 2021

August 25-27, Tartu, Estonia (Hybrid)

#festival #technology #innovation #networking #collaboration #matchmaking

sTARTUp Day is bringing together startup-minded people to celebrate entrepreneurship, to discuss business, innovation and new technologies, share startup success stories and lessons learned.

The two-day program is complemented with several pitching competitions, hands-on seminars with professionals and a large expo area where companies showcase their latest innovations.

In addition you can expect organized matchmaking to connect startups with investors, find future business partners and startup-corporate collaboration.

SHIFT Business Festival 2021

August 25-26, Turku, Finland (Hybrid)

#festival #intelligent #business #innovation #technology

SHIFT unites innovators and decision makers to develop intelligent businesses that will save the world.

Their aim is to make every business intelligent. That means being more sustainable while making a good profit, using the powers new technologies offer. SHIFT offers you the inspiration, network and tools to actualize the change.

Top VC events in September

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Hong Kong 2021 Venture Capital World Summit

September 1, Hong Kong (TBC)

#summit #asia #network

Hong Kong Venture Capital World Summit, World Series Season of Investment Conferences is here to help businesses get more capital and expertise as they need to scale up, and grow internationally with the support if required from our trusted network of investors

IPEM 2021

September 8-9, Paris, France

#conference #privateequity #business #network #ecosystem

IPEM has become the benchmark of Private Capital events. Its unique and surprising “PE meets tradeshow” format has won its fame for being a dynamic, easy and effective business congress.

IPEM has grown to an international event of 3,200 participants, while keeping the heart and soul of an intimate and relaxed gathering of all private markets.

FinovateFall

September 13-15, New York, United States (Hybrid)

#conference #finance #technology #innovation

The world needs fintech now more than ever. Whether you’re a fintech or financial institution, it’s time to step up. See cutting-edge fintech demos, hear expert advice, and connect with people who can help you take it to the next level.

Finovate is known for spotlighting new fintech innovations from seed-stage startups to established leaders.

TechBBQ 2021

September 16-17, Copenhagen, Denmark (Hybrid)

#conference #startups #innovation #technology #showcase

TechBBQ brings together talent, capital, and knowledge to reach their common goals: support the Nordic startup ecosystem, celebrate successes, and learn from failures.

This year’s edition will be held in a new online format.

SuperInvestor 2021

September 20-23, London, UK

#conference #market #insights #europe

SuperInvestor is a conference dedicated to Private Equity, Fundraising and Venture Capital with a focus on general partners (GPs) / limited partners (LPs) relations.

The 3-day event offers valuable interactions and market-leading insights.

TechCrunch Disrupt 2021

September 21-23, Virtual Event

#conference #entrepreneurship #investment #innovation #technology

TechCrunch Disrupt is three days of non-stop online programming with two big focuses: founders and investors shaping the future of disruptive technology and ideas and startup experts providing insights to entrepreneurs.

The event is the ultimate Silicon Valley experience where the leaders of the startup world gather to ask questions, make connections and be inspired.

Oslo Innovation Week 2021

September 27-30, Virtual Event

#conference #sustainability #innovation #technology

Oslo Innovation Week invites you to the heart of Nordic innovation – an arena for facilitating actions and thought provoking ideas for bold and new innovation. Connect and experience with pioneering entrepreneurs, founders, investors and business leaders.

SaaStr Annual 2021

September 27-29, San Mateo, United States (Hybrid)

#conference #SaaS #cloud #deeptech

Join 10,000+ Cloud and SaaS Founders, VC and Execs. In-person, in the SF Bay Area, in the San Mateo County Fairgrounds. The 7th SaaStr Annual will offer 3 full days, 100’s of workshops, and 1000s of Mentoring sessions.

Asia PE-VC Summit 2021

September 28 – October 1, Virtual Event

#conference #asia #market #startup #investment

Organized by DealStreetAsia (a Nikkei Group company), the Asia PE-VC promises deep dive into the current landscape and a functional roadmap for the year ahead, with LP/GP perspectives on Southeast Asia, India and Greater China; the challenge and opportunities for PE & VC firms, frontier market plays and strategies, and deep dives into the potential of the spotlight countries in region, like India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

TNW Conference 2021

September 30 – October 1, Amsterdam, Netherlands (Hybrid)

#conference #DeepTech #AI #sustainability #cybersecurity #retail #consumer

TNW Conference is a technology festival that brings together international technology executives, top-tier investors, and promising startups for two days of business and knowledge sharing – surrounded by some of the highest production values at any tech event on the planet.

Top VC events in October

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South Summit 2021

October 5-7, Madrid, Spain (Hybrid)

#conference #technology #innovation #health #work

SOUTH SUMMIT is one one the leading startup conference in southern Europe, with a growing number of attendees coming from Latin America as well.

A platform created with the aim to bring together startups, international investors and leading corporations in the search for innovation.

DLD Tel Aviv Live Innovation Festival 2021

October 11-14, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem

#conference #startup #business #innovation #technology

DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival is an event dedicated to business opportunities for investments in startups, technology and innovations. It includes conferences on various technologies and a festival part which celebrates Israeli innovation and its contribution to the global ecosystem.

Venture Capital Forum 2021

October 12-13, Paris France

#conference #ecosystem #europe

The Venture Capital Forum 2021 is organized by Invest Europe – one of the world’s largest association of private capital providers.

Each year the event brings together the best and brightest minds of the private equity sector to learn from one another, exchange and test ideas, and network with their peers.

SaaStock EMEA 2021

October 12-14, Virtual Event

#conference #deeptech #software #technology

SaaStock EMEA brings together the best B2B SaaS founders, executives, and investors across EMEA for intensive knowledge and networking. This years online edition is dedicated to intensive knowledge and networking, all in the name of traction, growth, and scale.

Tech in Asia 2021

October 12-14, Virtual Event

#conference #technology #people #finance #marketing #sales #product

Tech in Asia is a media, events, and jobs platform on a mission to build and serve Asia’s tech and startup community.

The annual tech and startup conference connects top minds, catalyzes opportunities and creates a high-value business community. It is specially created to catalyze business opportunities between Asia’s top startups, CEOs, VCs, and conglomerates in public and private markets.

Infoshare 2021

October 14-15, Gdańsk, Poland (Hybrid)

#conference #CEE #technology #innovation #startup

Infoshare is the conference where you can share your story and make your ideas happen. It’s one of the biggest tech conferences in CEE (Central & Eastern Europe). Continously Infoshare is creating an ecosystem that combines new technologies with business.

GITEX Technology Week 2021

October 17-21, Dubai, UAE

#exhibition #technology #innovation #startup #business

At GITEX the world’s technology leaders, up enterprises and startups come together to show you the future of every business and every industry, as it happens.

CC Forum London 2021

October 27-29, London, UK

#conference #sustainability #philanthropy

CC Forum will feature institutional and private wealth aimed at impact investment, philanthropy and sustainable development. Be part of one of the world’

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9tlabs team at JEC World
Events 1 week ago

A startup event strategy needs the same discipline. Spend enough time around (deep-tech) startups and you start noticing a familiar pattern. The same founders appear at event after event: a composites conference this week, a startup competition the next, followed by an investor summit, a sustainability conference and another pitching session. The logic is understandable. Young companies need visibility, customers and investors, and there is always the hope that the next event will provide the breakthrough introduction. The problem is that events can very quickly become an activity rather than a strategy. Teams return with business cards, LinkedIn connections and a sense of having had many interesting conversations, yet surprisingly little changes in the months that follow. For startups, where both cash and management attention are scarce resources, this is an expensive habit. I prefer to think about events through the lens of sport. A serious athlete does not try to peak every weekend. A season is built around a small number of A-events: the competitions where performance really matters. Everything around them is preparation. Startups should approach their event calendars in much the same way: select a limited number of events, understand exactly why they matter, prepare for them months in advance and then execute with intensity. Building your brand versus going where your customers are There are, in my view, two main reasons for a startup to attend events. The first is to build a brand, which for a young industrial company is largely about building trust. An established supplier enters the market with years or decades of history, references and relationships behind its name. A startup has none of that. Particularly in composites, where qualification cycles are long and customers are understandably cautious about introducing new materials and manufacturing technologies, familiarity matters. For a startup, brand building is ultimately trust building. This is why a composites startup should establish itself visibly within the composites ecosystem. JEC World in Paris is the reference. This is where I experimented a lot to master the game when I was leading the marketing and business development activities at 9T Labs – see picture above. Depending on geographic priorities, CAMX may play a similar role in North America, alongside relevant events in China and regional events in markets such as DACH, India or Southeast Asia. At these industry events, I would encourage startups to be relatively broad. Speak with suppliers, potential customers, competitors, investors and people from applications you may not yet have considered. Explain the technology in depth. The objective is not only to generate immediate leads, but to anchor the company in people’s minds as a serious part of the composites industry. This is also where I believe having your own booth matters. If brand building is one of the objectives, visibility cannot be an afterthought. Many manufacturing and materials companies still take a fairly conservative approach to exhibition design, which actually creates an opportunity for startups. Make the company visible from a distance. Bring parts, samples and, where practical, machinery. Demonstrate the technology rather than covering the walls with paragraphs explaining it. Give visitors something they want to touch, discuss or photograph. You are a startup. You do not have to look like everybody else. And at the events where you are building your brand, you probably should not. The second reason for attending events is much more targeted: meeting the people who can move the business forward. Once a startup has selected its beachhead markets, its event strategy should follow those customers. If aerospace is a priority, composite events alone are not sufficient; you should also consider events such as the Paris Air Show or Farnborough. If aircraft interiors are specifically relevant, Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg may be far more valuable than another general innovation conference. Find the reference events in the markets you have decided to win. And go where your customers go. The physical presence can be different there. You are not necessarily trying to build a major aerospace brand; you are trying to become a trusted supplier to aerospace companies. A smaller booth, a national pavilion, a startup zone or an association stand may therefore be entirely sufficient as a base for demonstrations and meetings. As customer relationships mature, an even stronger form of presence becomes possible: being represented on the booth of a customer or partner. If an established customer displays a component incorporating your technology and identifies you as the supplier, the credibility effect is difficult to replicate with your own marketing. You are no longer telling the market that the customer trusts you; the customer is demonstrating it publicly. Four A-events, prepared like campaigns Once the industry and end-market calendars have been mapped, prioritization becomes critical. My recommendation for most startups would be to identify no more than four genuine A-events per year. This does not mean attending only four events. There will always be smaller conferences, investor meetings and local gatherings worth visiting. But an A-event is different: it is an event around which a significant part of the organization aligns and for which the company is prepared to go all in. Four such events already mean running roughly one major campaign every quarter, because the event does not begin when the exhibition doors open. A-level events should be approached as two- to three-month campaigns, with the exhibition days at the heart of a much broader engagement effort. Proper preparation starts months earlier and should be reverse-planned from the event date. Four to six weeks before the event, for example, a startup could organize a webinar around a topic closely related to the problem it solves. Better still, where appropriate, it could host a small event at its own facility. The purpose should not be to spend 45 minutes explaining why the startup is wonderful. Bring in an external expert, a customer or a research partner. Share useful data or discuss an industry challenge. The aim is to aggregate a community around the problem where the company has something

The most digital companies in the world are opening coffee shops
Startups 3 weeks ago

The AI industry runs on GPUs, APIs and Discord servers. So why is an AI insurance startup valued at $4 billion signing a lease for a 24/7 café in Shoreditch? Corgi, the San Francisco insurtech that raised three rounds in eight weeks this summer (TechCrunch, July 2026), already runs two 24-hour cafés in San Francisco and Atlanta. Its London location on Great Eastern Street opens this month, with five more planned including New York (Sifted, July 2026). The pitch: give founders a place to work at 3am, and sell them AI liability insurance while they sip a “Brexspresso.” Is it working? The Mercury News reported in April that the San Francisco café was running at a loss with zero conversions to the insurance business (via Wikipedia). Investors funded three more rounds anyway. That tells you something about what the market believes physical presence is worth right now. AI companies are becoming event organizers Corgi is the extreme case. The pattern is everywhere. Anthropic held its first Code with Claude conference in May 2025 as a single-day event in San Francisco. One year later, it became an international tour: San Francisco on May 6, London on May 19, Tokyo on June 10, with a second SF day added because demand from independent developers exceeded capacity (Anthropic). OpenAI’s DevDay returns to San Francisco on September 29. ElevenLabs ran its Global Hackathon across 30 cities simultaneously last December and launched its own Summit. Lovable’s community events page lists hackathons from Barcelona to Bradford to Tbilisi, funded with credits and swag. Stripe, the company that made online payments invisible, now runs two event franchises: Stripe Sessions at Moscone Center in April, plus Stripe Tour, a global one-day roadshow hitting Paris, New York and other major cities. Even the investors backing these companies have become organizers. a16z presents Tech Week, a decentralized conference series across New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles that reached more than 740 events in New York alone in 2024 (Tech:NYC). The firm also runs a16z Build, an invite-only program of private dinners and retreats designed to connect early builders. A venture firm operating a citywide event franchise and a curated dinner circuit is a firm that treats community as an asset class. These are field marketing budgets that would have gone to paid social five years ago. When every feed is flooded with AI-generated content, a room full of verified humans becomes the scarce asset. The companies building the flood know this better than anyone. The money agrees While AI companies build community from scratch, institutional capital is buying live events at scale. Liberty Media completed its €4.2 billion acquisition of MotoGP in July 2025, adding it to a Formula One Group that also includes F1 and hospitality business Quint (Liberty Media). KKR acquired Superstruct Entertainment, operator of more than 80 festivals including Sziget, Sónar and Wacken Open Air, in a deal reported at €1.3 billion (Music Business Worldwide, June 2024). CVC joined as co-investor a few months later. And Ari Emanuel raised more than $2 billion from Apollo, RedBird and the Qatar Investment Authority to launch Mari, a holding company built to buy events: the Miami Open, the Madrid Open, Frieze, Barrett-Jackson (Bloomberg, October 2025). This week, Mari agreed to acquire ATG Entertainment, owner of 70 theaters across Broadway and the West End, in a deal reported at $6 billion (Axios, August 2026). “Live has only grown more powerful,” Emanuel said in the announcement. Read that list again. Sports, festivals, art fairs, theater. The smartest money in media is converging on one thesis: attention earned in person compounds in a way digital attention no longer does. What this means for founders Here is the contradiction worth sitting with. The companies automating knowledge work are the ones investing hardest in rooms, coffee and handshakes. They understand that when intelligence becomes a commodity, trust becomes the product. And trust still gets built face to face. For startup founders, the lesson is practical. Your customers, your investors and your future hires are recalibrating where they spend their scarce in-person time. The events that win their calendar slots will be smaller, more curated and more expensive to ignore. Where the two worlds meet If you work at an AI company or a scale-up that just discovered field marketing, here is the uncomfortable truth: the event industry has been perfecting this craft for decades. The people who run Web Summit, VivaTech or MWC have solved problems you are about to encounter, from audience acquisition costs to sponsor ROI to the logistics of moving 100,000 people through a venue. That is the room Sesame Summit puts you in. It is the conference of conferences: our annual gathering in Biarritz where leaders from Europe’s top event organizers meet the startups, investors and tech companies betting on IRL. Disclosure: I organize it, so read this with that in mind. But if the smartest money in media is paying billions for audiences that show up in person, spending two days with the people who build those audiences seems like a reasonable shortcut. If your company is doubling down on events this year, what would you want to learn from the organizers who have been doing this for 20 years?

Crowded exhibition hall with an empty startup village, only one startup exhibitor active.
Events 3 weeks ago

Picture this. A strategy director at a major exhibition calls with six weeks to go before the show. The brand new startup area has sold exactly one booth. The show runs on a multi-year cycle, so a failed launch means the whole concept probably gets cancelled before it gets a second chance. This is a composite of several conversations I’ve had this year, and the pattern is always the same. The organizer builds a startup area, assigns it to the existing sales team, waits, panics, then calls for help when the calendar has already decided the outcome. The diagnosis is simple: startup acquisition is a different business than exhibitor sales. Most organizers discover this too late. Here are the five reasons why. 1. They sell square meters to companies that buy outcomes A corporate exhibitor renews a booth the way it renews an insurance policy. There’s a budget line, a history, a floor plan discussion. The sales conversation is about location and dimensions. Startups have none of that. They buy pipeline, investor meetings, and proof that the show is worth their time. And their time is expensive: my rule of thumb is two full prep days for every event day, more if the team is small or the show is far. A founder deciding between your startup area and a customer roadshow is running an ROI calculation, and a rate card doesn’t answer it. A sales team trained on renewals and floor plans doesn’t speak this language. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s a different job. 2. They start the clock six months too late Startup areas usually get scoped after the main floor is sold. The launch lands a few months, sometimes a few weeks, before the show. Founders don’t work like that. They lock their event strategy two or three quarters ahead, because attending well requires prep: outreach, meeting scheduling, demo logistics, travel. A six-week sprint is competing against decisions that were made in the spring. The paradox is that organizers know this about their corporate exhibitors, who book 12 to 18 months out. Somehow the assumption becomes that startups, the most resource-constrained companies on the floor, can be converted on short notice. 3. They design the offer around what they can administer Here’s a real example, anonymized. One show’s main startup offer was a 60 percent discount, funded by a national grant. Great deal. One catch: only domestic startups qualified for it, at an international show. The offer wasn’t designed around the buyer. It was designed around available paperwork. The addressable pool shrank to a fraction of the relevant ecosystem, and everyone else got a full-price booth with no story attached. Startup offers that work are built the other way around: define which companies belong on that floor, then engineer the package (price, format, visibility, matchmaking) that makes their decision easy. Administration comes second. 4. They confuse margin kept with money made This one stings, because I’ve watched it happen twice this year. An organizer works with a partner on startup acquisition, hits targets, then decides to insource the next edition to keep the full margin. On a spreadsheet, it’s savings. In reality, the target gets missed, the area sits half-empty, and the organizer comes back mid-campaign asking for rescue. Some results are still possible at that point. The results a proper campaign would have delivered are gone. The full cost of insourcing shows up later: lost booth revenue, a weaker visitor experience in that zone, and a startup program that gets cancelled for “lack of demand.” Against that, the partner commission was the cheapest line on the P&L. 5. They run a program where they need a pipeline Startup acquisition compounds. Alumni come back. Competition applicants become exhibitors. Founders talk to each other, and a good experience at one edition sells the next one. None of that happens inside a one-off project. It requires a multi-year cadence: scouting, competitions, curated programs, follow-up between editions. Shows on two or four year cycles feel this the hardest, because a standalone approach means restarting from zero every single time, with a new team and no institutional memory. What compounding looks like JEC World, the composites industry show in Paris, is the counter-example, and yes, they’re our client, which is exactly the point. The startup work there is a bundle, built over multiple editions: a startup competition that lowers the barrier for first-time startup exhibitors, an Investor Day that brings capital to the floor and gives founders a concrete ROI reason to attend, and a startup village that gives them a curated home inside a very large show. Each piece feeds the others. Startups apply because clients & investors are there. Investors come because the startups are curated. And the ones that grow don’t disappear: they graduate into regular exhibitors. That’s the part most organizers miss. A startup exhibitor is just a first-time exhibitor. Treated well, they’re the cheapest exhibitor acquisition channel you’ll ever have. Treated as filler for a leftover corner of the floor plan, they don’t come back, and neither do the ones watching. The question for organizers If you run a show with a startup area, ask yourself one thing: is it a strategy or a floor plan decision? If the honest answer is the second one, here’s my prediction. The area launches late, gets staffed by a team hired to sell something else, underperforms, and quietly disappears from the next edition. The internal conclusion will be “startups don’t work for our show.” The real conclusion is that the approach didn’t. Startups work fine. They’re just customers who need to be sold to like startups. Disclosure: Sesamers sells startup acquisition and curation services to event organizers. JEC World is a client. Read accordingly.

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