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At SaaStr 2023, I had a 12-minute conversation with a VP of Partnerships at a Series C company. No pitch. No business cards. Just asked him about his biggest challenge with international expansion. Three months later, that conversation turned into a $2M partnership deal. That’s what good startup event networking looks like—and it has nothing to do with collecting LinkedIn connections. Here are the 7 tactics that turned me from “business card guy” into someone people actually want to talk to. Tactic #1: Research 20 People Before You Arrive (Not 200) Most founders show up at a startup event hoping to “meet people.” That’s code for wandering around awkwardly. Here’s what works: Before the event, identify exactly 20 people you want to meet. Not 200. Twenty. Pull the attendee list (most B2B events share this 4-6 weeks before). Use Sesamers to see who’s attending events you’re registered for. Then research each target: LinkedIn profile, recent posts, their company’s latest news, what they’re working on. I spend 5 minutes per person. That’s 100 minutes of prep that separates you from the 80% of attendees who show up cold. When you walk up and say “Hey Sarah, saw your post about expanding into EMEA—we just cracked that market, happy to share what worked,” you’re already 10x more memorable than “Hi, I’m a founder, what do you do?” Pro tip: DM all 20 people on LinkedIn two weeks before the event. “Hey [Name], seeing you’re going to [Event]. Would love to grab coffee and hear about [specific thing they’re working on]. Tuesday 8am work?” Pre-booking even 3-5 meetings means you’ve already won the event before you land. Here’s how I pick which events are worth this prep work. Tactic #2: Ask Questions That Make People Think (Not Talk) The worst networkers ask “What does your company do?” Everyone gets that question 47 times. It triggers autopilot mode: rehearsed elevator pitch, eyes glazing over, polite nod, move on. Zero connection. According to Harvard Business Review research, people remember conversations where they had to think, not just recite. Ask questions that don’t have scripted answers. My go-to questions: “What’s the hardest problem you’re trying to solve right now?” or “What’s working surprisingly well in your business that you didn’t expect?” or “If you could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about [their industry], what would it be?” These questions do three things: show you’re interested in them (not pitching), surface actual problems you might solve, and make you memorable because most people at networking events don’t ask interesting questions. They just wait for their turn to pitch. Tactic #3: The 10-Minute Rule (Then Move On) I used to have 45-minute conversations with one person at events, thinking I was “building rapport.” Wrong. That’s hogging. Startup event networking is about starting conversations, not finishing them. Research from Cvent shows that 72% of attendees are more likely to do business with people they meet at events—but only if you follow up properly. Set a timer. Ten minutes max per conversation. If it’s going great, say “This is super valuable—I’ve got to run to another meeting but let’s schedule 30 minutes next week to dive deeper. Are you free Tuesday?” Then book it right there. Exchange numbers or grab a calendar link. The goal isn’t to close deals on the event floor. It’s to identify who’s worth a real conversation later. Ten minutes is enough to know if there’s fit. Everything else happens in follow-up. Exception: If you’re mid-negotiation on something big, obviously don’t bail after 10 minutes. But for initial networking? Move fast, meet more people, book follow-ups with the right ones. Here’s my full pre-event checklist for maximizing these conversations. Tactic #4: Kill the Business Card Theater Business cards in 2025 are cosplay. They’re what people who don’t know how to network think networking looks like. I watched a founder collect 83 business cards at Web Summit. Know how many he followed up with? Zero. Because he didn’t actually connect with anyone. Here’s what I do instead: After a good conversation, I text myself their name and one specific thing we discussed. “Alex Chen – struggling with European compliance, mentioned needing help with GDPR.” Takes 10 seconds. No card to lose, no app to forget to check, just a note I’ll actually use. Or skip the middle step entirely: “Hey, let me get your number so we can schedule that follow-up call.” Boom, you’re in their phone. Text them before you leave the event: “Great meeting you. Tuesday 2pm work for that call?” Now you’re a person with a scheduled meeting, not a business card in a pile. The best networking at startup events happens when you think less about “making connections” and more about “starting relationships.” Cards don’t build relationships. Scheduled follow-up calls do. Tactic #5: Organize Your Own Dinner (This Is the Cheat Code) Want to know the real secret of startup event networking? The conference itself is just bait. The real networking happens at dinners, breakfasts, and after-parties you organize yourself. I started doing this at every event: Book a table at a restaurant near the venue for 6-8 people. Invite 3-4 people I want to meet from my target list, tell them each to bring one interesting person. Done. Now I’m having a real conversation over dinner instead of shouting over techno music at the official after-party. Cost: $150-300 for dinner. Value: Way higher than the actual conference ticket. Last dinner I organized at a fintech conference led to three partnerships and one customer that’s now $400K ARR. The conference sessions? Taught me nothing I didn’t already know from YouTube. Pro tip: Track events where multiple people from your target list are attending using Sesamers’ attendee tracking, then organize dinners strategically around those events. Here are the B2B events where this tactic works best. Tactic #6: The 24-Hour Follow-Up (Not “Next Week”) According to Salesforce data, leads contacted within 24 hours are 7x more likely to convert than those […]

Last year I spent 11 hours scrolling through Eventbrite, LinkedIn Events, and random newsletters trying to find startup events worth attending. Found 47 “amazing opportunities.” Went to 8. Got ROI from 2. Here’s the problem: there are over 32,000 startup events globally every year according to UFI Global, and 90% of them are a waste of your calendar and cash. I needed a system. Here’s how I now find high-ROI events in 20 minutes instead of 11 hours. Why Most Founders Suck at Finding the Right Events You know what kills me? Founders who Google “best startup events 2025,” click the first TechCrunch listicle, and drop $3K on a ticket because Web Summit looks cool on LinkedIn. Then they complain events don’t work. The issue isn’t that good startup events don’t exist. It’s that you’re using consumer discovery methods for B2B decisions. Eventbrite is built for yoga classes and birthday parties, not finding where enterprise buyers congregate. LinkedIn Events is 80% webinar spam. Google? Shows you the events with the biggest ad budgets, not the best attendees. According to Cvent research, 67% of trade show attendees represent completely new business prospects. But only if you’re at the RIGHT show. Wrong event selection is the #1 reason founders think “events don’t work.” The events work fine. You’re just showing up to the wrong rooms. Here’s the system I use to find events where actual deals happen. Source #1: Reverse Engineer Where Your Buyers Already Go Stop asking “what startup events should I attend?” Start asking “where do my target customers already hang out?” Different question, different answer. If you sell API infrastructure to DevOps teams, you want KubeCon, not Collision. If you sell HR software to mid-market companies, you want SHRM Annual Conference, not Web Summit. This seems obvious but I see B2B SaaS founders at consumer tech conferences all the time wondering why they’re not closing enterprise deals. Here’s my process: Pull your top 10 customers. Google “[company name] + speaking” and “[company name] + sponsoring.” See which conferences they present at or sponsor. That’s where their peers are. That’s your target event list. Takes 15 minutes, beats 11 hours of blind searching. For finding these industry-specific events, I use trade association directories. Every vertical has one: SBA.gov has a comprehensive list, or search “[your industry] + trade association” and check their events calendar. These are where buyers go, not tourists. Source #2: Follow the Money (Where VCs and Partners Speak) Want to find quality startup events? Track where the money shows up. Check Crunchbase for your target investors and see where they’re listed as speakers. Use LinkedIn to follow VCs and watch what events they post about attending. I have a simple spreadsheet: 20 investors I want to meet, their LinkedIn profiles bookmarked, notifications on. When they post “Looking forward to speaking at [Event],” that event goes on my shortlist. If three investors I want to meet are all going to the same conference, that’s not coincidence. That’s signal. Pro tip: Most VCs announce speaking gigs 4-6 weeks before the event. Set Google Alerts for “[Investor Name] + speaking” to catch these early. Registration is cheaper and you can book meetings with them before their calendars fill up. Here’s how I turn those meetings into actual conversations. Source #3: Use a Real B2B Event Discovery Platform After burning months on consumer event platforms, I switched to Sesamers for B2B event discovery. It’s built specifically for founders looking for business events, not birthday party planners looking for venues. The difference? You can filter by industry (API/SaaS, fintech, healthcare tech, etc.), attendee profile (VCs, enterprise buyers, distribution partners), and event size. You can see who actually attended past editions before buying a $2K ticket. You can track which events your network is going to. Game changer. I have filters saved for “B2B SaaS events in North America with 500-2000 attendees” and “fintech conferences with VC attendance.” One click, boom, my quarterly event shortlist. Beats the hell out of scrolling Eventbrite for three hours. Here’s my full system for tracking events without losing my mind. Source #4: Mine Your Network (The 80/20 of Event Discovery) The fastest way to find startup events worth attending? Ask founders who are two years ahead of you what they go to. Not “what events do you recommend” (they’ll just name drop). Ask “what’s the ONE event where you closed your biggest deal last year?” I send this exact message to 5-10 founders in my industry every quarter: “Hey [Name], building my 2025 event calendar. What’s the ONE conference that drove the most revenue for [their company] last year? And which one was overhyped?” Two-question email, 90% response rate, pure gold. Set up a simple Notion database or Airtable with: Event name, Recommended by, Why they liked it, Approximate ROI. After 6 months you’ll have a curated list of events that actually work for your specific business model. Worth more than any “Top 50 Startup Events” listicle. Another hack: Join Slack communities for your industry (SaaStr has great ones for SaaS founders). Search the channels for “conference” or “event” and read what people actually say, not what sponsors promote. Real founders complaining or praising = real signal. Source #5: Check the Attendee List Before You Buy This is my non-negotiable filter. Before I buy any ticket over $500, I demand to see the attendee list or at least historical attendance data. If the organizer won’t share it? Red flag. They’re hiding something. Some events publish attendee lists 6-8 weeks before (especially B2B trade shows). Others have “matchmaking platforms” where you can browse who’s registered. If the event has neither, email the organizers directly and ask for: average attendee seniority, percentage of attendees by role (founder/investor/corporate), and top companies that attended last year. I track this in Sesamers because they aggregate historical data on major B2B events—attendance numbers, speaker quality ratings, and which types of companies typically show up. Saves me from buying tickets to events that […]

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.

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At Sesamers, we’re always looking to be the first to learn about the latest trends in the startup and tech events space. That’s why it feels like a privilege that Sesamers was invited by Olivia Hervy, chief ecosystem officer of VivaTech, to the exclusive kick-off VivaTech 2026, alongside key partners.  As Europe’s largest startup and tech event prepares for its 10th anniversary, scheduled for June 17-20, 2026 in Paris, being part of this circle of industry professionals gives us early insight into what promises to be VivaTech’s most ambitious edition yet, with significant expansions and new experiences that reflect a decade of growth and evolution. Major infrastructure expansions After calling Hall 1 and 2 at Porte de Versailles home for a decade, VivaTech 2026 is relocating to Hall 7, a new three-floor building that the event will occupy fully. The venue now features 30% more exhibition space across three floors; upgraded infrastructure; excellent internet connectivity, and a much larger business center. The building has 12 dedicated restaurant areas, providing ample dining options to better accommodate the growing crowds. The centerpiece is a brand new, 2,200-seat main stage where the event’s most significant announcements and keynotes will be held. Greater business focus Building on 2025’s  success (180,000 attendees, 14,000 startups), VivaTech 2026 introduces several business-focused improvements: Doubled innovation showcase The “Garden of Innovators” concept has been expanded upon, with organizers promising to double startup participation, product announcements, and exhibition surface area compared to previous editions.  Located on the first floor, the welcome area will showcase exemplars of innovation through the centuries to remind attendees of humanity’s continuous drive to invent and create. Germany takes center stage For 2026, Germany has been selected as the “Country of the Year,” and VivaTech will highlight the nation’s contributions to the European tech ecosystem with an eye towards strengthening Franco-German technological cooperation. Thematic villages  VivaTech 2026 introduces a new organizational approach: We have four dedicated thematic arenas, each of which features its own startup village and specialized programming: Each thematic village will feature startups building in those sectors, creating focused ecosystems where attendees can explore innovations that cross-pollinate within a concentrated area. Every theme features its own dedicated stage, which will host talks, panels, and presentations tailored to that sector. An additional Executive Arena will cater specifically to marketing and tech leaders, providing a hub for C-level discussions and strategic content. “Revolutions in Progress” VivaTech2026’s theme emphasizes ongoing technological revolutions, with particular focus on: Special anniversary experiences To mark the event’s 10th anniversary, VivaTech 2026 will feature several special events: Looking forward With its tagline, “VIVA LA REVOLUTION,” VivaTech 2026 positions itself not just as a retrospective celebration, but as the launch pad for the next decade of European tech innovation. The expanded format and new experiences point to how the event is evolving from a showcase into an increasingly sophisticated business platform for the global tech community. VivaTech 2026 builds on last year’s impressive satisfaction metrics (92% of exhibitors satisfied, 82% of attendees planning to return) while substantially expanding capacity and capabilities to serve the growing European tech ecosystem.

Europe recorded €108 billion from exhibitions and events in 2024, according to UFI’s latest data. The continent welcomed 102 million visitors to over 2,000 certified exhibitions across 17 countries; Web Summit Lisbon set a record with 71,528 attendees in November 2024, making it the largest edition to date; and Stockholm’s Techarena secured just over €1 million from VC firm BackingMinds to expand internationally. By any reasonable measure, Europe’s events space has absolutely crushed the events game. End of story. Fin. However, from where I’m sitting, the elephant is still lurking quite comfortably in the room. At the risk of being ostracized, I’ll go ahead and ask the question: Why are some of the most innovative companies on the planet still schlepping to Austin for SXSW to make their biggest announcements (Salt Lick and Stubbs BBQ’s aside)? The room vs. the world Looking at the numbers: Europe’s events spark more meaningful connections per square meter than anywhere else on Earth. In 2025, VivaTech set records with 180,000 visitors, a 10% increase from a year earlier. MWC Barcelona authoritatively anchors a circuit stretching from Kigali to Las Vegas. The continent plays host to an estimated 32,000 exhibitions annually, generating 4.3 million full-time equivalent jobs. These are numbers you cannot take lightly. But walk into any European tech conference and you’ll witness something that should make every one of us reach for the Advil: major announcements received by something akin to a boisterous golf clap from 500 or so people. And that’s it. Those announcements then usually disintegrate into the digital ether, seemingly never to be heard of again. Meanwhile, across the pond, a throwaway tweet about the same topic has the potential to garner upwards of 50,000 shares and three podcast invitations faster than you can drink your morning coffee. But data and numbers don’t lie, and when it comes to events, they’re frankly embarrassing. Europe’s events sector processes roughly €108 billion, and is  extraordinarily efficient in bringing decision makers together in the same space.  European startups consistently struggle with what should be the easier bit: translating those promising conversations into sustained media coverage, investor attention and market validation. The great muppet caper Picture this scene playing out roughly 847 times per week across Europe: Monday: A Finnish startup leveraging AI presents a true breakthrough in supply chain management/optimization/operations to 200 logistics executives at a specialized track. The demo is genuinely impressive. The potential is genuinely massive. The audience is the very definition of target market. All the right pieces are in all the right places. Tuesday: Three tech publications publish brief summaries, perhaps even covering the entire conference, and not just the logistics breakthrough. The fledgling company’s LinkedIn post gets 47 likes (including the founders’ mothers, university mates, and the intern). A single podcast interview is scheduled for three weeks later. It may or may not happen. Wednesday: The story is now less alive than disco was on July 13, 1979. Look that one up, kids. Now let’s compare the same actions to the American playbook, which, if I’m honest, makes me simultaneously impressed and nauseous. The same company makes the announcement at a Bay Area-based event (yep, you know it as well as I do). It generates immediate response across a variety of channels from some  truly influential voices and some noise makers, but enough to garner the attention of major media (print, podcast, and pulp) outlets within 48 hours. It then spawns derivative content, and creates a sustained conversation that drives real, true, business development for the startup for weeks. The difference here isn’t the quality of the innovation; it’s how the messaging was amplified. Folks, you can hate me for saying this, but this is where Europe is getting schooled. There is no stopping in the Red Zone Take one look at today’s media landscape, and you’ll leave with a rather morbid impression. The problem isn’t structural fragmentation; it’s an endemic contraction. Leon may be growing, but European tech media is shrinking,  at precisely the wrong moment. A brief reminder: TechCrunch, long the go-to outlet for European startup coverage, quietly shut down its entire European operation in 2025 when private equity firm Regent LP acquired the publication.  Digital Frontier, the London-based tech publication that launched in early 2024 with a team of 20, “paused” operations just a few months ago, making all 16 staff members redundant.  Business Insider cut 21% of its staff in 2025, citing “extreme traffic drops” and AI disruption. Just days ago, we all found out that The Next Web, once one of Europe’s flagship tech conferences and media brands, was shutting down its events and media operations after nearly 20 years. The Financial Times, which bought TNW in 2019, confirmed it was winding down the business by the end of September following a “strategic review.” Conference attendance had dropped to 4,500 in 2025, less than half of pre-pandemic levels. The failure to capture content The folks at Black Unicorn PR earlier this year put together a guide that reveals something anyone working in European tech media already knows but pretends isn’t true: “Unlike the U.S., which has a few dominant tech media outlets and an emerging class of star indie writers, Europe hasn’t yet consolidated its practitioners’ knowledge in one place.” Stop and think about what that really means for a second. Sure, we’ve got strong regional players, and I salute Sifted, EU-Startups, and Tech.eu doing the do. But the lack of a unified amplification machinery, by definition, puts Europe at a disadvantage over Silicon Valley stories that are destined to be heard in Phuket faster than you can finish reading this sentence. To put it bluntly, European tech events suffer from content capture failure. The most valuable insights surface within conversations, at roundtable discussions, and networking sessions that generate no permanent content.  Unlike American events, which increasingly operate as content factories designed for social media amplification, European conferences optimize to create value in the room rather than post-event content distribution. All that […]

Winning the JEC Startup Booster's 2025 Sustainability Award transformed Strong by Form from a 'promising startup' into a serious player with industrial credibility.