Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Selected Events for August

365 EduCon

August 8-12 – USA
Microsoft 365 EduCon (by SPFest) brings to you the world’s leading experts in Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Power Platform, and Azure. Whether you are new to SharePoint or an experienced power user, admin, or developer, 365 EduCon has content designed to fit your experience level and area of interest. Their workshops and sessions are taught by Microsoft Certified Trainers, Microsoft MVPs, Microsoft Regional Directors, and Microsoft engineers.

Traction

August 10-11 – Canada
Traction is a global community of more than 100,000 entrepreneurs and innovators. They bring leaders behind the fastest-growing companies to share business advice via webinars, podcasts, meetups, retreats, and conferences.

Ai4 2022

August 16-18 – USA
Over three days, Ai4 2022 brings together business leaders and data practitioners to facilitate the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology. With a use-case-oriented approach to content, Ai4 delivers actionable insights from those working on the frontlines of AI in the enterprise.

sTARTUp Day 2022

August 24-26 – Estonia
sTARTUp Day is a three-day festival with a stage program, effective matchmaking, hands-on seminars, a demo area full of innovation, and vibrant side events. The inspirational-educational program consists of various topics – from marketing to space tech, fundraising to the smart city, and artificial intelligence to the creative economy.

The Dutch Startup Meetup 2022

August 25 – Amsterdam
Hosted by Dutch Startup Association and Startup Network Europe, Dutch Startup Drinks gathers together hundreds of Dutch founders, CXOs, and investors in an informal setting. It precedes The Dutch Startup Conference 2022, which will happen on September 29th.

Fearless Fund Venture Capital Summit

August 25-26 – Virtual
Fearless Fund invests in women of color-led businesses seeking pre-seed, seed level, or series A financing. Their mission is to bridge the gap in venture capital funding for women of color founders building scalable, growth aggressive companies. Fearless Fund is built by women of color for women of color.

Political Festival of Europe 2022

August 25-28 – Denmark
Political Festival of Europe – “Det Europæiske Folkemøde” – is a four-day democracy festival that serves as a platform for European political and societal debates and discussions along with an authentic experience of European culture and heritage. Political Festival of Europe is a unique opportunity for you to make your voice heard and for partners to access a pan-European audience.

Data Natives Conference 2022

Aug 31 – Sep 2 – Germany
DN Conference, running alongside the Matchathon, joins thinkers, innovators, and creators in data and tech on its stages to share their thoughts on future tech trends, changes, and inspirational stories. Their mission is to bring together diverse strands of the global tech community.

you might also like

blank
Events 22 hours 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 2 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.