Venture Capital

Top Venture Capital conferences in 2023

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Top VC conferences in February

4FYN 2023

Feb 27- Mar 2 – Spain
4YFN and UNDP are joining forces again to support women start-up entrepreneurs based in the Arab region who are using technological solutions to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.

MWC Barcelona 2023

Feb 27- Mar 2 – Spain
This year, Fira Barcelona was packed with imagination, inspiration, and cutting-edge innovation. Despite the challenges, we hosted expert thought leadership, iconic brands, and participants from almost 200 countries and territories. Whether you flew in or logged on, we hope you enjoyed the event.

Top VC conferences in March

Hello Tomorrow Global Summit 2023

Mar 9-10 – France
Hello Tomorrow Global Summit will convene the deep tech ecosystem once more to connect all key players – startups, investors, private & public organizations, researchers, universities & incubators – through this edition. Meet the startups that are transforming a wide range of industries. Touch, feel, and see for yourself the technologies that are enabling this change.

SXSW 2023

Mar 10-19 – USA
South by Southwest (SXSW) dedicates itself to helping creative people achieve their goals. Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW is best known for its conference and festivals that celebrate the convergence of tech, film, music, education, and culture.

TNW Valencia 2023

Mar 30-31 – Spain
Valencia is Spain’s fastest-growing entrepreneurial ecosystem — and has the most startups per capita of anywhere in the country. It’s rapidly becoming the Mediterranean’s startup powerhouse. And, in 2023, TNW València is set to bring the heart of tech to the region.

Top VC conferences in April

Startup Grind Global Conference 2023

Apr 11-12 – USA
Overall, 15,000 community members both live and online will come together to learn about and explore the next wave of the web, bridging the gap between web2 and web3, building human-centric products, impacting diverse communities, and more.

EU-Startups Summit 2023

Apr 20-21 – Spain
The EU-Startups Summit 2023 will gather over 2,000 founders, startup enthusiasts, corporates, angel investors, VCs, and media from across Europe. The event is a great opportunity for networking, with a dedicated networking app, and a meeting point for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors who are aiming to build international tech companies.

TechChill Riga 2023

Apr 26-28 – Latvia
Having grown from a small grassroots movement of like-minded tech enthusiasts, TechChill celebrates the best of the Baltic startup community by annually bringing together 2,000+ attendees, including the fastest-growing startups, most innovative corporations, investors active in the region and talented tech enthusiasts. TechChill is organized by a non-profit foundation of the same name, empowering the Baltic startup ecosystem throughout the year.

Top VC conferences in May

PODIM 2023

May 15-17 – Slovenia
Podim is one of the most influential startup & Tech events in the CEE region, based in Slovenia, where innovation meets business opportunities, capital and knowledge.

Tech.eu Summit 2023

May 24 – Belgium
The Tech.eu Summit is bringing together 1,800 thinkers and doers to help shape the best possible future for the European innovation ecosystems. The key focus will be on sustainable growth.

Infoshare 2023

May 24-25 – Poland
This is where visionaries and engineers come together. Join a truly innovative community and get inspired by the rapidly changing world of technology.

Latitude59 2023

May 24-26 – Estonia
Latitude59 is one of the flagship startup & Tech events of the world’s first digital society. But behind the long and flashy tagline, participants will be glad to find an intimate event with quality at its core. It’s the beloved highlight of the year for the whole Estonian tight-knit startup community.

ChangeNOW 2023

May 25-27 – France
The ChangeNOW summit is one of the best accelerator events for a better world. Over 3 days, the summit puts the spotlight on the most concrete and innovative solutions to face the world’s biggest challenges.

Top VC conferences in June

Dublin Tech Summit 2023

May 31-Jun 6 – Ireland
One of Europe’s fastest-growing Tech conferences, DTS sits at the heart of the international tech scene with Dublin now the EMEA base for some of the biggest global tech companies.

Money20/20 EU 2023

Jun 6-8 – Netherlands
In Amsterdam, they facilitate 3 remarkable days of the right conversations, the right connections, and the right discoveries which enable individuals and organizations of all sizes to achieve their goals and grow. C-level executives, renowned speakers, innovators, and disruptors from across the world drive change in the future of money.

South Summit 2023

Jun 7-9 – Spain
They have met in Madrid for almost ten years, but have also seen each other in Bilbao and Valencia, in Mexico and Colombia, in person and online. Their objective was (and still is) very clear: to be the reference hub that shapes the future via initiative, entrepreneurship, open innovation, and business opportunities.

VivaTech 2023

Jun 14-17 – France
VivaTech acts as a powerful global catalyst for digital transformation and startup growth. Every year they bring together, in Paris and online, business leaders, startups, investors, researchers, and innovators to ignite positive change in business and for society.

TNW Conference 2023

Jun 15-16 – Netherlands
The Next Web (TNW) Conference is where industry leaders and tech enthusiasts alike come together, to explore how tech will shape the world of tomorrow. You’ll get insights from industry pioneers, and meet international tech executives, policymakers, startups, and scale-ups.

PIRATE Summit 2023

Jun 27-29 – Germany
PIRATE Summit focuses on real life experiences, authentic connections, peer learning, and is characterized by its festival-like atmosphere. An environment for people to let their guard down, engage in meaningful ways, renew old friendships, start new ones, and just be themselves!

Turing Fest 2023

Jun 28-29 – Scotland
Turing Fest enables you to learn and connect with the best in tech, gain practical insight into the art and science of building, growing, and leading successful startups and high-growth tech businesses – see for yourself!

Top VC conferences in September

Bits & Pretzels 2023

Sep 24-26 – Germany
Started as a small founder’s breakfast with 80 participants, Bits & Pretzels quickly developed into one of Europe’s leading founders festivals – attracting some of the world’s greatest companies, speakers and entrepreneurs alike!

Top VC conferences in October

World Summit AI 2023

Oct 12-13 – Netherlands
Fearless, forward-thinking, and innovative, World Summit AI is one of the world’s leading events in AI and Tech and hosts some of the brightest AI brains, leading industry speakers, and influencers from business, science, and technology over two days, all in one place!

European Blockchain Convention 2023

Oct 24-26 – Spain
Join 5,000+ attendees in a 3-day event and don’t miss the opportunity to meet with the startups, investors, corporates, and developers that are changing the world. Right in the heart of Barcelona, the event will feature 300+ speakers across a variety of panels, keynotes, workshops, and fire-side chats on the current state of Blockchain, Crypto, DeFi, NFTs, Metaverse, and Web3.

Top VC conferences in November

Web Summit 2023

Nov 13-16 – Portugal
Web Summit is one of the largest Tech events in the world, bringing together founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers, and heads of state to ask a simple question: Where to next?

Slush 2023

Nov 30-Dec 1 – Finland
Slush is all about connecting founders with what and whom they need while building a new, inclusive, and more purposeful culture of entrepreneurship.

Suzanne Newman

Become a member of Sesamers

Sesamers is a private community for entrepreneurs, VCs, corporates and events.

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Events 2 days ago

5 brilliant startup marketing techniques from Bits and Pretzels 2025

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.

Sophie Marquet

New Materials 3 days ago

From Space to Construction: Lios’ Mission to Silence Noise Pollution

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.

Anna Heim

New Materials 1 week ago