Heading to tech and startup events is like going on an exciting adventure full of chances to meet new people and discover business opportunities.
At The Recursive, we’re not just watching from the sidelines – we’re actively taking part! As you read this, probably at least one person from our team is making plans and booking tickets for the next event.
These gatherings bring together founders, investors, and other important folks, creating a space for unexpected connections and discovering new stories. What’s not to like?
Here are the cool events (as of now) where you can find our colleagues. If you know of others we should attend, go write your suggestions below this LinkedIn post.
January
DLD
Date: January 11-13
Location: Munich, Germany
DLD is a global media and conference network on innovation, digitization, science, and culture. This year, our CEO Irina will join the event as a panelist on the Join stage, sharing her insights about the thriving innovation ecosystems in CEE. Also, the Breaking Grounds delegation will be there.
March
CEE VC Summit
Date: March 19-20
Location: Warsaw, Poland
The CEE VC Summit is a 2-days event for GPs and LPs to strengthen regional relations, exchange valuable insight, and bridge the gap with more mature VC ecosystems. This is the place where the investors meet and make plans on how to best support the startups in the region.
April
0100 Conference Europe
Date: April 16-18
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
If you are a professional from the venture capital or private equity sector, this event is for you. This 3-days event gathers the local and regional players to exchange ideas and plant the seeds for the next investment. Most of the attendees here will be from Western Europe and the Nordics.
May
0100 Conference CEE
Date: May 14-16
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
This 2-days conference brings together most of the LPs and GPs from the CEE region to discuss investment strategies and opportunities. From family offices to business angels, funds of funds and others, everyone here is ready for networking.
Tech.eu Summit
Date: May 16-17
Location: London, UK
Tech.eu Summit is the place where leading European tech startup founders, operators, investors, and corporate leaders gather with the aim to reinforce the exchange of good practices between Western and Eastern Europe.
Viva Tech
Date: May 22-25
Location: Paris, France
Viva Technology is one of Europe’s premier tech events, focusing on innovation and technology transformation. It brings together startups, industry leaders, investors, and policymakers. In the past editions speakers like Elon Musk, Marc Benioff, Dan Schulman and others took the stage.
Reflect Festival
Date: May 30-31
Location: Limassol, Cyprus
Reflect is the event that gathers the tech ecosystem from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East in a single place. Across four stages, founders, investors, policymakers and tech aficionados debate the hot topics and close deals for the future. From our experience, this is the place to be if you want to meet founders and investors outside of the CEE region.
(The Co-Founder & Head of Storytelling Studio by The Recursive Teodor Antonio Georgiev is interviewing on the Old Port Stage the Co-Founder of Palta & Serves.com Alexey Gubarev)
June
Vienna UP
Date: June 3-9
Location: Vienna, Austria
ViennaUP is the startup festival in the heart of Europe, setting the context for startups, investors, tech enthusiasts, creatives and visionaries. Throughout the years, over 10,000 attendees joined their 50+ events. We gladly join it recurrently because of its cultural and technological bridge between CEE and Western Europe.
(Тhe Co-Founder & CEO of The Recursive Irina Obushtarova is moderating a panel during Vienna UP 2023)
London TechWeek
Date: June 10-14
Location: London, UK
LondonTechWeek brings together the tech startup community from 90 countries for a full week of wisdom and inspiration. Across four areas, the event cooks food for thought on topics like new tech and innovation, entrepreneurship and the future of business.
Read more: Branding 101: The Story Behind the Names of 10 Startups From CEE, Including Ours (Part I)
Tech Tour South East
Date: June 13-14
Location: Athens, Greece
Tech Tour’s event gathers the active investors from across Europe, SE & CE, and Israel to discuss innovation in Digital/ICT, Fintech, Mobility, Space, Sustainability & Health Digital Models. The event is supported by The Recursive as a media partner.
SuperReturn
Date: June 24-26
Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
This event creates the discussion platform for private equity and venture capital professionals. The last edition touched on topics like the state of affairs in emerging markets, but also brought into spotlight the business environment in countries like India, Brazil and others.
Techsylvania
Date: June 26-27
Location: Cluj, Romania
In the heart of Romania, this conference is where business and tech meet. Here, founders, investors and tech professionals from Europe meet and exchange ideas during speeches, workshops and networking. As active supporters of the conference, we are glad to be involved as moderators and meet the inspiring crowd from beyond Europe.
September
Bits&Pretzels
Date: September 29 – October 1
Location: Munich, Germany
Bits & Pretzels is an annual conference for founders and aspiring entrepreneurs, taking place during the Oktoberfest. It gathers around 5,000 entrepreneurs, investors, and startup enthusiasts for three full days of learning, networking, inspiration and matchmaking.
October
How To Web
Date: October 2-3
Location: Bucharest, Romania
How to Web is the “mecca” for startup founders, investors and business leaders in Eastern Europe. Actively contributing to it, this event is already a tradition for our team. The great combination of knowledge, good energy and can-do attitude fills us up and keeps us going until the year’s end.
(Тhe Co-Founder & CEO Irina Obushtarova on the main stage with the Founder and CEO of Arobs Voicu Oprean)
(The Country Lead for Romania of The Recursive Elena Vrabie is moderating a panel with Akis Bratsos, Allen Taylor, Dan Lupu, and Alin Stancu on “Building your path for growth”)
Engaged Investments Conference
Date: October 22-24
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Engaged is the international conference for startup investors focusing on early-stage tech companies from the CEE region. Business angels, GPs, LPs, accelerators and others will be present here, exchanging ideas on how to increase the cross-border investments.
November
Web Summit
Date: November 11-14
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
WebSummit is an annual event that gathers over 70,000 founders and CEOs of technology companies, fast-growing startups, policymakers, and heads of state to discuss the future of innovation and technology. We participated in the last three editions and are looking forward to this year’s. As an advice, make sure you go there with a plan and brace yourself for an intense few days of non-stop networking.
(Large state delegations are also part of the conference. At the photo, you can see the Bulgarian tech delegation #BreakingGrounds)
Date: November 20-21
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Slush is a startup event bringing the global startup ecosystem together, with a focus on the Nordics. Thousands of startups and investors attend Slush annually and engage in the agenda’s stage program, side events, as well as networking. From our experience, what sets Slush apart is its unparalleled accessibility. Startup founders can easily mingle with C-level executives from tech giants like Revolut, Duolingo, and Stripe, making it a fertile ground for forging valuable connections.
(Part of the Bulgarian delegation with the Founder of Slush Peter Vesterbacka. You can see on the photo the Co-Founder & CEO of The Recursive Irina Obushtarova and the CCO of The Recursive Teodor Antonio Georgiev)
