Europe has plenty of tech and startup events — including, of course, the annual Sifted Summit. But, unless you want to make attending events your full-time job, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to go to them all.
Luckily for you, Sifted’s team of reporters have tried and tested Europe’s biggest and best tech events, so you can make sure you pick the most relevant ones for you.
Here are the 20+ events we’re (currently) planning to attend this year.
DLD, Munich
2025 dates: 16-18 January
DLD (Digital – Life – Design) is an annual conference that began in 2005 as a small gathering of friends, covering all things innovation.
2025 speakers: Astro Teller, ‘captain of moonshots’ at Google X and Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation
Who you might spot there: John Thornhill
GoWest, Gothenburg
2025 dates: 28-30 January
GoWest is a three-day annual event that was started in 2014 to strengthen the supply of capital within and to west Sweden. In 2020, it was re-launched as GoWest by Gothenburg’s University venture arm, GU Ventures.
2025 speakers: Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky, partner at Nato Innovation Fund and Marcus Schindler, chief scientific officer at Novo Nordisk
Who you might spot there: Mimi Billing
Founders Forum MEASA, Dubai
2025 dates: 7-8 February
Founders Forum is back in Dubai for a second year bringing top startup founders, VC investors and thought leaders together to explore emerging tech trends.
2024 speakers: Sachin Dev Duggal, CEO at Builder.AI and Piotr Dabkowski, cofounder of Eleven Labs
Who you might spot there: Freya Pratty
LEAP, Riyadh
2025 dates: 9-12 February
A three-day event that focuses on what’s next on the global tech scene. This will be its fourth annual event — last year it had 215k attendees.
2025 speakers: Daniela Braga, founder and CEO of Defined.AI and Alexis Le-Quoc, cofounder of Datadog
Who you might spot there: Freya Pratty
AI Action Summit, Paris
2025 dates: 10-11 February
The AI Action Summit will focus on concrete actions that can be taken to ensure that AI development and deployment benefits society, the economy and the environment while upholding the common good.
Who you might spot there: Daphné Leprince-Ringuet
The Tech Arena, Stockholm
2025 dates: 20-21 February
The Tech Arena 2025 is expecting more than 10k attendees and will have five main stages of talks, seminars for founders and networking opportunities for startups, investors and top-tier executives.
2025 speakers: Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group and Sanna Marin, former prime minister of Finland
Who you might spot there: Mimi Billing
Start Summit, St Gallen
2025 dates: 20-21 March
Start Summit is an annual student-run conference from non-profit organisation Start Global, held in Switzerland.
2024 speakers: Matt Clifford, founder of Entrepreneur First and Bryan Johnson, founder of longevity community Don’t Die
Who you might spot there: Miriam Partington
Energy Tech Summit, Bilbao
2025 dates: 9-10 April
Energy Tech Summit brings together investors, disruptors and government leaders to discuss topics to fight against climate change. Last year, it had around 1,500 attendees.
2025 speakers: Rajesh Swaminathan, partner at Khosla Ventures and Andreas Aepli, CFO at Climeworks
Who you might spot there: Freya Pratty
Paris Blockchain Week, Paris
2025 dates: 8-10 April
Paris Blockchain Week is expecting around 10k attendees and over 400 speakers, who will be discussing the future of blockchain and Web3 technologies.
2024 speakers: Richard Teng, CEO at Binance, and Meltem Demirors, general partner at Crucible
Who you might spot there: Tom Matsuda
Cleantech Scandinavia, Tallinn
2025 dates: 19-20 May
This event will bring together around 200 professionals including international investors, industries and established cleantech companies. Participants come from Europe, China, Middle East and North America.
2024 speakers: Pasi Vainikki, CEO of Solar Foods, and Alessandro Tappi, chief investment officer at European Investment Fund
Who you might spot there: Freya Pratty
SuperVenture, Berlin
2025 dates: 2-4 June
The ultimate schmooze-fest for LPs and VCs from across the globe. Get the latest on emerging managers, regional markets, family offices, LP allocations and more.
2024 speakers: European VC partners and LPs
Who you might spot there: Miriam Partington and Anne Sraders
SXSW London
2025 dates: 2-7 June
South By South West, the event born in Austin, Texas which brings together tech and culture, is coming to London for the first time this year. It’s already had 2,700 submissions from people wanting to speak at the event — AI, quantum, automation and robotics were the most popular topics, the organisers tell us — of which only around 5% will make it on stage. It’s expecting around 20k attendees across the week.
Who you might spot there: Amy Lewin
Money 20/20, Amsterdam
2025 dates: 3-5 June
Fintech conference Money 20/20 was first launched by industry insiders in 2011 and is focused on all things cash. It attracts relevant people from startups, investment firms and banks.
2024 Speakers: Ali Niknam, CEO of Bunq, and Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, CEO of Xero
Who you might spot there: Tom Matsuda
Health.tech, Munich
2025 dates: 5-6 June
A healthtech specific version of the larger, sector-agnostic Bitz & Pretzels conference, this event saw over 2.5k attendees last year and aims to bring startups, investors and manufacturers together. The conference was launched in 2022 and was last year relaunched as Health.tech.
2024 speakers: George Hadjigeorgiou, cofounder of Zoe, and Pascal Grimm, cofounder and CEO of Una Health
Who you might spot there: Kai Nicol-Schwarz
VivaTech, Paris
2025 dates: 11-14 June
VivaTech is an annual tech conference in Paris, dedicated to innovation and startups. VivaTech was founded in 2016 by Publicis Groupe and Groupe Les Echos. In 2024, it had over 165k visitors across the three days.
Previous speakers: Billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams and Arthur Mensch, Mistral cofounder and CEO
Who you might spot there: Daphné Leprince-Ringuet
HLTH Europe, Amsterdam
2025 dates: 16-19 June
The US event HLTH had its first European event in Amsterdam last year and is now doing it again. It’s gathering healthtech leaders and startups to drive change in the industry.
2024 speakers: Ian Abbs, CEO of Guys & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Kee Yuan Ngiam, CTO of National University Health System in Singapore and Prathibha Varkey, president of Mayo Clinic Health System
Who you might spot there: Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Founders Forum Global, London
2025 dates: 10-12 June
The annual invite-only Founders Forum gathers the who’s who of European tech at Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds for panel discussions and networking. Expect big things this year, for its 20th anniversary.
Who you might spot there: Amy Lewin
R.AI.SE Summit, Paris
2025 dates: 8-9 July
The Raise Summit is an exclusive, technology-agnostic, cross-industry event designed for leaders aiming to drive AI innovation in their fields.
2024 speakers: Arthur Mensch, cofounder of Mistral and Aravind Srinivas, cofounder of Perplexity AI
Who you might spot there: Daphné Leprince-Ringuet
FDDAY, Paris
2025 dates: 17 September
The tech event from France Digitale is held in perhaps the most unusual setting of any on this list — a fairground. It brings together over 4k founders and investors.
Who you might spot there: Daphné Leprince-Ringuet
The Heat, Oxford
2025 dates: 19 September
A non-conference where festival-goers meet nuclear-fusion startups, taste future foods, witness new technology and enjoy a climate-film festival, music performances and a startup pitch contest.
2024 speakers: Liz Gilligan, cofounder of Material Evolution, and Henrietta Moon, CEO of Carbo Culture
Who you might spot there: Freya Pratty and Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Bits & Pretzels, Munich
2025 dates: 29 September – 1 October
The only (?) startup event where every other attendee arrives in a dirndl or lederhosen, Bits & Pretzels attracts around 5k founders, investors and operators to Munich during Oktoberfest.
Previous speakers: Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, and Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, head of Europe at General Catalyst
Who you might spot there: Miriam Partington
Sifted Summit, London
2025 dates: 8-9 October
The European startup event of the year (not that we’re biased) — Sifted Summit brings together over 2k attendees for two days of panel discussions, roundtable sessions and networking opportunities. For the early birds ready to secure their place, pre-registration is now open.
Previous speakers: Anne Boden, former CEO of Starling Bank, John Collison, cofounder and president of Stripe and Miki Kuusi, cofounder of Wolt
Who you’ll spot there: The whole Sifted team! We’ll have a booth where you can come and meet our journalists in person.
European Defence Tech Summit, Madrid
2025 dates: TBC
A defence conference where Europe’s defence tech founders, government officials and investors meet.
2024 speakers: Jannik Schilling, partner at Founders Fund, and Lauren Hurwitz, head of international public sector at Palantir
Who you might spot there: Anne Sraders
Stage Two, Berlin
2025 dates: 19 October
Stage Two is a pan-European competition for the best startups spinning out of leading universities. The event draws around 2k attendees including spinouts, investors, universities and partners.
2024 speakers: Gianna Lengyel, head of business development at Mistral, and Iris ten Have, founding principal at Tomorrow
Who you might spot there: Tom Nugent
Slush, Helsinki
2025 dates: 19-20 November
The student-run conference which takes place in bleak mid-winter every year boasts over 13k attendees — and is many startupers’ favourite event of the year. 2025 will be its 17th edition.
2024 speakers: Petteri Lahtela, cofounder of Oura, Reshma Sohoni, cofounder of Seedcamp, and Chris Malachowsky, founder of Nvidia
Who you might spot there: Amy Lewin and Mimi Billing
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/tech-events-2025/
