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SHM2019: Conference Rankings

Table of Content  

The Brand Power of Startup Conferences

Startup City brands live from the prominence of actors within their ecosystems and besides accelerators conferences are a strong source of brand power and reach.

We have asked members of the tech communities around Europe about their opinion on tech conferences, deriving a list of the strongest brands in the startup event space.

Are Conferences Overrated?

There is a never-ending discussion about the value conferences bring to the startup scene. We cannot end this discussion but offer a unique perspective, which speaks to several functions conferences could fulfill for a functioning European ecosystem:

  1. Conferences enable transnational personal connections, which are hard to build over email or Linkedin alone
  2. Conferences set the agenda for the startup scene and help actors across borders align their activities
  3. Conferences give orientation by celebrating personalities and organizations in certain locations boosting flows to these hubs

On a more critical note, tech conferences have to ask themselves if they already fulfill these functions to a satisfying extent. Are conferences really succeeding in bringing together international ecosystems or do they mostly pretend to do so? Are conferences setting unique topics or is their content outdated and irrelevant? Are the people coming to conferences genuinely pushing the boundaries or is stage time only given to the highest bidder?

We cannot answer all of these points, but analyzing the social media reach of 38 – by our judgement – biggest conferences, yielded some insights to consider.

How International are Conferences?

The average number of international followers on facebook for the 38 leading tech conferences in Europe is 40% (after eliminating countries that are likely to be fake followers).

However, when looking at how many countries they effectively reach, (i.e. where the conference reaches a minimum threshold of 3% of its total non-spam followers) the data shows that most of the leading conferences bring together participants from only 3-4 countries. It can be said that despite being part of the leading European tech conferences many of them remain quite regional. For example Latitude59 in Estonia gathers 63% of their followers in their home country, while 5% come from Latvia, another 5% from the US and 4% from Finland. And even though the conference has followers from more than 30 other countries, each country represents less than 3% of the total followers, indicating that there might be participants from these countries, but there is not a strong connection between the ecosystems.

Another pattern is shown by the SouthSummit in Madrid, which has 68% of their followers in Spain but also a significant reach in South American countries like Colombia (10%) and Mexico (4%) as well as Portugal (3%), showing that it is strong in connecting the European and LATAM ecosystems more effectively than for example the Southern European countries.

Only 10 of 38 conferences reach more than 5 countries effectively. The list is headed by the Europas with 12 and Pioneers with 10 countries. Unfortunately, the latter has announced to discontinue their flagship event in Vienna in 2020.

Conference name City Country Region Number of followers % international followers Med Nord.Balt West CEE UK.Ire Benelux Non-EU Marketshare Med Marketshare Nord.Balt Marketshare West Marketshare CEE Marketshare UK.Ire Marketshare Benelux Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med Big Marketshare Nord.Balt Big Marketshare West Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU Show conferences with a high market share in 3D Printing AgTech AI & Data CleanTech Crowdfund Cybersecurity Drone Female FinTech Gaming Health & BioTech High-Tech Infrastructure IoT Logistics Mobile Mobility SaaS Sustainability VR Share of Voice # of countries reached (> min. threshold) Month Duration (days) # participants price "cheapest ticket" price "investor ticket" Trust Rank Visualize Social Network Analysis
The Europas London United Kingdom UK.Ire 3,739 86.28 487 136 886 666 654 120 790 0.2358536255 0.2118083135 0.454914203 0.5390791945 0.7766390766 0.3692989475 0.5224625844 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 2.02 1.37 5.03 12.15 0.07 11.10 3.85 3.14 15.22 0.59 16.66 0.00 6.27 1.11 0.13 0.85 1.76 9.54 9.14 0.00 ,,,,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,Share of Voice Drone,Share of Voice Female,,,,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,,,,Share of Voice SaaS,Share of Voice Sustainability, 12 June 1 500 244 387 38
Pioneers Vienna Austria West 31,323 78.10 3,724 789 10,975 11,855 1,022 707 2,251 1.803529571 1.228799701 5.635082819 9.595771547 1.213646997 2.175786299 1.488687693 Big Marketshare Med Big Marketshare Nord.Balt Big Marketshare West Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,Big Marketshare West,Big Marketshare CEE,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,Big Marketshare Benelux,Big Marketshare Non-EU 4.87 0.70 13.48 2.96 0.26 0.09 0.35 3.04 27.57 2.43 20.52 1.48 3.65 4.00 0.17 1.30 9.83 0.70 2.52 0.09 Share of Voice 3D Printing,,Share of Voice AI & Data,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,,,Share of Voice FinTech,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,,,Share of Voice Logistics,,Share of Voice Mobility,,, 10 May 0 2,500 0 1,290 5
Mobile World Congress Barcelona Spain Med 34,415 76.76 12,218 496 3,838 2,069 2,523 1,073 12,198 5.917165495 0.7724773786 1.970610283 1.674706987 2.996116805 3.302148089 8.067086841 Big Marketshare Med 0 0 Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,,,Big Marketshare CEE,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,Big Marketshare Benelux,Big Marketshare Non-EU 1.02 0.26 4.18 4.87 0.00 4.57 0.68 7.90 8.62 0.38 3.20 1.96 8.41 17.37 0.04 23.94 8.79 0.00 3.67 0.13 ,,,,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,,,,,,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,Share of Voice IoT,,Share of Voice Mobile,Share of Voice Mobility,,, 9 February 4 109,000 699 2,000 6
WebSummit Lisbon Portugal Med 451,503 76.17 160,538 13,043 54,995 43,531 66,041 20,082 93,273 77.74839697 20.31335171 28.23702776 35.23521984 78.42510896 61.80217886 61.68563625 Big Marketshare Med Big Marketshare Nord.Balt Big Marketshare West Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,Big Marketshare West,Big Marketshare CEE,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,Big Marketshare Benelux,Big Marketshare Non-EU 3.84 1.24 5.99 3.50 0.00 3.05 0.11 16.95 40.34 3.95 3.05 3.39 3.50 6.21 0.00 0.34 0.68 2.37 1.47 0.00 ,,,,,,,Share of Voice Female,Share of Voice FinTech,,,Share of Voice High-Tech,,Share of Voice IoT,,,,,, 9 November 3 70,000 995 4,995 1
4YFN Barcelona Spain Med 20,919 69.41 7,111 151 1,355 380 1,588 214 10,120 3.443850371 0.2351695245 0.6957209312 0.3075827236 1.88578418 0.658583123 6.692811841 Big Marketshare Med 0 0 0 Big Marketshare UK.Ire 0 Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,,,,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,,Big Marketshare Non-EU 1.41 1.04 6.44 4.00 0.00 1.26 2.37 6.00 5.55 4.96 26.05 1.63 1.78 2.44 0.89 24.28 0.74 4.44 3.18 1.55 ,,,,,,Share of Voice Drone,,,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,,,Share of Voice Logistics,Share of Voice Mobile,,Share of Voice SaaS,,Share of Voice VR 4 February 3 0 299 0 16
Wolves Summit Warsaw Poland CEE 17,603 68.37 2,856 1,160 1,083 9,808 580 482 1,634 1.383158017 1.806600321 0.5560632978 7.938871981 0.6887624838 1.483350772 1.080637801 Big Marketshare Med Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 Big Marketshare CEE 0 Big Marketshare Benelux 0 Big Marketshare Med,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,Big Marketshare CEE,,Big Marketshare Benelux, 3.36 1.74 8.10 8.80 0.35 1.62 2.08 8.80 23.26 3.47 8.45 1.97 4.17 10.07 0.35 0.00 2.66 5.79 4.98 0.00 ,Share of Voice AgTech,,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,Share of Voice Drone,Share of Voice Female,Share of Voice FinTech,,,,,Share of Voice IoT,Share of Voice Logistics,,,Share of Voice SaaS,, 9 March 2 1,500 0 709 18
TNW Conference Amsterdam Netherlands Benelux 7,296 67.13 686 240 864 722 403 2,735 1,646 0.3322291316 0.3737793767 0.443618365 0.5844071748 0.4785711741 8.416938512 1.088573942 0 0 0 0 0 Big Marketshare Benelux 0 ,,,,,Big Marketshare Benelux, 4.51 0.75 15.68 8.73 0.00 2.35 0.09 5.26 25.82 2.63 9.30 1.78 4.60 2.82 0.09 1.97 5.54 0.94 6.20 0.94 Share of Voice 3D Printing,,Share of Voice AI & Data,,,,,,Share of Voice FinTech,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Mobility,,,Share of Voice VR 6 June 2 17,500 99 429 11
NOAH Conference Berlin Germany West 3,725 56.86 424 110 1,905 352 493 115 326 0.2053427869 0.1713155477 0.9781168811 0.2849187334 0.5854481112 0.3539114914 0.2155984842 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 1.15 0.98 4.22 39.17 0.00 1.11 0.72 1.49 8.74 0.43 2.90 0.34 1.41 1.62 0.04 0.38 3.79 1.19 30.31 0.00 ,,,Share of Voice CleanTech,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Sustainability, 7 June 2 2,400 510 1,585 8
Podim Conference Maribor Slovenia CEE 3,946 54.16 100 20 251 3,461 35 24 55 0.04842990256 0.03114828139 0.1288752426 2.801431069 0.04156325333 0.0738597895 0.0363739774 0 0 0 Big Marketshare CEE 0 0 0 ,,,Big Marketshare CEE,,, 1.32 3.68 3.16 28.42 1.58 0.00 0.53 0.26 13.16 0.00 3.95 0.26 9.21 0.79 0.53 0.26 1.32 3.16 26.32 2.11 ,Share of Voice AgTech,,Share of Voice CleanTech,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,Share of Voice Logistics,,,,Share of Voice Sustainability,Share of Voice VR 7 May 2 1,000 95 540 34
PIRATE Summit Cologne Germany West 5,411 52.80 645 230 2,900 764 266 285 321 0.3123728715 0.358205236 1.488996827 0.61840316 0.3158807253 0.8770850003 0.212291759 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 0.22 0.00 0.33 2.08 0.00 6.90 0.11 0.33 69.88 9.42 1.97 1.86 0.77 1.10 0.00 4.49 0.33 0.00 0.22 0.00 ,,,,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,,,Share of Voice FinTech,Share of Voice Gaming,,,,,,Share of Voice Mobile,,,, 5 June 3 1,000 199 399 12
DLD Conference Munich Germany West 14,740 52.72 797 137 8,025 432 634 257 4,458 0.3859863234 0.2133657275 4.120413633 0.349672991 0.7528886461 0.7909152459 2.948276204 0 0 Big Marketshare West 0 0 0 Big Marketshare Non-EU ,,Big Marketshare West,,,,Big Marketshare Non-EU 5.11 2.37 11.55 13.64 0.00 2.08 0.38 1.99 4.92 11.84 18.47 2.37 12.22 1.80 0.85 0.57 4.55 0.28 5.02 0.00 Share of Voice 3D Printing,Share of Voice AgTech,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Gaming,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,Share of Voice Logistics,,,,, 5 January 1 450 3,450 3,450 19
Slush Helsinki Finland Nord.Balt 49,191 50.15 1,901 30,197 3,277 6,923 1,636 986 4,271 0.9206524476 47.02923266 1.682566414 5.603671566 1.942785213 3.034406352 2.824604681 Big Marketshare Med Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,Big Marketshare CEE,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,Big Marketshare Benelux,Big Marketshare Non-EU 2.86 1.14 8.38 5.71 0.38 5.52 1.71 3.05 11.43 10.29 9.71 4.76 6.29 11.24 0.00 1.33 0.76 11.43 4.00 0.00 ,,,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,Share of Voice Drone,,,Share of Voice Gaming,,Share of Voice High-Tech,Share of Voice Infrastructure,Share of Voice IoT,,,,Share of Voice SaaS,, 5 November 2 25,000 395 895 2
Webit Sofia Bulgaria CEE 30,555 49.98 1,712 0 1,374 23,020 1,129 353 2,967 0.8291199318 0 0.7054764276 18.63303762 1.3407118 1.086354404 1.962210744 Big Marketshare Med 0 0 Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire 0 Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,,,Big Marketshare CEE,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,,Big Marketshare Non-EU 3.11 0.78 7.07 15.06 0.00 8.11 0.26 1.43 13.95 9.34 14.21 0.13 0.39 1.23 0.45 2.86 8.18 0.00 13.43 0.00 ,,,Share of Voice CleanTech,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,,,,Share of Voice Gaming,,,,,Share of Voice Logistics,Share of Voice Mobile,Share of Voice Mobility,,Share of Voice Sustainability, 5 June 4 15,000 550 180 29
HEUREKA Berlin Germany West 14,149 49.39 1,250 379 8,177 912 815 395 2,221 0.605373782 0.5902599324 4.198457605 0.7381985366 0.9678300419 1.215609036 1.468847342 0 0 Big Marketshare West 0 Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU ,,Big Marketshare West,,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,Big Marketshare Benelux,Big Marketshare Non-EU 5.13 0.43 17.52 5.13 0.00 0.00 0.43 7.69 3.85 2.14 32.91 5.13 0.85 10.26 0.00 3.42 1.71 0.00 2.99 0.43 Share of Voice 3D Printing,,Share of Voice AI & Data,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,Share of Voice High-Tech,,Share of Voice IoT,,Share of Voice Mobile,,,, 4 June 1 800 149 449 31
CEBIT Hannover Germany West 44,363 42.27 3,653 533 28,309 5,533 706 1,362 4,267 1.76914434 0.8301016991 14.53517627 4.478566341 0.8383901958 4.191543054 2.821959301 Big Marketshare Med 0 Big Marketshare West Big Marketshare CEE Big Marketshare UK.Ire Big Marketshare Benelux Big Marketshare Non-EU Big Marketshare Med,,Big Marketshare West,Big Marketshare CEE,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,Big Marketshare Benelux,Big Marketshare Non-EU 5.71 0.00 13.23 0.15 0.00 1.35 1.80 3.61 2.26 1.50 1.20 2.41 50.08 4.06 0.00 8.72 2.26 0.45 0.15 1.05 Share of Voice 3D Printing,,,,,,Share of Voice Drone,,,,,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,,Share of Voice Mobile,,,,Share of Voice VR 6 0 0 0 0 99,999 7
IdeaLab! WHU Vallendar Germany West 8,635 41.60 1,297 109 5,516 256 333 159 965 0.6281358362 0.1697581336 2.832174654 0.2072136243 0.3954446674 0.4893211054 0.638197967 0 0 Big Marketshare West 0 0 0 0 ,,Big Marketshare West,,,, 19.05 1.73 13.56 13.13 0.00 0.00 0.14 3.17 0.14 1.01 26.41 4.47 2.45 2.02 0.00 0.87 0.29 0.00 10.53 1.01 Share of Voice 3D Printing,Share of Voice AgTech,Share of Voice AI & Data,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,Share of Voice High-Tech,,,,,,,Share of Voice Sustainability,Share of Voice VR 7 October 2 500 185 399 32
Arctic15 Helsinki Finland Nord.Balt 2,445 40.04 62 1,958 93 88 59 34 151 0.03002653959 3.049416748 0.0477505879 0.07122968335 0.07006376991 0.1046347018 0.09986310158 0 Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 0 0 0 0 ,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,,,, 1.78 0.28 6.84 15.84 0.00 0.09 0.00 15.09 15.75 5.72 8.25 0.09 4.69 1.12 0.00 0.84 1.59 12.93 8.25 0.84 ,,,Share of Voice CleanTech,,,,Share of Voice Female,,Share of Voice Gaming,,,,,,,,Share of Voice SaaS,,Share of Voice VR 3 May 2 1,500 369 777 26
Arctic15 Stockholm 0 0 0 0 0.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0 0 February 2 800 369 777 99
TechChill Riga Latvia Nord.Balt 3,368 38.90 64 2,688 118 203 83 54 158 0.03099513764 4.186329019 0.06058676744 0.1643139286 0.09856428648 0.1661845264 0.1044925169 0 Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 0 0 0 0 ,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,,,, 2.47 1.01 7.30 13.48 0.22 0.67 3.82 8.65 22.58 6.18 7.64 3.93 3.48 2.58 0.22 0.00 0.45 5.73 9.44 0.11 ,,,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,Share of Voice Drone,Share of Voice Female,Share of Voice FinTech,Share of Voice Gaming,,Share of Voice High-Tech,,,Share of Voice Logistics,,,Share of Voice SaaS,Share of Voice Sustainability, 3 February 2 2,000 79 199 27
TechOpenAir Berlin Germany West 16,063 37.87 1,209 415 10,804 916 684 568 1,467 0.5855175219 0.6463268389 5.547283351 0.7414362494 0.8122647223 1.748015018 0.9701931789 0 0 Big Marketshare West Big Marketshare CEE 0 Big Marketshare Benelux 0 ,,Big Marketshare West,Big Marketshare CEE,,Big Marketshare Benelux, 11.14 0.00 0.00 2.15 0.00 1.07 0.00 5.10 2.68 5.37 66.98 0.27 2.01 0.40 0.00 0.94 0.00 0.00 1.88 0.00 Share of Voice 3D Printing,,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Gaming,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,,,,,,,, 3 June 4 20,000 399 499 20
Latitude59 Tallinn Estonia Nord.Balt 3,320 36.60 79 2,485 143 204 96 54 259 0.03825962302 3.870173963 0.07342294698 0.1651233569 0.1140020663 0.1661845264 0.1712883663 0 Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 0 0 0 0 ,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,,,, 3.44 0.13 4.37 10.86 0.00 12.32 1.46 4.90 18.41 1.72 7.81 3.97 6.36 2.78 0.93 0.66 2.52 11.39 5.43 0.53 ,,,,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,,,Share of Voice FinTech,,,Share of Voice High-Tech,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,Share of Voice Logistics,,,Share of Voice SaaS,,Share of Voice VR 4 May 2 2,500 79 79 25
South Summit Madrid Spain Med 2,812 32.33 2,062 16 101 54 55 38 486 0.9986245908 0.02491862511 0.05185816535 0.04370912387 0.06531368381 0.1169446667 0.3214136912 Big Marketshare Med 0 0 0 0 0 0 Big Marketshare Med,,,,,, 3.74 4.55 8.78 10.89 0.00 1.95 1.14 7.15 11.06 4.07 18.70 3.58 1.30 2.11 0.00 3.41 3.74 4.88 8.94 0.00 ,Share of Voice AgTech,,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,Share of Voice High-Tech,,,,Share of Voice Mobile,,Share of Voice SaaS,, 3 October 3 8,000 198 1,580 21
NEXT Conference Hamburg Germany West 7,012 30.42 332 175 5,391 226 185 199 504 0.1607872765 0.2725474622 2.767993756 0.1829307777 0.2196914819 0.6124207546 0.3333179019 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 1.49 0.00 26.19 18.15 0.00 2.08 0.00 3.57 3.57 2.98 4.17 1.19 7.74 2.08 0.00 2.68 10.12 0.89 12.50 0.60 ,,Share of Voice AI & Data,Share of Voice CleanTech,,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,,Share of Voice Mobile,Share of Voice Mobility,,Share of Voice Sustainability,Share of Voice VR 3 September 2 1,500 249 390 15
London Tech Week London United Kingdom UK.Ire 1,863 30.06 130 27 97 102 1,325 38 144 0.06295887333 0.04205017988 0.04980437662 0.08256167843 1.573466019 0.1169446667 0.09523368627 0 0 0 0 Big Marketshare UK.Ire 0 0 ,,,,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,, 4.74 0.00 1.67 7.64 0.00 0.00 0.00 44.34 1.84 29.06 4.04 0.44 0.70 0.53 0.00 0.00 0.35 0.61 4.04 0.00 Share of Voice 3D Printing,,,,,,,Share of Voice Female,,Share of Voice Gaming,,,,,,,,,, 2 June 5 58,000 0 3,639 3
StartupFest Europe Amsterdam Netherlands Benelux 1,897 27.04 133 30 102 99 47 1,415 71 0.0644117704 0.04672242209 0.05237161253 0.08013339377 0.05581351162 4.354650089 0.04695549809 0 0 0 0 0 Big Marketshare Benelux 0 ,,,,,Big Marketshare Benelux, 0.00 0.00 0.00 78.95 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.26 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.26 0.00 0.00 0.00 5.26 5.26 0.00 0.00 ,,,Share of Voice CleanTech,,,,,,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Mobility,Share of Voice SaaS,, 3 September 4 0 299 299 9
Digital Freedom Festival Riga Latvia Nord.Balt 1,941 26.38 32 1,601 58 90 40 33 87 0.01549756882 2.493419926 0.02977993654 0.07284853979 0.04750086095 0.1015572106 0.05753701879 0 Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 0 0 0 0 ,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,,,, 0.78 0.39 1.56 19.14 0.00 0.00 0.39 14.06 11.72 7.42 6.25 1.56 0.00 8.59 0.00 1.17 3.13 0.78 15.63 7.42 ,,,Share of Voice CleanTech,,,,Share of Voice Female,,Share of Voice Gaming,,,,Share of Voice IoT,,,,,Share of Voice Sustainability,Share of Voice VR 2 November 2 1,600 69 149 35
Bits& Pretzels Munich Germany West 28,873 24.60 634 102 24,500 810 1,837 196 794 0.3070455822 0.1588562351 12.57945595 0.6556368581 2.181477039 0.6031882809 0.5251079646 0 0 Big Marketshare West 0 Big Marketshare UK.Ire 0 0 ,,Big Marketshare West,,Big Marketshare UK.Ire,, 2.90 1.80 7.05 6.03 0.23 0.86 0.23 2.27 5.48 2.11 41.11 1.41 3.45 3.37 0.00 0.47 11.82 4.07 5.25 0.08 ,Share of Voice AgTech,,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,,,,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,,,,,Share of Voice Mobility,,, 3 September 3 5,000 399 749 13
Viva Technology Paris France West 10,256 23.95 330 198 8,143 130 412 233 810 0.1598186784 0.3083679858 4.1810004 0.1052256686 0.4892588678 0.7170554564 0.5356894853 0 0 Big Marketshare West 0 0 0 0 ,,Big Marketshare West,,,, 3.62 0.41 3.14 22.99 0.00 4.71 1.57 6.55 20.53 3.34 17.60 1.30 1.50 2.52 0.07 1.64 2.39 0.14 5.59 0.41 ,,,Share of Voice CleanTech,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,Share of Voice Drone,,Share of Voice FinTech,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,,,,,,,, 3 June 3 124,000 250 490 4
EBSpreneurship Wiesbaden Germany West 3,302 21.35 137 44 2,788 47 88 39 159 0.06634896651 0.06852621907 1.431490743 0.03804312634 0.1045018941 0.1200221579 0.1051538619 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 62.50 0.00 18.75 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 18.75 0.00 0.00 0.00 ,,,,,,,,Share of Voice FinTech,,Share of Voice Health & BioTech,,,,,,Share of Voice Mobility,,, 1 September 2 0 67 254 36
Lisbon Investment Summit Lisbon Portugal Med 1,786 21.05 1,499 16 70 107 30 40 24 0.7259642394 0.02491862511 0.03594130272 0.08660881953 0.03562564571 0.1230996492 0.01587228105 Big Marketshare Med 0 0 0 0 0 0 Big Marketshare Med,,,,,, 2.69 0.00 13.44 3.76 2.69 0.00 0.00 16.67 16.67 0.00 8.06 0.54 3.23 1.08 0.00 7.53 17.20 2.69 3.76 0.00 ,,Share of Voice AI & Data,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,,Share of Voice Female,,,,,,,,Share of Voice Mobile,Share of Voice Mobility,,, 1 June 2 2,000 299 399 10
CyberTech Israel Tel Aviv Israel Non-EU 960 19.79 36 3 17 32 14 3 855 0.01743476492 0.004672242209 0.008728602089 0.02590170304 0.01662530133 0.009232473687 0.5654500122 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 0.96 0.00 2.08 0.70 0.00 84.34 1.07 0.37 1.44 0.11 2.11 0.17 3.72 1.18 0.08 0.17 0.34 0.56 0.39 0.20 ,,,,,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,,,,,,,,,,,,,, 3 January 3 18,000 478 478 22
Techfestival Copenhagen Denmark Nord.Balt 4,423 18.11 100 3,823 205 58 74 36 127 0.04842990256 5.953993988 0.1052566722 0.04694683675 0.08787659276 0.1107896842 0.08399082053 0 Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 0 0 0 0 ,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,,,, 10.38 2.57 20.20 17.19 0.11 2.57 0.11 9.60 6.14 2.23 5.80 5.13 2.46 4.35 0.00 0.56 3.35 0.00 7.03 0.22 Share of Voice 3D Printing,Share of Voice AgTech,Share of Voice AI & Data,Share of Voice CleanTech,,,,Share of Voice Female,,,,Share of Voice High-Tech,,Share of Voice IoT,,,,,, 2 September 3 0 40 40 28
TechBBQ Copenhagen Denmark Nord.Balt 3,071 16.09 46 2,759 86 48 36 24 72 0.02227775518 4.296905418 0.04415645763 0.03885255456 0.04275077486 0.0738597895 0.04761684314 0 Big Marketshare Nord.Balt 0 0 0 0 0 ,Big Marketshare Nord.Balt,,,,, 3.72 1.22 15.10 13.96 0.14 3.22 1.50 10.88 5.23 0.57 5.44 13.10 3.22 6.08 0.14 0.07 1.22 4.58 10.31 0.29 ,,Share of Voice AI & Data,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,Share of Voice Drone,Share of Voice Female,,,,Share of Voice High-Tech,,Share of Voice IoT,Share of Voice Logistics,,,Share of Voice SaaS,Share of Voice Sustainability, 1 September 2 8,013 99 649 33
Entrepreneurship Summit Berlin Germany West 1,128 15.51 12 3 1,055 17 7 12 22 0.005811588307 0.004672242209 0.5416867767 0.01376027974 0.008312650667 0.03692989475 0.01454959096 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ,,,,,, 2.41 0.40 10.30 21.80 0.00 0.08 0.16 40.39 0.00 2.98 7.32 1.37 0.24 0.24 0.00 0.00 0.00 1.69 10.62 0.00 0 2 July 3 0 0 0 14
infoShare Gdansk Poland CEE 10,311 10.42 83 111 230 9,490 196 70 131 0.04019681912 0.1728729617 0.1180928518 7.681473807 0.2327542187 0.215424386 0.0866362007 0 0 0 Big Marketshare CEE 0 0 0 ,,,Big Marketshare CEE,,, 3.05 1.92 17.63 3.05 0.26 16.84 4.45 4.97 10.82 3.84 6.63 1.75 10.65 6.98 0.00 1.57 0.96 3.14 1.48 0.00 ,Share of Voice AgTech,Share of Voice AI & Data,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,Share of Voice Cybersecurity,Share of Voice Drone,,,,,,Share of Voice Infrastructure,Share of Voice IoT,,,,,, 1 May 2 6,000 15 0 24
Webrazzi Summit Istanbul Turkey Non-EU 3,274 10.17 43 12 66 72 50 11 3,020 0.0208248581 0.01868896884 0.03388751399 0.05827883183 0.05937607619 0.03385240352 1.997262032 0 0 0 0 0 0 Big Marketshare Non-EU ,,,,,,Big Marketshare Non-EU 7.47 2.90 6.64 3.73 0.00 0.41 7.47 4.98 14.52 3.32 12.86 8.30 7.88 0.41 0.00 7.47 1.24 2.07 2.90 5.39 Share of Voice 3D Printing,Share of Voice AgTech,,,,,Share of Voice Drone,,,,,Share of Voice High-Tech,Share of Voice Infrastructure,,,Share of Voice Mobile,,,,Share of Voice VR 1 October 1 1,500 283 283 37
StartupCon Cologne Germany West 7,291 9.49 62 13 6,965 67 33 48 103 0.03002653959 0.02024638291 3.57615962 0.05423169073 0.03918821029 0.147719579 0.06811853949 0 0 Big Marketshare West 0 0 0 0 ,,Big Marketshare West,,,, 3.91 4.69 21.09 0.78 0.39 0.00 0.00 6.64 17.58 5.08 7.03 0.00 0.00 5.86 12.50 0.00 7.81 3.91 2.73 0.00 ,Share of Voice AgTech,Share of Voice AI & Data,,Share of Voice Crowdfund,,,,Share of Voice FinTech,Share of Voice Gaming,,,,Share of Voice IoT,Share of Voice Logistics,,Share of Voice Mobility,,, 2 October 2 2,400 149 999 23

FinTech or Women in Tech - Do Conferences set topics?

To understand whether conferences are actively trying to set an agenda, we analyzed the topics mentioned in >24,000 tweets send out by them and their followers. While the average percentage of mentions is highest in the same sectors we see much more divergence within singular conferences. This seems to be in contrast to the topic setting of tech blogs and local meetups we analyzed earlier and could be a potential indicator that conferences are indeed trying to function as agenda setters and gather stakeholder around future trends.

Remarkably, the tweets around London Tech Week mention FinTech topics only in 16% of times, while a staggering 60% of tweets contain references to female entrepreneurship. Overall, 11 conferences can be found that put a high-focus on women in tech. To list just a few: The Global Entrepreneurship Summit (46%), TechChill in Riga (21%), Heureka in Berlin (21%) and WebSummit in Lisbon (19%).

The FinTech debate is hot at Pirate Summit in Cologne, that organizes also an Insurtech event, with 51% of tweets on this matter, as well as at Slush in Helsinki (32%),  at InfoShare in Gdansk (28%) and Wolves Summit in Warsaw (29%).

We can therefore definitely detect some active agenda setting attempts by conferences that do not follow general trends in the news.

Top 20 Tech Conference Brands in Europe

The question of how effective conferences are in topic setting is definitely connected to their brand power. To offer another glimpse on the popularity of startup conferences, we asked the members of the European tech community including founders, investors, tech talent and community builders, to name up to 3 conferences they would recommend to a new startup founder.

1WebSummit30.74%
2Slush25.95%
3London Tech Week19.49%
4Viva Technology12.74%
5Pioneers*12.69%
6Mobile World Congress11.72%
7CEBIT*9.12%
8NOAH Conference9.06%
9StartupFest Europe9.04%
10Lisbon Investment Summit9.01%
11TNW Conference8.98%
12PIRATE Summit8.87%
13Bits&Pretzels8.70%
14Entrepreneurship Summit8.65%
15NEXT Conference8.12%
164FYN6.64%
17Nordic Startup Conference6.38%
18Wolves Summit5.94%
19DLD Conference5.46%
20TechOpenAir5.20%

*Pioneers and CEBIT are discontinued, but were nevertheless mentioned by a large amount of survey takers, showing that their brand still is recognized

Regional Champions

The divergence between the regions is considerably smaller than with accelerators, showing the success of quite a few conference brands to build European wide awareness. Nevertheless, the regional rankings are dynamic and not dominated by WebSummit or Slush. We again see regionally strong players like TNW Conference in Amsterdam leading the Benelux ranking with 44% or Wolves Summit in Poland coming in at 18% of CEE. Arctic15 is on par with London Tech Week in the Nordics & Baltics and Munich-based Bits&Pretzels is in close quarters with Slush and Viva Technology in Western Europe.

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