Back in July, we made an attempt at listing the best annual tech startup events in Europe, with some included from the Middle East and Africa. It was a ‘first attempt’ and as you can see, it’s a complex patchwork of events. But in general we tried to focus on the biggest events (not weekly or monthly meet ups) which cater to an international audience (so held in English). We have also synched some of the big U.S. events which many Europeans will attend. Hopefully events organisers can use this to plan, because if there is one thing Europe needs to get better at, it’s synchronising events so that people can move easily from one to the other rather than miss out because of stupid clashes. Huge thanks to @heisenbergmedia and @AndreaLorini and Nathalie Nuta for all their help in compiling this. UPDATE: Thanks to @dan_medlock for putting my TechCrunch pick of EU startup events into a Google Calendar you can also subscribe to (Calendar ID: vhul522cdfts07mkudo628p85g@group.calendar.google.com).
Please Note: TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT EUROPE AND HACKATHON IN BERLIN – OCTOBER 26-29, MORE INFO HERE
Why is this important? Well, it’s easier for the media (hello!) to cover you if your event does not clash with another, and it’s easier for investors to move between conferences where there are startups to check out. And of course it’s easier for startups to take their show on the road and present to investors or the media if the events don’t clash. For example, if your startup event is in Berlin and you clash with an event in Munich, why not negotiate with the other guys so people can catch both events, just by hopping a train? It makes sense. Also, if you want TechCrunch to turn up at an event, don’t schedule it during our Disrupt events in the U.S., ok? 
We have not included events in Asia as this is more about U.S./European event traffic. We have not concentrated on developer events, but there are one or two where the best engineers, product, designers & CTOs can be sought out. We did not include hacker meetups in bars. These are mainly annual conferences and events where you will find startups, tech entrepreneurs and investors milling about.
Although all of the events are good some are genuinely ‘Recommended’, or ‘Interesting’. Some are more off the beaten track than others and deserve a mention.
Simply being listed here does NOT imply that they are endorsed by or ‘partnered’ with TechCrunch. This is a purely editorial list, based on our experience in Europe, the list is designed to help the scene grow.
Here’s the list pertaining to the 2013 dates. Some events either haven’t updated their sites yet, or there’s simply no information a 2013 event yet.
Please leave your feedback in the comments, and we will take them into consideration. Thanks!
JANUARY
Week 2
CES, Las Vegas, January 8-11
Week 4
Hyberlin, Berlin, 18TH-19th Jan, 2013
DLD, Munich, January 20-23 – Invited / Ticketed – Recommended
WEF / Davos, January 23-27 – Invite Only (increasingly full of tech companies)
The Europas, Berlin, January 22 – The European Tech Startup Awards – Very recommended.
MIDEM, Cannes, January 26-29 – Now has a startup track for music startups
Week 5
The Crunchies – The Annual TechCrunch Awards, January 31 – Very recommended!
FEBRUARY
Week 6
LIFT, Geneva, February 6-8
Week 7
Finovate – Feb 12/13 London – Good for Financial / banking tech startups
Netexplo.org, Paris, February 14-15
Decoded Fashion Tech, NY Fashion Week, Feb 14 (Hackathon Feb 2-3)
London Fashion Week, London, February 15-19 (big for Fashion tech startups)
Startup Turkey, 15-17 Feb – New event, investors and Startups
Week 8
Social Media Week (Multiple global cities), February 18-22
Week 9
Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, February 25-28 – Recommended
Unofficial “Heroes of the Mobile Fringe” Festival, Barcelona – Recommended
TechCrunch Meetup Barcelona at MWC – Recommended, Watch @TCEurope for details
MARCH
Week 9
London Web Summit, London, March 1 – Recommended
Week 10
MENA ICT Forum – Dead Sea, Jordan, March 6-7
CeBit, Hannover, March 5-9
Week 10-11
SXSW Interactive, Austin, March 8-12 – Recommended
Startup Camp Berlin, March 14th-15th
Week 12
F.ounders NYC, March 13-14th – Invite Only
The Guardian Changing Media Summit, London, March 21-22
FutureEverything Festival, Manchester, March 21-23
ArabNet, Beirut – Recommended
GDC SF – March 25, SF
APRIL
Week 15
GDOL Digital Talkfest, Istanbul – Interesting digital / tech event in Turkey
MiPCube, Cannes, April 8-11 (art of MipTV, good for tech startups around TV)
Week 15
Bacon, London, April 12-13 – developer conference liked by startupers.
Week 16
DEMO U.S., San Francisco, April 17
Balkan Venture Forum, Macedonia
Mobile Mobile Conf, Krakow, April 18-19 – New for 2013, for mobile devs/designers, but run by a proven team, worth a look
Startup Day, Stockholm – April 20 – general startup pitches but majority tech and growing bigger each year
Week 17
Railsberry, Krakow, April 22-23 – Recommended for European Rails developers
NEXT Berlin, Berlin, April 23-24 – Recommended
London Big Data Week” events, (crowd-sourced), London, April 22-28
The Next Web, Amsterdam, April 26-27 – Recommended
Disrupt NYC, New York, April 27 – May 1 – Very Recommended
MAY
Week 19
Berlin Web Week / re:publica – Recommended – 23/04
Week 20
Kinnernet, Israel – Invite only
Engage Invest Exploit 2013 – 9th May 2013, Edinburgh, Scotland
Bilbaowebsummit.com, Bilbao, Spain
CapitalOnStage, May 16, Berlin
Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, May 15-26 – Good for media startups
Week 21
CTIA, Las Vegas, May 21-23 – Recommended for Mobile
Shift Split – Split, Croatia, 23rd May, New event
Net Prophet, Cape Town, South Africa – Interesting connection to the African tech scene, 23 May
Heureka, Berlin, Dates TBA – New
Thinking Digital, Newcastle, May 21-23 – Interesting
Week 22
LOGIN.LT, Vilnius – Interesting
MLove Berlin – Interesting
DLD Moscow – Invitation Only / ticketed
The D Conference, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, May 28 – 30
Latitude 59, Tallinn, Dates TBA (Late May/Early June) – Interesting for the Baltics
Digital Shoreditch – A SXSW style event in London, last week of May
JUNE
Week 23
DEMO Europe, Moscow, 3-4 June
Red Innova, Madrid – Spanish / LATAM event
Startup 2.0, Bilbao, Spain
Le Web London, London, June 5 -6 – Recommended
PivotEast, Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa’s main mobile apps / startup pitch competition for investors, 5-6 June
Spain Startup and Investor Summit – 5,6,7 June Madrid, In English
Week 24
Microsoft BizSpark European Summit, Brussels
TED Global, Edinburgh, June 10 – 14
FoundersForum.eu, London, June 12 – 14 – Invite Only
Startup Island, Hvar, Croatia, June 13-16
EU Commission Digital Agenda Assembly – 19th & 20th June 2013, Dublin Castle in 2013
Week 25
Cannes Lions 16-22 June 2013, Cannes, France – Relevant for tech companies driven by advertising, big players attend
SWITCH Conference, Portugal
Venturesummit.eu – Kiev, 20-21 June (take a bus to Bitspiration after)
Bitspiration, Krakow, Poland 24-25 June – Recommended
Forum SPB, St. Petersburg, June 20 – 22
Cannes Lions, Cannes, June 16-22 – Good for media/advertising startups
ICT Spring Europe, Luxembourg, June 19 – 20
Week 26
Founders Forum Menorca Tech Talk, Menorca – Invite Only. For 2013 it’s on June 28-30
D-Conf, Milan – June 27th – 28th
EU Digital Agenda Assembly, Brussels dates, not yet available
NOAH, San Francisco – Interesting for late-stage startups
Innovate Israel, London (no dates available)
JULY
Week 28
DLD Women, Munich
Tech4Africa Nairobi – Nairobi, Africa July 3, 2013
AUGUST
Week 32
Young Rewired State, UK, August 5 – 11
Seedcamp Week (+ Sometimes SeedSummit at the same time), London, August 7 – Invite only but recommended
Week 34
GDC Europe, Cologne, August 19 – 21 – Useful for social games developers/startups
Tech Open Air Berlin – New & interesting
Turing Tech Festival, Edinburgh, TBA – Interesting
Week 35 – 36
Burning Man, Nevada, August 26 – Sep 2 – Lots of tech entrepreneurs now attend
SEPTEMBER
Week 36
DConstruct, Brighton, September 6
IFA, Berlin, September 6 – 11 – Not as big as CES
Digital Derry, Northern Ireland – New event
Moo.com Summer Party, London – Big, Fun, invite only
Scaling Startups – Sept 12, 2013. First time for a smaller event but good content and speakers on the basics of startups.
Week 37
TechCrunch Disrupt SF, San Francisco, Dates TBA – Very Recommended
Pirate Summit, Cologne – Fun, disruptive tech startup event, junkyard atmosphere, good vibe
Week 38
Kinnernet, Israel – Invite only, mainly Israeli in focus
DM Ex Co, Cologne – Advertising startups / Germany Sep 18-19
Webexpo.net, Prague – Date TBA
WPP Stream, Athens- Invite only – Date TBA
TechCrunch Italy, Rome – Date TBA
Overtheair.org, London, 27-28 September – Interesting for mobile startups
Week 39
MindTheProduct, London – 27th September
FailCon France, Paris – Date TBA
TechBBQ.dk, Copenhagen – Date TBA
TechCrunch Italy – Rome, 27th September in 2012, 2013 date TBC
OCTOBER
Week 40
Webrazzi Summit, Istanbul – Date TBA, usually 1st week of October – Recommended
Geekcon, Israel, October 3 – 5
White Bull Summit, ‘Pathways to Exit’ – Sitges, Spain – Date TBA – Recommended
DigiTalk, Bulgaria – Date TBA
MindTrek, Finland – Date TBA
Tech4Africa – Johannesburg, South Africa, October 9th & 10th, 2013
Week 41
IDCEE (Investor Day CEE), Kiev Oct 10 – 11
Ennovation, Poznan, Poland – Date TBA
WHU’s Idea-lab.org, campus of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany Oct 11 – 12
i7summit, Paris – Date TBA
Week 42
GigaOM Structure:Europe, Amsterdam Oct 15 – 16
Arctic15, Helsinki – Date TBA
Week 43
Wired UK 13, London Date TBA
DLD Tel Aviv, Israel – Date TBA – Recommended
Techono.me, Tel Aviv – Date TBA – Recommended
Venturecamp.mindthebridge.org, Milan, Oct 25-26
Week 44
TECHCRUNCH DISRUPT EUROPE AND HACKATHON IN BERLIN – OCTOBER 26-29, MORE INFO HERE
Pioneers Festival, Vienna Oct 29 – 31 – Recommended as a broad, international conference on entrepreneurship, tech startups and future technologies.
Dublin Web Summit & START, Dublin Oct 30 – 31 – Recommended as a highly focused international conference around tech startups and VCs, and large exhibition and Dublin-wide events for startups/entrepreneurs
F.ounders, Dublin – Elite event for 150 Entrepreneurs, run alongside Dublin Web Summit, invite only
NOVEMBER
Week 44
Decoded Fashion Tech, London, TBC
Noah Conference, London – Recommended, 13th/14th Nov
HowToWeb, Bucharest – Date TBA – Recommended
Week 45
Webit, Istanbul Nov 6 – 7 – Large tech trade show / exhibition featuring broad talking on marketing and startups
Codebits – Large hackathon style conference, not startup oriented but a pool for talent, 15-17 November
FT Innovate 2013 – 6-7 November 2013
Week 46
Global Entrepreneurship Week (various global events like Internet Week Europe, London)
SIME, Stockholm – Date TBA
Monaco Media Forum, Monaco – Date TBA
SVC2UK, London – Date TBA – Recommended
Slush, Helsinki – Date TBA – Recommended
DECEMBER
Week 49
LeWeb, Paris – Date TBA – Recommended
Week 50
TechCrunch Moscow 2013, Moscow – Date TBA
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
San Francisco, CA
Berlin, Germany
Boston, MA
