7 (tech) conferences we’re looking forward to in 2020

(Cover image by SuperNova)

It might seem like a silly question, but why would you go to a conference? In our busy, online-driven society, it’s easy to forget how important being in a face-to-face, in-person setting is.

If you want to improve yourself, attending a conference every now and then can make a difference for your business and career. Besides networking, learning, exposure, and finding new opportunities, you get fresh perspectives and connect with like-minded people – likely in a whole new part of the world!

Those are just some of the reasons we like being active in our industry community. Another reason being that conferences are just awesome! We’re anticipating quite a few this year. Here’s a short list of conferences we’re looking forward to in 2020:

SingularityU Spain Summit – Madrid, Spain (March 30-31)

Organized by Singularity University, this annual international event challenges the global learning and innovation community to use exponential technologies to tackle the world’s biggest problems. Their collaborative platform empowers individuals and organizations across the globe to learn, connect, and innovate breakthrough solutions using accelerating technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, and digital biology. Our Founder Raf Seymus joined last year’s summit. You can scroll through his key insights, right here.

The Next Web – Amsterdam, Netherlands (June 18-19)

The Next Web Conference isn’t just any tech conference, after already 14 successful editions they like to call themselves a technology festival, meaning that they’re basically the Tomorrowland of conferences. 20,000 attendees from 3,500 companies from all over the world come to this 2-day conference to share knowledge and talk business with tech execs, elite investors, and rising startups.

Mind the Product – London, UK (October 1-2)

Said to be the largest product management conference in the world, Mind the Product’s annual flagship conferences (held in San Francisco, Singapore, and London) attract thousands of passionate people from around the globe. At #mtpcon London, over 1.700 product leaders connect to explore design, technology, and business while inspiring others to build better products.

World AI Summit – Amsterdam, Netherlands (October 7-8)

WSAI is the world’s largest leading AI conference, gathering the global AI ecosystem of Enterprise, BigTech, Startups, Investors and Science, the brightest minds in AI as speakers. This 2-day summit aims to tackle the toughest issues in AI and to set the global AI agenda. After some of our consultants attended this conference last year, we’re now more than ready for mind-blowing innovation, discussions, solutions, hands-on workshops, and entertainment in October 2020!

SuperNova – Antwerp, Belgium (October 8-11)

The 4-day SuperNova Conference is Belgium’s biggest tech and innovation festival for world-class European tech companies and professionals. This ‘one-of-a-kind’ event brings together visionary solutions, technologies of the future, and expert insights. We loved the first edition in 2018 and are looking forward to the second one in September of this year.

Web Summit – Lisbon, Portugal (November 2-5)

Every year in November, we hop on a plane to Lisbon to visit the annual Web Summit. The Web Summit is held in high regard by publications like Forbes, The Atlantic, and New York Times as one of the “best tech conferences on the planet”, gathering founders and CEOs of technology companies as well as startups. Are you curious about our take aways from the 2019 edition? Then this blogpost is definitely for you (while you’re at it, check out part 2 as well!).

Devoxx – Belgium (November 9-13)

This 5-day annual conference welcomes developers and architects to explore the newest technologies and advancements from the development world. Every year Devoxx Belgium is hosting a range of sessions covering Java, Cloud, Big Data, Security, Architecture, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Robotics, Programming Languages, Methodologies and Developer Culture, and offers a chance to have hands-on experience with the latest tech.

Final Thoughts

Each and every one of these conferences show much promise for growth and learning – exciting things to look forward to! So, what’s next? Feel like getting inspired? Ready to book your tickets? Here’s what you should read immediately after you did that:

Oh, and by the way, next to an intensive training and coaching program, every Exellys consultant gets a yearly budget of €5.000 to spend on individual technical trainings and conferences… This could be you! So go ahead and apply here!