NL House: If you build it, will they come?
Every city wants to be a tech hub. Most aren't. What separates the places that actually attract and keep exceptional talent from the ones that build the campus and wonder where everyone went?
This session brings together people who've watched it work and those who've watched it fail — from London's Knowledge Quarter, now home to OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic, to the Amsterdam metropolitan region's next wave of expansion, and to the Dealroom data on where ecosystems are actually growing.
With
Monique van Dusseldorp (moderator)
Orla Browne, Head of Insights at Dealroom
Jodie Eastwood, CEO of London's Knowledge Quarter
Tiffany Tuisk, Partner, Wave Ventures, Estonia
Danny Frietman, Director Innovally, Builder of (inter)national Tech ecosystems
About the speakers
Orla Browne is Head of Insights at Dealroom, the data platform tracking startups, venture capital and tech ecosystems globally. Her work turns that data into readable pictures of where innovation is actually happening — and where it isn't.
Jodie Eastwood is CEO of London's Knowledge Quarter, the innovation district centred around King's Cross, Euston and Bloomsbury, where over 100 academic, cultural and research organisations share a one-mile radius. The area has become a global hub for AI and frontier tech — home to OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Meta, Anthropic and Wayve, with OpenAI establishing its largest research hub outside the US. With 25 years across academia, culture and innovation policy, Jodie is one of London's leading voices on what happens when world-class research, culture and emerging technology share the same neighbourhood.
Tiffany Tuisk, Partner at Wave Ventures, Europe’s largest VC investing in startups built by next-gen founders.
Estonia has birthed more unicorns per capita than any other European nation, driven by a unique "Relay Mindset"—a culture where founders immediately reinvest capital, talent, and lessons back into the ecosystem. Tiffany Tuisk will share how "ecosystem recycling" can transform a tech hub from a collection of silos into a high-velocity engine for global growth.
Danny Frietman is the Director of Innovally, an innovation platform that strengthens the digital and high-tech ecosystem in a public-private partnership model, founded by the city of Almere and focused on economic growth in Almere, Flevoland and beyond. He builds partnerships between public and private organisations, connecting the people and institutions needed to turn an ambitious city into a functioning innovation ecosystem.
Presented by Innovally
Innovally is an innovation platform that strengthens the digital and high-tech ecosystem in a public-private partnership model, founded by the city of Almere and focused on economic growth in Almere, Flevoland and beyond.
Almere is emerging as one of Europe's most ambitious tech cities — positioning itself as the innovation hub of the Amsterdam metropolitan area, just 20 minutes from the capital. Young, fast-growing, and built for the future, the city is developing a sustainable technology ecosystem that connects emerging talent, startups, and established tech companies. Think Silicon Valley energy, Dutch pragmatism.
NL House @ SXSW London
On June 3 2026, NL House opens for a day that runs from a morning wake-up call about where ambitious people should actually point their talent, to late-night conversations about what Amsterdam's after-dark culture is building next.
Expect cities to make the case for why they deserve your attention. Brands and studios showcasing work that moves people. Artists and technologists with projects that refuse to fit neatly into a single discipline. Explore the NL Lounge, where ten Dutch startups will showcase their technological creativity.
Presented by New Dutch Wave and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, created in collaboration with Dutch Digital Design, Creative Industries Immersive Impact Coalition, EIT Culture & Creativity, the City of Amsterdam, ROM Utrecht Region, Innovally, Gielissen, WT Interactive, and Dentsu Lab.
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Registration is free (subject to the organisers' approval)