​The European AI Conference 2026 is a highly curated event, gathering 300 pre-approved leaders of Europe's AI Ecosystem for a full day of discussion, learning & networking.

​A Highly Curated Audience

​To ensure the highest quality of discussion, attendance will be strictly limited to:

• ​100 AI Builders & Tech Leaders

• ​60 Product Management Leaders

• ​40 Enterprise AI Strategy Leaders

• ​30 European Startup Hub Leaders

• ​70 VCs & Irish AI Startups (chosen from 700 applications; to be approved one month before the event)

​Agenda (Link)

​Confirmed Panellists:

• ​Brian McGeough, Chief Information Officer, Creditsafe

• ​Manuela Locarno Ajayi, SVP and Board Member, TomTom

​Product Track Roundtable Moderators:

• ​Alan Clarke, Chief of Product and Trading, Flutter

• ​Dervilla Mullan, VP of Product, Sprout Social

• ​Fionn Delahunty, Head of Product, Synthflow AI

• ​Kevin Stembridge, Head of Strategy, Körber Pharma

• ​Gus Iwanaga, VP of Product - Commerce, commercetools

• ​Jeferson Zanim, Chief Product Officer, Mater Private Network

• ​Somnath Biswas, Head of AI Products, The AA

• ​Ryan Jude Soosayraj, VP, Mindset AI; Ex-Product Leader at Cognizant, Indeed & Workshare

• ​Florence Jumpp, Chief Product Officer, Bite

• ​Mark Brophy, AI Product Leader; Ex-Product Leader at Genesys, TripAdvisor and Ding

• ​Haidee McMahon, CPO | Head of Labs, EIDA Solutions

• ​DJ Gangan, Head of Product

• ​John Martin, Chief Product Officer, Flagstone

​Startup Track Roundtable Moderators:

• ​Mary Rodgers, CEO, Portershed

• ​Martina Fitzgerald, CEO, Scale Ireland

• ​Frank Brennan, CEO, Republic of Work

• ​Niamh Sterling, All-Island Director, HBAN

• ​Barry Brennan, Venture Partner, Elkstone

• ​Faye Walsh Drouillard, Founder & Managing Partner, WakeUp Capital

• ​Eric Risser, CTO & Co-Founder, Shepherd

• ​Werner Schmidt, CEO & Co-Founder, Lative

• ​Amy Neale, General Partner, Delta Partners VC

• ​Eamon Curtin, Director Start-Ups & Entrepreneurship / IGNITE Programme Director, University College Cork

​AI Builder Track Roundtable Moderators:

• ​Alan Smeaton, Professor of Computing, Dublin City University

• ​Siddhant Mohapatra, Head of Global Data & Analytics - AI, Trust & Safety, Ads, Vendor Management, Legal, Ops, Pinterest

• ​Emanuele Sparvoli, Senior Director of IT, Fin

• ​Nitin Sinha, Director, Principal AI Architect - Forward Deployed Engineering - Applied AI, Service Now

• ​Barry Duffy, VP Digital & Data, FINEOS

• ​Shay Weiss, Director of Engineering & AI Transformation, Walgreens Boots Alliance

• ​Tiago Nascimento, Head of IT Delivery, HCLTech

• ​Kevin Collins, Founder, echofold

• ​Andrea Farber, VP, Software & Data Engineering | Financial Crime Solutions, Mastercard

• ​Clive Foley, Director of AI engineering, Marsh McLennan Agency

​Enterprise AI Strategy Track Roundtable Moderators:

• ​Grainne Maycock, Chief Revenue Officer, Acolad Group

• ​Denis Vukosav, VP of Technology - AI Strategy & Transformation, State Street

• ​Mina Henein, Ph. D., VP of Artificial Intelligence at The Citco Group

• ​Stanislava Trajlov, Head of Data, Vhi

• ​Niall Byrne, VP Autonomous Networks, Amdocs

• ​Manuela Locarno Ajayi, SVP and Board Member, TomTom

• ​Satyanarayana Vuppala, Head of Gen AI Security, Dun & Bradstreet

​European Startup Hub Track Roundtable Moderators:

• ​Liam Cronin, Director of Innovation, University College Dublin

• ​Jean Arnaud, Director of AI Programmes, ESMT Berlin

• ​Niamh Collins, Centre Director, The Guinness Enterprise Centre

• ​Eoghan Powell, Innovation Centre Director, WorkIQ

• ​Ronan Cunningham, Director, DCU:Innovate

• ​Greg De Temmerman, PhD., Managing Director, Deeptech & Ecosystem, Techleap

• ​Karsten Deppert, Co-Founder, E-commerce Park of Scandinavia

• ​Gil Azevedo, Executive Director,  Unicorn Factory Lisboa

​Roundtable Discussion Topics

​To ensure conversations tackle the most pressing, real-time challenges in the industry, our roundtables are uniquely community-driven. Upon registering, attendees have the exclusive opportunity to propose and moderate a discussion topic within their specific peer group.

​Expect dynamic, peer-matched deep dives across our five core tracks:

• ​AI Builders & Tech Leaders: Technical discussions on implementation, coding, infrastructure & deployment, alongside strategic sessions on architecture, team building & scaling.

• ​Enterprise AI Strategy Leaders: High-level discussions on enterprise ROI, compliance, risk & internal AI transformation.

• ​Product Management: Focused conversations on AI product strategy, roadmapping & defining success metrics.

• ​Irish AI Startups: Dedicated sessions on the local fundraising landscape, strategic partnerships & building defensible moats.

• ​European Startup Hubs: Conversations on how accelerators, incubators, and other ecosystem organisations must adapt to the AI age.

​About Startup Network Europe

​Startup Network Europe is an Irish Company that has hosted over 300 Corporate, Mid-Market & Startup Conferences across 50 European Cities since 2019. Our most notable events include:

• ​The Dublin AI Conference 2026 (evening event)

• ​The European Chief Product Officer Conference 2026 (full-day event)

• ​The London AI Startup Conference 2025 (full-day event at Google’s London HQ)

• ​The European AI Conference 2024 (full-day event at Google’s EMEA HQ)

• ​The London Chief Product Officer Conference 2023 (evening event)

• ​The European Startup Conference 2022 (speakers included Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak)

​Previous Speakers at Startup Network Europe events

​Corporate Leaders

• ​Steve Wozniak, Co-Founder, Apple

• ​Benjamin Faes, CEO, RWS Group

• ​Jörg Koletzki, Chief Information Officer, AerCap

• ​Nathalie Roos, CEO, Lipton Teas and Infusions

• ​Brian McGeough, Chief Information Officer, Creditsafe

• ​Dr. Ingo Stürmer, CTO, Volvo Autonomous Solutions

• ​Peter Wanda, CDAO Shared Services, Zurich Insurance

• ​Katarzyna Stoltmann, Head of Data Science & AI, AstraZeneca

• ​Louise Dennehy, Chief Information Officer, Central Bank of Ireland

• ​Susie O'Donoghue, Global Head of Data & AI, William Grant & Sons

​Political & Ecosystem Leaders

• ​Minister Emer Higgins T.D.

• ​Roxanne Varza, Director, STATION F

• ​Lord Mayor of Dublin Councillor Ray McAdam

• ​Gerard de Graaf, EU Ambassador to Silicon Valley

• ​Brigitte Baumann Gervais, President Emeritus, EBAN

• ​Neeta Patel CBE, CEO, The Centre for Entrepreneurs

• ​Gilles Babinet, Co-Chair, The National Digital Council of France

• ​Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of Sciences and the Arts, Member of the Bavarian State Parliament

​Unicorn Founders

• ​Sabeer Bhatia, Co-Founder, Hotmail

• ​Joel Perlman, Co-Founder, OakNorth Bank

• ​Razvan Ranca, Co-Founder & CTO, Tractable

• ​Dmitry Gurski, CEO & Co-Founder, Flo Health

• ​James Eddison, Co-Founder, Octopus Energy

• ​Spenser Skates, Co-Founder & CEO, Amplitude

• ​Jan Goetz, Co-Founder, IQM Quantum Computers

​Product Leaders

• ​Rhiannon White, Chief Product Officer, Clue

• ​Marija Nakevska, Chief Product Officer, Pleo

• ​Piero Sierra, Chief Product Officer, Skyscanner

• ​James Colgan, Chief Product Officer, Spendesk

• ​Katya Denike, Chief Product Officer, Holland & Barrett

​Sponsorship Enquiries

​adam@startupnetwork.eu

​https://europeanaiconference.com/partners/