8 Best Startup Conferences in 2014: Around the (Conference) World In a Year

The startup scene is as lively and bustling as ever and you could possibly spend the whole year hopping from one conference to another. Alas, as our work rarely allows us a year-long vacation we can spend roaming conferences, some hard choices have to be made and someone has to take it upon themselves to shortlist the best startup conferences in 2014 and make the best possible conference itinerary that will take you around the world. You’re welcome.

TechCrunch Disrupt NYC

How does Spring in the Big Apple sound? Disrupt NYC requires no long introductions, as it is one of the most iconic startup and tech conferences. It offers panels and one-on-one chats featuring TechCrunch writers and editors, special guest speakers, leading venture capitalists and entrepreneurs addressing the hottest tech. Startups participate in the Battlefield competition (not as bloody and violent as it sounds) and get the chance to win the Disrupt Cup.

Bitspiration

Find some inspiration with Bitspiration in Krakow from June 12 – 13. The team behind this conference has been working hard to make every single minute a creative, inspiring and totally new experience. It is aimed at sharing information and inspiration and devoted to discussing new technology trends and creating new ones. After some downtime in Krakow, you should really consider starting your summer somewhere along the sunny Adriatic cost.

Spark.Me

In June the sun is high and so are the startup spirits as they migrate to the beautiful coastal city of Budva, Montenegro. Spark.Me interactive conference is designed to do just what its name says, spark your inspiration, spark your ideas, spark your business, spark new connections, spark you. And there is no better place to do that than on the coast of Adriatic, June 19-20.

The team behind Spark.Me knows that it’s not just the speakers or just the agenda that makes the conference (although you won’t find any of the two lacking), it is also about the people who attend and the way they can interact. On the beautiful cost, a cocktail in hand, preferrably- of that sounds like a good scenario to you, feel free to register.

Joining the lineup of great speakers we’ve already mentioned are Scott Berkun, the bestselling author of The Year Without Pants and the author featured in just about any prominent media that you can think of; Radu Georgescu, serial entrepreneur & VC, Founding Partner GECAD Group; cofounder of The Digital Loop Ivan Hernandez; and last but not leats, Heather Russel, founder and CEO of Rinkya.com and startup mentor and advisor.

Rock Paper Startup

For some more seaside summertime startup awesomeness proceed along the coast from Pogdorica to Rijeka. The rocking Rock Paper Startup conference takes place on the Croatian coast in late July and lets you pitch your ideas in your flip flops and chat with the headliners over a beer. This festival aimed at startups, designers, developers and geeks alike with great talks in between great parties in between talking about code and (geek) life. Just to casually throw around some big names, last year’s speakers came from Google Ventures, Twitter, Evernote, Techstars, Seedcamp…

Pioneers Festival

Pioneers festival takes place in Vienna and wants to challenge the status quo through technology. Curiosity, entrepreneurship and technological innovation are tools promoted through the festival and aren’t those just the three traits that describe startups? This year’s Pioneers festival is held on October 29 and 30 and Autmn in beautiful Vienna is nothing to be sneezed at.

Web Summit

This is a well known tech conference held in Dublin, Ireland since 2010 (which is also why it was formerly known as Web Summit Dublin). The topic of the conference is centered around internet technology and the audience is a perfect mix of CEOs, startups and other people from the world of technology and related industries.  The event is three days long and draws in over 10 000 people from all over the world. If you are a startup, you want to be among them. This year it is taking place in November, so don’t forget an umbrella and a few extra pairs of socks!

Slush

Novembers are not the most exciting months, save for the conferences, so you won’t mind if we squeeze Slush into your schedule. As it says on their website, is all about contrast, as it counterpoises the warmth and brightness of the people to the weather outside. It is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe and Russia (ah, now you get the weather part) and it brings together the early-stage startup scene from the region and beyound along with top-tier angel investors. Slush is all about startups and startup culture, but also about fun, so bring both your winter coat and your party hat.

Le Web

There are two Le Web conferences– one takes place in the city of love (and also tech), Paris, whereas the other takes heart at the heart of the European tech hubbub, London. Both of them gather technological innovators and visionaries and startups of all shapes and stages and focus on inspiration, technology and business in equal measure. This year’s Paris conference takes place on December 9-11, so we are hoping to see some snow and romance, and the London counterpart has yet to announce its starting date.

Enjoy your conference itinerary!