This announcement is a record of what we said in February 2026. The conference has since taken place. For the date, venue and the published attendance figures, see the Human×AI Europe event page.
We are announcing Human×AI Europe, a conference dedicated to the most pressing question facing the continent: how Europe can harness the transformative power of artificial intelligence to reinvent its competitiveness, strengthen its sovereignty, and build ecosystems where innovation thrives.
This is the first event organised under the Pontis banner, and it represents the core of what we set out to do — bring the right people into the same room, around the right questions, at the right moment.
On 19 May 2026, at Hofstallungen MUMOK in Vienna, as part of the official agenda of the ViennaUP Startup Festival, we will bring together founders, investors, business leaders, policymakers, academics and ecosystem builders for a day of honest conversation about Europe’s technological future.
Why this conversation matters now
The world of tomorrow will not look like yesterday’s. Global power structures are shifting. AI is no longer a future technology — it is reshaping how industries operate, how influence is wielded, how value is created and how societies are organised.
Inherited growth engines and institutional memory cannot meet today’s challenges. Europe must build a new foundation for its progress and autonomy — one based on technological capability, human creativity, entrepreneurial vitality and democratic integrity.
That foundation cannot be built in isolation. It requires empowering key stakeholders to work together within ecosystems where innovation is born, tested and scaled:
- Startups — challenging incumbents and inventing new market segments
- Universities — nurturing curiosity, talent and breakthroughs
- Investors — backing the bold and betting on long-term transformation
- Businesses — aligning innovation with impact and creating shared value
- Cities — hosting and accelerating ecosystem life as smarter, greener hubs
More than a conference
Human×AI Europe is not a standard industry event. It is a platform for ideas, vision, partnership and collaboration. It brings together people working on how Europe repositions itself on the global stage — and gives them the space to design that future together.
What to expect
- Keynotes — big-picture vision from leaders shaping Europe’s technological trajectory
- Panels — cross-sector debates that cut across disciplines and borders
- Fireside chats — deep-dive interviews with operators, founders and decision-makers
- Interactive sessions — collaborative problem-solving around real challenges
- Pitch session — startups presenting human×AI solutions to investors and city officials
- Networking gatherings — structured partnership creation sessions
Content streams
- What does it take to build innovation ecosystems fit for Europe’s future?
- Reforging Europe’s economic architecture around technology breakthrough and sovereign capability
- The builders’ edge: startups powering Europe’s AI engine
- Capital as a catalyst: the venture forces backing the inventive vanguard
- Codebase of prosperity: why cities and urban policies are crucial for innovation
- Europe’s entrepreneur: human at the core, AI as the underlying force
Who should be in the room
Human×AI Europe is designed for the people actively building, funding, governing and thinking about the systems that will define Europe’s next chapter: technology companies building AI solutions, C-level executives across industries, startups, VCs and institutional investors, ecosystem builders, think tanks, university leaders and academics, and city and public sector decision-makers.
Why Vienna, why ViennaUP
ViennaUP is an international startup festival co-hosted by the Vienna Business Agency. Over five days it brings together participants from across Europe and beyond — founders, investors, business leaders and innovators — across its flagship and side events.
Human×AI Europe is a natural part of ViennaUP 2026 because it tackles Europe’s most urgent challenge: reinventing competitiveness and sovereignty by building innovation ecosystems where human creativity thrives on an intelligent technology foundation. Vienna, at the crossroads of Western and Central Europe, is the right city for this conversation.
Organised and partnered by
- Visibilio — main organiser. Connecting companies with their audiences through tier-one content.
- SEG — production partner. Full-service event production: AV, staging, venue, technology and digital content.
- City Ideas Institute — main partner. A non-profit enabling small-scale actors across South-Eastern Europe to change the environments they live in.
- GrowDACH+ — expansion partner. A strategic expansion partner for CEE companies entering the DACH markets.
A content engine, not just an event
Human×AI Europe anchors a multi-touch storytelling initiative on the future of human×AI ecosystems. Ahead of the event we share founder stories, city-powered change, university breakthroughs and ecosystem-driven progress. Afterwards, on-stage insight becomes follow-up analysis that keeps the conversation alive. What begins on stage becomes the stories, data and ideas that help Europe reinvent its future.