Amsterdam — Week of 24 Aug 2026

A hands-on afternoon for AI researchers, postdocs and PhD students curious about turning their work into a startup. It covers the essentials of launching an academic spin-off - intellectual property, funding routes including NWO Take-off - with experienced founders and investors on hand and two successful startups sharing what made the difference for them. Concludes with drinks. Hosted by TTT-AI on behalf of NWO, together with ICAI and ELLIS, at Lab42 on Amsterdam Science Park.

A weekly community lunch at Startup Village on Amsterdam Science Park - a relaxed midday table where founders, startup teams and researchers from the Science Park ecosystem meet over a simple fresh lunch. EUR8 walk-in (EUR6 with a strippenkaart); RSVP required. A low-key way to plug into the Startup Village community during the quiet summer weeks.

An afternoon-into-evening working session for people with something half-built. Bring a side project, a startup idea, or the thing you started last week and haven't shown anyone, and work on it for a few hours alongside others doing the same. Hosted this edition at Biscuits' office on Nieuwe Herengracht. The format is deliberately light on programme and heavy on focused time plus the people around you — closer to a co-working sprint than a meetup, and a good antidote to building alone.

The debut event from The Showoffs, aimed squarely at deep-tech founders who can explain their technology but struggle to make anyone care about it. The evening combines a live storytelling session, a demo, and a hands-on workshop on building a narrative that survives contact with investors and non-specialist audiences. Deep-tech storytelling is a genuinely under-served skill in Amsterdam's ecosystem, and first editions tend to be small enough to get real feedback on your own pitch.