Startup Events for Female Entrepreneurs in Europe: Summits, Conferences and Awards for Women Founders in 2027
Europe has more events for women founders than any one person could attend, and most of the lists online mix them up with general tech fairs, corporate diversity days and events that stopped years ago. This guide only includes events, programmes and awards held in Europe whose organiser confirms the next edition on its own website. We checked each one in November 2026: you get the date, city, format and the ticket price shown on the organiser's page, or a clear note when the 2027 dates are not out yet. The 2025 version of this article listed 15 events; the ones we could not confirm, or that turned out not to be in Europe, are in a separate section at the end. For the US, Africa and online summits, see our global guide to startup events for female entrepreneurs.
Quick answer: the biggest women in tech conference in Europe with a confirmed 2027 date is the Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit (16-17 June 2027, Warsaw and online). For a small, investor-heavy room, apply to the Female Founders Experience (next stop Barcelona, early 2027). For a low-cost founder day, look at the Female Founders Venture Summit in Bonn (4 March 2027) and the Gründerinnentag in Heidelberg (25 June 2027). For recognition, the Margaret Awards take applications until 15 January 2027 and the European Prize for Women Innovators pays up to €100,000.
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Women Founder Events in Europe Compared
Sources: each organiser's official website, checked 7 November 2026. Dates and prices change, so check the event page before you book travel.
Founder Summits for Women in Europe
1. Female Founders Experience (FFX): a small room that moves between cities
Female Founders is a European platform for women founders, investors and leaders, and the Female Founders Experience (FFX) is its flagship gathering. It is deliberately small: 120 people selected by application, split into about 40 founders, 40 investors (angels, LPs and VCs) and 40 leaders from corporates and politics, with one-to-one matchmaking, small sharing circles and open-mic sessions. Editions have run in Vienna, Munich, Zurich and Barcelona. FFX Zurich was set for 23 November 2026, and the next listed edition is FFX Barcelona in early 2027; applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Ticket prices are not shown on the page. Planning a trip? See our Zurich startup events and Barcelona startup events guides.
2. Female Founders Bootcamp: four weeks online and a summit day
The same organiser runs the Female Founders Bootcamp, a four-week hybrid programme for early-stage, tech-enabled startups led by women from pre-seed to Series A. Expect one session a day for four weeks (more than 20 expert sessions on investment readiness, business skills, leadership and founder wellbeing), then a one-day in-person summit in Europe with investors and corporates. The full programme plus summit costs €500 excluding VAT. It sits between an event and an accelerator; if you want a longer programme, compare the accelerators for female entrepreneurs in Europe.
3. Female Founders Venture Summit: Bonn
The Female Founders Venture Summit is organised by DIGITALHUB.DE, the digital hub of the Bonn region. Startup teams meet business angels, VCs, companies and people thinking about founding, and selected women founders pitch in a final for the Female Innovation Award. It is open to everyone, whatever their gender or founding experience. Next date: 4 March 2027 at CITYHUB Bonn, with tickets from €9.99 on the organiser's ticket shop. For more dates in the country, see our startup events in Germany guide.
4. Gründerinnentag: a founders' day for women in Heidelberg
The Gründerinnentag 2027 of the IHK Rhein-Neckar (the regional chamber of commerce) is a practical afternoon for women who are thinking about starting a company and for young women entrepreneurs: founder stories, expert talks and panel discussions. The page is in German. Next date: Friday 25 June 2027, 12:00-17:30, at the chamber's Haus der Wirtschaft in Heidelberg. Registration opens once the programme is fixed.
5. ViennaUP: a city-wide startup festival in Vienna
ViennaUP is not a women's event. It is a city-wide festival of entrepreneurship in which startups, investors and organisations host their own events across Vienna, so you can combine many founder events in one trip. The 2025 version of this list placed a women founders event in the ViennaUP week; check the programme for women-focused sessions once it is published. Next date: 10-14 May 2027, with a WarmUP weekend before it. Our Vienna startup events guide covers the rest of the year.
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Women in Tech and Business Conferences in Europe
6. Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit: Warsaw
The Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit is run by the Perspektywy Education Foundation in Poland and calls itself the biggest conference and career fair for women in tech in Europe. The 2026 summit was its 8th edition. It is a large, career-heavy event with stages for tech talks, science and engineering and careers, a career expo and mentoring, so a founder will use it mainly to hire, meet partners and find technical co-founders. Next date: 16-17 June 2027 at EXPO XXI in Warsaw, plus online. The current early tickets cost 990 PLN (about $270) in person and 290 PLN ($79) online, and students can apply for a free place. See also our Warsaw startup events guide.
7. WEConnect International Europe & MENA Summit: London
WEConnect International certifies women-owned businesses outside the US and connects them with corporate buyers through regional summits. If your customers are large companies, this is the European event to plan around. The 2026 Europe & MENA Summit was set for 9-10 November 2026 in Seville. Next date: the Europe & MENA Summit 2027 takes place on 18-19 May 2027 in London. Prices are not published yet.
8. WTSFest London: for women in SEO and marketing
WTSFest is the conference of Women in Tech SEO, a community for women in SEO and digital marketing. It suits founders who run their own marketing and women who build marketing agencies. Next date: Friday 19 March 2027 at the Barbican Centre, London. Standard tickets cost £599, with group discounts and scholarship tickets for people who cannot afford one. Fill the rest of your week with our London startup events guide.
9. everywoman in Tech Forum: London
AllBright everywoman runs the everywoman in Tech Forum, a one-day forum on leadership and technology for women working in tech, mostly in larger companies. Next date: Thursday 6 May 2027 in London; the venue is still to be confirmed. It fits founders who sell into corporate IT teams more than first-time founders.
Awards and Programmes for Women Founders in Europe
10. Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards: London
The Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards recognise women business owners in the UK. Tide, the headline partner, gives a £10,000 grant to one finalist, and the winner and runner-up receive one-to-one advisory sessions. The 2026 finalists are already chosen; the ceremony is set for 2 December 2026 (12:00-17:00) at The Londoner Hotel, and tickets are sold on the awards page. Entries for the next cycle are not open yet.
11. Margaret Awards: for women innovating with AI
JFD (Journée de la Femme Digitale) created the Margaret Awards in 2013 in tribute to Margaret Hamilton, whose code guided Apollo 11. The 2027 edition, the 15th, has the theme "Human by Design" and only accepts innovations built on AI (using existing AI tools counts). There are three categories: Entrepreneurs (you founded or co-founded the company), Intrapreneurs and Rising Stars (girls and young women born 2005-2012). Your company must be registered in the EU, the UK, Switzerland or Norway. Winners get an acceleration programme of visibility, mentoring and introductions, valued by JFD at €1 million in kind across all winners; there is no cash prize, and finalists pay their own travel. Deadline: 15 January 2027 at midnight Paris time; the ceremony is in Paris in the week of 1 March 2027. Our Paris startup events guide lists more events in the city.
12. European Prize for Women Innovators: up to €100,000
The European Prize for Women Innovators is awarded by the European Innovation Council and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. For 2027, women founders and co-founders from the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe compete for €100,000, €70,000 and €50,000; the Rising Innovators category for women under 35 and the EIT Women Leadership category each pay €50,000, €30,000 and €20,000. Applications were set to close on 1 December 2026 at 17:00 CET, with the ceremony planned for the second quarter of 2027. More prizes are in our startup competitions in Europe list and our guide to grants for female entrepreneurs in Europe.
13. Going for Growth: peer roundtables in Ireland
Going for Growth supports women in the Republic of Ireland who own and manage a business that has traded for at least two years and want to grow it. Instead of lectures, it runs facilitated roundtables led by volunteer Lead Entrepreneurs who have grown their own companies, and it is funded by Enterprise Ireland, KPMG and Manverton. The next cycle runs from January to June 2027; applications were set to close on 27 November 2026. Our Dublin startup events guide has more Irish dates.
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Also Worth a Look: Big European Events Without a Women's Track
- VivaTech (Paris): VivaTech 2027 runs on 16-19 June 2027 at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. Its homepage shows no women founder programme, so treat it as a general startup fair.
- OMR Festival (Hamburg): the OMR Festival 2027 is a marketing and tech festival on 3-5 May 2027; the page showed an early-bird ticket at €539 instead of €649 for a limited time. We found no women-led startup pitch on its page, which the 2025 list claimed. See also our Munich startup events guide for southern Germany.
- Web Summit (Lisbon): Web Summit's women in tech programme was set for 9-12 November 2026, and its women in tech tickets were sold out. See our Lisbon startup events guide.
- herCAREER (Munich): the herCAREER Expo is a career and networking fair for women in German-speaking countries; the last one took place on 22-23 October 2026 at the MOC in Munich. 2027 dates not announced yet (checked November 2026).
- Global Woman Summit (London): the Global Woman Summit site announces a 2027 summit with a health day, an investment day and a business day, but no date yet; the 2026 edition was at the Novotel London West.
Events From the 2025 List That Ended, Moved or Could Not Be Confirmed
- European Women in Technology (Amsterdam): its website no longer loads ("No active site matches this request"), and only venue and listing sites show dates, so we left it out until the organiser confirms the next edition.
- EU-Startups Summit (Malta): a general startup summit, not a women's event; its official page sits behind a bot check, so we could not confirm the next date. Our best startup events in Europe guide covers it with the other big conferences.
- Shaping the Future of Women in Business (London): a conference for employers on workplace equality; its site still shows the 30 April 2025 edition.
- Women Techmakers: the network is now run by Technovation, and there is no Barcelona conference on its page.
- Women in Finance Summit (Zurich) and Women Innovation Network Summit (Helsinki): their websites do not respond.
- Women's Empowerment Summit (Dublin): the old link went to an event platform rather than the organiser, so we could not confirm a next edition.
- Not in Europe: Global Female Entrepreneurs Summit (online), Startup Grind Global Conference (California) and Techstars Startup Week. The online summit is in our global guide.
- Attendance figures: the old article's visitor numbers had no source, so we removed them.
Which Event Should You Go To?
- You want investors in a small room: the Female Founders Experience, then the Female Founders Venture Summit in Bonn.
- You are just starting: the Gründerinnentag in Heidelberg and the Female Founders Bootcamp.
- You sell to large companies: the WEConnect International Europe & MENA Summit in London; get certified as a women-owned business first.
- You need to hire or find a technical co-founder: the Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit in Warsaw.
- You want recognition and press: the Margaret Awards (AI innovators), the European Prize for Women Innovators and, in the UK, the Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards.
- You run your own marketing: WTSFest London.
How Women Founders Get the Most Out of a European Event
Pick one result that would make the trip worth it before you buy the ticket: three customer meetings, one investor follow-up or a hire. Book meetings in advance through the event app or LinkedIn, and add a side event or two in the same city. Our guide to founder networking events explains how to work a room, our women in tech startup events list adds more tech conferences, and the female entrepreneurship events calendar has a top 10 from our Startup Events series. If you want to pitch on stage, start with our pitch competition events.
Events work best when you know who you want to meet. Before you go, read our lists of early-stage VCs in Europe and angel investors in Europe. If you are still choosing where to build, compare the best countries for female entrepreneurs and the best countries for startups in Europe, and if you build in Asia, see the best countries for female entrepreneurs in Asia. For months of support instead of one day, compare the startup incubators in Europe, and for general business events see our business conferences in Europe.
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FAQ About Startup Events for Female Entrepreneurs in Europe
What are the best startup events for female entrepreneurs in Europe in 2027?
The Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit (16-17 June 2027, Warsaw and online), the Female Founders Experience (Barcelona, early 2027), the Female Founders Venture Summit in Bonn (4 March 2027), the WEConnect International Europe & MENA Summit (18-19 May 2027, London) and the Gründerinnentag in Heidelberg (25 June 2027).
What is the biggest women in tech conference in Europe?
The Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit describes itself as the biggest conference and career fair for women in tech in Europe. The 2027 summit takes place on 16-17 June 2027 at EXPO XXI in Warsaw and online.
How much does the Perspektywy Women in Tech Summit cost?
The early tickets on the summit's ticket page cost 990 PLN (270 USD) in person and 290 PLN (79 USD) online. Students can apply for a free place.
Is European Women in Technology in Amsterdam still running?
We could not confirm it. Its website no longer loads, and only venue and listing sites show dates, so we left it out of this list.
Are there cheap events for women founders in Europe?
Yes. Tickets for the Female Founders Venture Summit in Bonn start at €9.99, the Gründerinnentag in Heidelberg is a half-day event run by the regional chamber of commerce, and Perspektywy offers free places to students.
Which awards can women founders in Europe apply for?
The Margaret Awards for women innovating with AI (apply by 15 January 2027), the European Prize for Women Innovators (up to €100,000) and, in the UK, the Tide everywoman Entrepreneur Awards.
Do the Margaret Awards include prize money?
No. Winners receive an acceleration programme of visibility, mentoring and introductions, valued by JFD at €1 million in kind across all winners, but no cash prize, and finalists pay their own travel.
Where can women-owned businesses meet corporate buyers in Europe?
At the WEConnect International Europe & MENA Summit, which takes place on 18-19 May 2027 in London.
Where can I find startup events for women founders outside Europe?
Our global guide to startup events for female entrepreneurs covers the US, Africa and online summits.
How can I get my startup seen before an event?
Get covered where investors and partners look: you can publish a guest post in the Fe/male Switch startup blogs. Get featured and earn a backlink.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
