TechBBQ 2025: Build to Matter

In 2013, a small barbecue in a Copenhagen park was the beginning of what would become Scandinavia’s leading tech summit, uniting innovation and community.

Held on August 27–28 at Copenhagen’s Bella Center, it was filled with energy, ideas, ambition, and last but not least:

✔️ 300+ speakers from 50+ countries

✔️ 15 tracks

✔️ 10 000+ attendees

This year’s theme, “Build to Matter,” challenged everyone to think beyond just building products.

It asked: Why are we building this? Who is it for?

Every decision, every line of code, every innovation should have meaning and purpose.

Ultimately, the message was clear: don’t just dream of a better future — create it. Through technology, collaboration, and purposeful action, founders and innovators have the power to shape solutions that truly matter.

We’re proud to have our own ambassadors from Reenbit present at TechBBQ :

• Julia Stoliarchuk, VP of Growth & BD, bringing our core values of innovation and empathy into every conversation.

• Igor Tabas, Co-Founder & CEO, embodies our spirit of technical excellence and forward-looking thinking.

Together, they’ve gathered invaluable insights from the festival’s buzzing energy—and we’re here to bring them to you.

Key Speakers & Takeaways

AI is everywhere

This year, the term “AI native” stood out. It describes both companies and professionals who are building with AI from day one—not just adopting it later.

From hype to real solutions

Unlike last year’s buzz, 2025 showed working products. AI startups and enterprises presented real use cases—from customer support automation to healthcare diagnostics and retail personalization. (Add specific startup/company examples here).

Focus on workflows, not novelty

The biggest takeaway: successful AI isn’t about flashy features. It’s about embedding AI meaningfully into existing processes and optimizing how people work.

Europe steps into the spotlight

At the first-ever European AI Summit, the message was clear: Europe isn’t copying Silicon Valley. It’s carving its own path—balancing innovation with responsibility—and establishing itself as the world’s third major AI hub.

From the Orchestrating Intelligence: Composing More Intelligent Systems with AI Agents panel, brilliantly moderated by Serena Leka

• AI is scaling human expertise – and it’s a matter of life or death.

• Cultural readiness outweighs tech readiness when adopting AI.

• Embrace rapid experimentation: start 10 AI projects, fail fast, learn and repeat.

• Cloud-native environments outperform on-premises for AI agents.

• Productivity multipliers are where ROI lies, even if resource consumption is high.

• Humorous but telling: “AI agents need cooling; humans need coffee.”

Investments

Nordic Angels and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) presented exclusive insights from the upcoming State of European Angels 2025 report:

• Growing capital reserves.

• Falling interest rates — fertile ground for renewed early-stage momentum.

• International investors are returning: in H1 2025, 45% of European VC deals included foreign investors, up from 36% in 2023.

• Yet, deal flow remains down 35% year-on-year. The capital is there—but so is caution.

Data and Scaling

Our explorers visited an outstanding session with Ortelius × Novo Nordisk, where the challenges of turning raw data into actionable knowledge were front and center:

• Inconsistent definitions and outdated datasets sabotage decisions.

• Shared ownership of context and meaning is essential.

• Embedding context early cuts costs, boosts capacity, accelerates integrations, and lays groundwork for scalable AI adoption.

And it would be a sin if we did not mention the “Small markets, big ambitions: Scaling with a global vision from day one” panel, featuring Lars Jensen, Isabella Agdestein, and Cecilie Jakobsen, moderated by Paul Carter. The key points were next:

• Build revenue across multiple geographies from day one – it makes you more investable.

• Target complex, concentrated markets and engage with customers in these markets early.

• Start globally – not tweak core products later.

• For most tech startups, entering the U.S. market early remains a strategic move.

Other takes we found interesting:

A striking observation from Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO): “70% of jobs on LinkedIn right now didn’t even exist last year.” A powerful reminder that work evolves rapidly – and whether we fear it or not, change is inevitable. Openness and curiosity are our greatest allies.

 “If leaders are overwhelmed, then they don’t know how to prioritise it.” — Henrik Fabrin, Head of AI, Dansk Industri.
It’s a sharp reminder that clarity beats velocity.

CEO burnout surfaced as a salient narrative: founders either drive themselves to the edge or let stress and anxiety dictate their lives. Real resilience comes from life’s “islands” — family, hobbies, friendships. Performance-tracked recovery is a failure strategy.

Emphasis on purpose, diversity, feedback loops, and collaboration:

• Build with purpose, adapt fast, and stay human.

• Diversity isn’t optional—it fuels innovation.

• Early, honest feedback shapes better products than shortcuts.

• Innovation thrives where risk-takers meet pragmatists.

TechBBQ 2025 wasn’t just another tech festival–it narrated a future built with intention, authenticity, and tangible impact.

The message echoed clearly: Build to Matter through purpose-driven innovation, resilient scaling, meaningful AI adoption, and collaborative ecosystems.

Days pulsating with energy, curiosity, innovation: quantum computing and ultra-secure data centers, to life-saving healthcare tech and investor-founder matchmaking – every talk was a spark of inspiration.

The vibe here aligns perfectly with Reenbit’s direction: practical innovation, measurable impact, and teams that deliver results.

Our team, with over 10,000 attendees, witnessed Europe emerge as a responsible AI leader, experienced renewed startup investment and ambition, and gained strategies to turn data into actionable insights.

They experienced the human side of tech — burnout, empathy, and balance as key competitive advantages.

All the insights resonate strongly with our work — building intentionally, scaling responsibly, and shaping technology that truly matters for people, organizations, and society.

Thank you for reading!