Kicking off 2026 with Record-Breaking Energy: First Speakers Announced for The Dutch AI Conference

A warm welcome to the Dutch AI Conference community

First of all, we’d like to wish the entire community a happy, healthy, and inspiring new year. As we step into 2026, we’re incredibly excited to share what lies ahead, because this year marks something special: the very first edition of the Dutch AI Conference.
A new conference, dedicated entirely to artificial intelligence, its real-world applications, and the professionals shaping its future. And judging by the response so far, this moment couldn’t have come at a better time.

A powerful start: 489 Call for Papers submissions

Behind the scenes, we’ve been hard at work. Since December 19, our team has been fully focused on reviewing the Call for Papers for Dutch AI Conference 2026. The result? An overwhelming 489 submissions for a first-ever edition.

We’re incredibly proud of this number. It clearly shows how relevant AI has become across industries and how many professionals are actively working with AI, researching it, implementing it and thinking critically about its impact. The diversity, depth, and quality of submissions made one thing very clear: the AI community is thriving.

Choosing was far from easy, but we’re happy to say it certainly was possible.

A conference for builders, thinkers, and decision-makers

The Dutch AI Conference is designed for professionals working with AI in practice and strategy alike. From hands-on developers and engineers to product leaders, designers, researchers, and decision-makers. This conference brings together everyone involved in shaping how AI is built, governed, and applied responsibly.
The program reflects the full AI spectrum: from generative AI and LLM design patterns to governance, ethics, UX, voice AI, robotics, and real-world implementation strategies.

First confirmed speakers & sessions for Dutch AI Conference 2026

After an intensive review process, we’re proud to announce the first confirmed speakers and sessions for the inaugural Dutch AI Conference:

Maartje Keulen with: AI Implementation Bootcamp: Hands-On Workshop and The Athlete’s Mindset for AI: Learning by Doing
Sam Morrow with: Build your own MCP server and Lessons from Scaling GitHub’s Remote MCP Server
Glenn Reyes with: Building Interactive Chat Interfaces with MCP-UI and MCP-UI and the Future of Interactive Conversations
Jeff Watkins with: Descartes’ Daughter: How We Taught Machines to Feel (and Why We Believed Them)
Sasha Denisov with: Building Voice AI Agent That Listens, Understands, and (Most Importantly) Sells
Velvárt András with: A Completely Unscientific, Intuitive Understanding of Generative AI
Anouck Fierens with: From chaos to clarity: Building an AI Roadmap that survives reality
Raphael De Lio with: Reduce LLM calls with Vector Search Design Patterns
Iulia Feroli with: How I built my own intelligent Robot Arm from Scratch
Julia Klinkert with: GENdered AI: Addressing Gender Bias in Generative AI
Stephanie Robles with: From AI Tools to AI Processes: A CMO Guide to Redesigning Marketing Work
Emanuele Bartolesi with: Goodbye Vibe Coding, Hello Spec-Driven Development
Pini Reznik with: Hacking the Authoring Process: Lessons from Writing a Book with AI
Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse with: AI Development Governance: The 3 Collaboration Models
Angus Allan with: AI as a Co-creator of Evil: Modern Information Hazards in the AI Era
Lorenzo Satta Chiris with: Designing Human–AI Interactions: The UX/UI of the Future
Makan Sepehrifar with: Capability Mesh: Enabling Orchestration through Semantic Integration
Simon Uytterhoeven with: From RFP Chaos to Clarity: AI for Winning Proposals

Together, these sessions set the tone for what the Dutch AI Conference stands for: practical impact, critical thinking, technical depth, and responsible innovation.

This is just the beginning

This first announcement marks an exciting milestone, but it’s only the start. Many more speakers and sessions will be revealed in the coming weeks. We’ve already begun sharing announcements on our social channels, so make sure to follow along to stay up to date.

See you at the first Dutch AI Conference

We can’t wait to welcome you this March and make the first edition of the Dutch AI Conference an unforgettable experience. With an incredible lineup, a highly engaged community, and AI at the heart of it all, everything is in place for something truly special.

Stay tuned and see you soon at the Dutch AI Conference in March!