Annual Meeting 2023

The Annual Meeting is back in Portugal!

Our flagship event, the 'Annual Meeting', will once again gather the vibrant community of EIT Digital Alumni, former students and employees of our ecosystem, to learn from each other, discuss trending hot topics, listen to inspiring talks, have fun and spend an amazing long weekend networking with old and new friends.

This year we're heading to Funchal, the capital city of Portugal's Madeira archipelago. The island is known for its all year round summer climate, as well as wonderful fauna and flora. The wonderful parks and gardens with exotic flowers, the breathtakingly blue ocean, the rustic villages in quiet valleys will provide with a scenic location to this year's alumni gathering. Check out this video to get inspired by Madeira!

Our stay will happen during the Flower Festival period. Madeira is home to more than 3000 different species of flowers, and we will have the chance to see all their beauty in the city centre of Funchal, during the Flower Concerts exhibitions.

We have chosen for you the Pestana Casino Park 5* Hotel as our home for this Annual Meeting. The hotel has an amazing view over the bay of Funchal, and features indoor and outdoor pools, a spa inclusive of sauna, turkish bath, and jacuzzi, as well as a gym with ocean view. The hotel is at 5 minutes walking distance from the city centre.

If you've never been to an Annual Meeting, check out the after movie from last year's event in Athens.

Info & programme

• Dates: May 11, 2023 - May 14, 2023
• Location: Funchal, Madeira (Portugal)

The theme of the event will be "Digital for Good", or in other words how technology is serving purposeful missions that positively impact society. For this reason, we chose as Keynote Speaker Diana Tsai, the awarded Forbes 30 Under 30 Social Impact Entrepreneur , founder of Upwage, a silicon-valley startup with the mission is to create $1 trillion in new wealth for the 44% of Americans who make less than $16/hr, using the power of big data & AI.

The programme strikes a perfect balance between professional development and networking opportunities, from tech talks and team building activities, to city tours, jeep safari tours, and social events! We will also have the chance to meet and network with the local Digital Nomad community, as well as the local Startup Ecosystem.

The program will cover the following (final schedule will be shared 2 weeks before the event):

• Arrival on Thursday afternoon + welcome dinner;
• Friday - sessions, talks and workshops + city tour + dinner and night out together;
• Saturday - jeep safari exploration and social/fun/team building activities + dinner + party;
• Sunday - departure

Packages & pricing

Event only ticket for 219 EUR per person includes:

• 3x Dinners, 1x Lunch, distributed as follows: May 11: Welcome dinner, May 12: Lunch & Dinner, May 15: Dinner
• Access to plenaries, alumni workshops, career fair and talks in the Conference Venue.
• 1 Outdoor Exploration activity (jeep safari tour)
• Unique networking opportunities & infinite fun

Ticket with accommodation for 399 EUR per person includes:

• All that is included in the Event only ticket
• 3 nights accommodation (Thu, May 11 - Sun, May 14) at the 5* Hotel Pestana Casino Park in a twin shared (1 twin bed per ticket).
• 3x Breakfasts
• Access to the hotel facilities (indoor & outdoor pool, jacuzzi, spa, sauna, turkish bath, gym with ocean view)

The ticket does not include:

• Drinks, snacks and other extras not mentioned in "The ticket includes" section
• Transportation (e.g. flights, trains, etc.) between your location and Funchal
• Local transportation (everything can be reached walking)
• Travel insurance, visa and any other formalities
• Other optional activities.

How to get your ticket?

GET YOUR TICKET HERE! 

The ticket sale will be closed on Sunday 5th of March at 23:59 CET.

We encourage you to show your employer this invitation letter and - hopefully - they will grant you a one-day permit. In addition, Madeira is such an amazing island to which you might consider coming some days in advance or staying longer at, so that flights might also be cheaper!

Sponsorship

Do you want to feature your company and sponsor our event?

Check out sponsors booklet through contacting our Outreach & Partnerships Officer: carlos.callejo@alumni.eitdigital.eu.

Cancellation policy:

1. Cancel within 24 hours from the purchase: full refund of the ticket will be issued.
2. Cancel before March 31st 2023: 50% of the ticket price will be refunded, 50% will be retained to cover booking costs of accommodation and activities.
3. Cancel after March 31st 2023: no refund will be issued.
4. It is possible to sell the ticket to another alumni at no additional costs for the name change.

Cancellation requests can be sent to alumni@eitdigital.eu.

To recap

• When? May 11th, 2023 - 17:00 / May 14 2022 - 12:00
• Where? Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal
• Ticket sales end: Sunday 12th February 2023 - 23:59 CET
• Questions? Check out the FAQs.

If you have further questions, pleas feel free to check out our FAQ document or reach out to us via alumni@eitdigital.eu