The challenge
A summit at the intersection of AI, defence, and dual-use innovation succeeds or fails on one thing: whether the right people are in the room. In Brussels, that means senior figures from across the EU institutions, NATO, the European Defence Agency, and the advisory and legal firms that shape the field — audiences that are notoriously hard to convene and even harder to convene together. A strong agenda is necessary but not sufficient; the participants are the product, and assembling them is a partnership discipline, not an events one.
The approach
As Head of Partnerships, Julia Vorontsova built the program that brings these participants together — using direct institutional relationships across the European ecosystem to convene, frame the value for each constituency, and bring senior representation into the same conversation. The work is the same relationship sequencing that underpins Innovation Park's EU practice, applied to a forum: meeting each institution where it is, and giving each a reason to be at the table alongside the others.
The result
The summit convenes a room that few forums can: the EU institutions, NATO, the European Defence Agency, and senior advisory firms, alongside industry and founders working in AI and dual-use innovation. For a company entering the European defence or dual-use space, that is the value — proximity to the institutions and decision-makers that matter, in one place, made possible by the partnership program behind the event.
