The first announcement
One post, 90 spots — and no idea what it would become.
North Star · Year in review
Year One
An idea and a Discord server became Belgium’s AI & robotics community — in 34 moments.
0 events organised
0+ builders engaged
0 cities
0+ hires through the ecosystem
The Spark
Feb — Jun 2025
A robotic fish in Ghent
With Nerdlab, a sentient robotic fish swims into the BROEI opening.
AI Hackathon II
“Augmenting Antwerp with AI” — the city becomes the challenge.
Robotics Hackathon I
Belgium joins the worldwide LeRobot challenge — and wins a global prize.
Global prize wonThe game is yoursto win or lose.
Making It Real
Jul — Dec 2025North Star AGI VZW is born
The hackathon crew becomes a Belgian non-profit with a mission.
belgiumtech.events ships
From idea to deployed in one month — the seed of Etoile.
60 events indexed
A core team of sixteen
Sixteen volunteers, one vision — the backbone takes shape.
16 people
AI Hackathon III — Change The Outcome
One weekend of building to change the outcome.
400+ build hours
Chosen for the UN Robotics for Good challenge
Selected as Belgian organiser — finals at the AI for Good Summit in Geneva.
BruCON
A booth, a CTF win, and a humanoid on the main stage.
Kids AI Vibecoding Hackathon
100 kids and 80 volunteers, live across six cities at once.
100 kids · 6 cities
Future In Bloom Pt. I
No talks — just builders, a robot dog and VR teleop in Brussels.
Expedition to Paris
STATION F, the Hugging Face office, an EWOR founders’ night.
27th Belgium NLP Meetup
Back in Antwerp for the first time in six years.
ElevenLabs Worldwide Hackathon — Ghent
Ghent joins 30 cities worldwide, hacking on voice at once.
40 builders · 30 cities
Year one closes — in the black
Twelve activities, eight paying clients, zero subsidies.
12 events · €0 subsidies
4 more from this chapter
13 Aug 2025 BruCON becomes the first Diamond Core sponsor Sponsorship
18 Sep 2025 10+ hired, ~60 people per event, 2,000+ hours of innovation Six months in
20 Sep 2025 Odoo Experience booth — SO-101 arms and a humanoid Conference
1 Oct 2025 Autodiscovery becomes a Galaxy Sponsor Sponsorship
The endgame wasnever only Belgium.
Infrastructure
Jan — Jun 2026
SIGNAL III
Collibra co-founder Stijn Christiaens on agents and their data.
University Robotics Workshop
SO-101 arms and imitation learning, taught to the next cohort.
AI Community Journal Club #001
A paper-reading evening with AI Belgium, in the port.
Vasiliki joins as Co-Founder & COO
The lead behind the kids hackathon steps up to co-founder.
The Charter
Four commitments, written down: Events, Education, Engineering, Ecosystem.
The Vessel opens
Belgium’s first open AI & robotics lab, in the Antwerp port.
Belgium’s first open lab
EWOR Community Partner
Fast-tracking founders into Europe’s most selective fellowship.
Benelux Robotics Meetup — Eindhoven
Sold out at TU Eindhoven — crossing the border with AISO.
Sold out
SCHIP — the first grant
The first grant won — a VLAIO-funded kids camp at The Vessel.
VLAIO STEM grantBelgium’s first OpenAI Codex meetup
Live demos and an OpenAI engineer AMA — Antwerp edition five days later.
4 more from this chapter
18 Feb 2026 “Polaris” revealed — the Discord bot that runs hackathons Engineering
23 Mar 2026 NTGent residency — two weeks of AI-theatre R&D at Wintercircus Culture
1 Apr 2026 Journal Club #2 at Collibra — 70 years of ML in one evening Community
24 Jun 2026 Mahmoud Mamo joins as Community Lead — “I’m 17, from Charleroi” Team
A year of firsts
First hackathon 14 teams at The Beacon Mar 2025 
First global prize Worldwide LeRobot challenge Jun 2025 
World’s largest kids chapter 100 kids across 6 cities Oct 2025 
First open lab in Belgium The Vessel, Antwerp port Mar 2026 
First event abroad Sold out at TU Eindhoven May 2026 
First grant won SCHIP · VLAIO STEM call Jun 2026 An event is a dot.A community is a line.Only lines compound.
The line that compounds
195 posts, 9,000 likes, an 800+ member community.
0 LinkedIn followers Sep 2025
0 LinkedIn followers Oct 2025
0 LinkedIn followers Jun 2026
17 months of posting — hover or tab through the bars.
Chapter III is being written
3–8 Jul 2026 SCHIP kids summer camp The Vessel · VLAIO grant
18 Jul 2026 Hack-Nation Global AI Hackathon Brussels hub · with WAT.BXL, alongside MIT & Stanford hubs
16 Sep 2026 Public AI Hackathon & Port of the Future Summit Antwerp · with the Province and Port of Antwerp-Bruges
10 Oct 2026 Aurora Flagship AI & robotics conference · VUB Brussels
Some of them will be visible immediately.Some will bloom much later. LinkedIn · 4 Jun 2026