Events
Every room we’ve built — and the ones still ahead.
Upcoming
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Tectonic 2026 · Ghent
Belgium's tech conference returns to Wintercircus and De Vooruit in Ghent, bringing together startups, investors, enterprises, and policymakers. The 32 best teams from the hackathon's first round, including the Antwerp round we hosted, build and pitch in the final for a €10,000 prize.
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Research Paper Club · Ghent
Research Paper Club at Lighthouse in Ghent. Corrie Bartelheimer walks through "Deep Reinforcement Learning from Human Preferences" (Christiano et al., 2017), the paper behind RLHF: what it solved, what it left open, and why it still matters.
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AI Workshop @ FTI · Ghent
A free drop-in AI workshop at Wintercircus Ghent as part of FTI. Adults with no technical background get a first hands-on go at AI, with 15 laptop stations, 30-minute guided sessions, and open tables for drop-in building with North Star mentors.
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DevDay Exchange Community · Brussels
A community watch party at BeCentral Brussels for OpenAI DevDay: selected highlights, a discussion of the announcements, and time to share projects with local builders. Hosted by Codex Ambassador Oleksandr Tsepukh and North Star.
Past events
2026
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Tectonic Hackathon · Antwerp
The Antwerp first round of Belgium's biggest hackathon, hosted with Faktion. Teams take on real business challenges from KBC, SD Worx, and others, competing for a spot in the final and a €10,000 prize.
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The Next Phase of Robotics Is Coming · Ghent
A Wintercircus Collective evening in Ghent on how Belgium and Europe stack up against Asia in robotics, with imec, VUB Brubotics, ABC, and North Star's founder on stage.
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Astra Commons · Ghent
An afternoon at Bar Bougie in Ghent for the GPT-6 Astra launch: free coffee, hands-on time with the new model, and Codex plus API credits for registered attendees.
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Public AI Hackathon · Antwerp
One day building AI tools with the people who serve our communities. With the Province of Antwerp and AP Hogeschool, builders take on real public-sector challenges, mentored by the officers who run them.
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Café Compute Meetup · Brussels
A small builder session at BeCentral Brussels on what changes when inference stops being the bottleneck, with talks from GitLab, OpenAI, and Cerebras. Co-hosted with Cerebras by the Cerebras and Codex ambassadors.
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Brown Bag Session @ML6
Lunch-hour tech talks at ML6 Ghent: computer use agents, robotics navigation with the Unitree G1, and a North Star talk on West Flemish in AI.
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OpenAI Build Week Community Hackathon - Brussels
A two-day OpenAI Build Week community hackathon hosted by Hack-Nation and North Star at WAT Brussels, with local OpenAI API credit prizes and a global builder challenge.
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OpenAI Codex Community Meetup — Antwerp
Antwerp edition of the OpenAI Codex Community Meetup at The Vessel: Codex updates, live demos, and an agents session with the Belgian builder community.
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Robotics in Belgium @ WAT.BXL
ROBIB's second edition at WAT.BXL in Brussels: lightning talks, a panel on where robotics is heading, startup pitches, and drinks. North Star joins as community partner.
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OpenAI Codex Community Meetup
Belgium's first OpenAI Codex Community Meetup at Wintercircus Ghent: Codex updates, live demos, an agents session, and an on-site OpenAI engineer AMA.
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Hackers & Ravers
12-hour AI hackathon fused with a proper rave inside the Wintercircus dome in Ghent. Co-organised by Soda and Wintercircus, with North Star as a partner.
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TechXperience: OpenClaw Workshop
Lunch workshop at The Beacon: a hands-on OpenClaw session by North Star covering AI agent architecture, memory, failure modes, and practical automation workflows.
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Benelux Robotics Meetup
Our first event outside Belgium. A sold-out night at TU/e Eindhoven on how the Benelux becomes a serious force in robotics.
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AI Community Journal Club #002
Second edition of the recurring paper-reading evening by AI Belgium and North Star. Presenters introduce peer-reviewed AI papers with Q&A.
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OpenLab @ The Vessel
First Open Lab Thursday at our new AI & Robotics lab in the Antwerp port area.
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AI Community Journal Club #001
A recurring paper-reading evening by AI Belgium and North Star.
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OpenClaw Deep Dive
An open evening for builders in collaboration with ICP Belgium, featuring a talk and live stations on OpenClaw AI agents.
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University Robotics Workshop
Hands-on SO-101 robotics workshop at AP Hogeschool Antwerpen covering the LeRobot ecosystem, VLAs, and imitation learning workflows.
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SIGNAL III
Flagship SIGNAL meetup featuring high-signal talks and demos.
2025
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ElevenLabs Worldwide Hackathon (Community Edition)
A community edition of the ElevenLabs global hackathon with voice AI builders in Ghent.
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Get Sip Done: Antwerp Kick-Off
A founder breakfast connecting Antwerp builders, operators, and investors.
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Agentic Payments Hackathon with Stripe
A payments-focused build weekend for agentic checkout and automation experiments.
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27th Belgium NLP Meetup
AI and multi-agent systems meetup centered on production-ready systems and real-world demos.
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Tectonic
Major Belgian tech conference where we contributed to ecosystem-level programming.
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Future In Bloom Pt. I
Embodied AI coworking and build sessions pushing practical robotics work forward.
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Kids AI Vibecoding Hackathon
Youth-focused AI coding day introducing kids to building with AI tools.
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BruCon Security Conference
Belgium's premier security conference where we contributed with the North Star team.
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AI Hackathon III
Third AI hackathon with stronger multi-agent and product-focused builds.
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SIGNAL II
Second SIGNAL gathering for founders, engineers, and researchers.
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Robotics Hackathon I
Hands-on robotics weekend focused on building and shipping working systems.
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SIGNAL I
Our first SIGNAL meetup focused on practical lessons from real builders.
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AI Hackathon II
Second edition with stronger projects, demos, and team momentum.
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AI Hackathon I
Our first AI hackathon bringing builders together for rapid prototyping.