WMF 2026: One World, One Future in the Age of AI
There's a quote that sits at the center of We Make Future: "The only way to have a bright future is to work together for the good of all." It's a broad statement. The event earns it.
DAte
Category
Industry News
Reading Time
3 Min
From June 24–26, BolognaFiere becomes a meeting point for a wide cross-section of the tech and creative ecosystem - AI companies, research institutions, startups, investors, policymakers, media professionals, and public organizations, all in the same building at the same time. That mix is not accidental. It's the point.
What WMF does differently is refuse to treat artificial intelligence as a standalone subject. The 2026 edition brings together companies like OpenAI, NVIDIA, Anthropic, and Microsoft, but the conversations extend well beyond software and infrastructure. Education, labor markets, digital rights, cultural production, robotics, media systems - these are all on the agenda, treated with the same seriousness as the technical content, alongside confirmed speakers such as M. Jae Moon and Sasha Luccioni, reflecting a focus that extends from governance and infrastructure to climate and societal impact.
The result is a program that moves fluidly. Within a single day, it's possible to follow a discussion on humanoid robotics, then one on AI governance, then one on how creative industries are being restructured. That range is intentional, and it reflects something accurate: these topics don't develop in isolation, so it doesn't make sense to discuss them that way.
A central part of WMF 2026 is the AI Global Summit, which focuses on how AI systems are being built, governed, and deployed in practice. The agenda covers enterprise adoption, machine learning infrastructure, education, labor, and policy. What makes it relevant is less the individual sessions and more what happens when researchers, startups, large technology companies, and European institutions end up in the same conversation. Those conversations don't always produce consensus. But the exposure to different frames - technical, institutional, social - tends to be the more lasting outcome.
Alongside it, WMF expands into multiple thematic events: the World Startup Fest and Startup Competition, GovTech Summit, Music Fest, Journalism Fest, Creators Fest, Open Innovation & VC Fest, and the Future Show.
The 2025 edition drew over 73,000 attendees from 90 countries, with 2,800 structured B2B meetings and an investor network managing over €1.5 trillion in combined portfolio. The scale matters - not as a status marker, but because it determines what kind of follow-up is actually possible after a conversation ends.
Beyond the talks, WMF also builds a large cultural layer - live concerts, talent shows, gaming and esports, drone soccer, visual arts, and comics - turning the event into a hybrid between conference and festival.
WMF is structured around the idea that technology, culture, and society are already shaping each other - and that the people in a position to influence that process are better off in the same room.
If you're considering going, use promo code WMF2624CREATIVE - available until May 22 for a full three-day ticket at 149€ + VAT.
Author
24Creative Editorial Team
The 24Creative Editorial Team covers technology conferences and the communities around them, highlighting the trends, conversations, and people shaping the global tech ecosystem.
