BASE 2026: Co-Creation, Building Better Businesses Together

Business doesn't have to be a solo sport.

BASE 2026 brings founders, creators and changemakers to Amsterdam for a day of real conversations, practical learning, and the kind of connections that turn into actual business.

We keep the room to around 150 people on purpose. Small enough that you'll actually talk to people. Curated enough that the people you talk to are worth talking to.

Theme 2026: Co-Creation, Building Better Businesses Together

This year we look at how entrepreneurs, organisations, communities and partners work together to build stronger businesses, more relevant solutions, and healthier ecosystems. Less grinding alone and more building together.

The four pillars

Everything at BASE is built around four things every founder has to get right:

BUILD: Resource management and strong foundations
ADVANCE: Sales and marketing that connect
SUSTAIN: Finance and profitability with impact
ELEVATE: Innovation that drives growth

What the day looks like

• Main stage sessions — speakers who've built it, not just theorised about it
• Workshops and masterclasses — small groups, hands-on, something you can use straight away
• Expert Q&A sessions — 30 minutes, your questions, direct answers
• Curated networking — we make introductions on purpose, not by accident
• Closing drinks — where a lot of the good stuff happens anyway

Who's in the room

BASE is intentionally curated. Expect founders and decision-makers from small and mid-sized businesses, startups and scale-ups, usually teams of 1 to 20.

• Founders and business owners
• C-level and leadership from growing companies
• Consultants, coaches, creatives and professional service providers
• People working in tech, marketing, sustainability and beyond

What they have in common: values-driven, building for the long term, and more interested in collaborating than competing.

Built around what founders actually asked for

We surveyed our community about what they're working on right now. Sales and finding clients came out on top, followed by marketing and visibility, and building strategic partnerships. Scaling sustainably and getting systems in place came next.

The BASE 2026 programme is built directly around those answers.

What people tell us they come for

Meeting potential collaborators and partners. Face-to-face connection instead of another video call. Learning from people who've done it. Peer support from founders who get it. And business development that doesn't feel like being sold to.

That's what we design for.

Info: Treat people how you'd want to be treated. In communication, that's exactly where it goes wrong.
You write in your style. They read in theirs. And the clients, partners, and team members least like you quietly stop responding.
DISC shows you the gap and how to close it, so you communicate the way the other person needs to hear it.

Info: People often think of co-creation as hosting a webinar with a partner. This presentation will show you how to co-create with the people you want to reach, using their questions, signals, and choices to build a stronger webinar.

Info: Setting up a Dutch B.V. is only the beginning. In this session, Mark Bastiaans of DutchTaxAdvice B.V. / Rock Payroll B.V. follows a fictional company from day one: incorporation, registration, tax and accounting, hiring its first employees and eventually doing business across borders. At each stage, new questions arise, and different Dutch rules come into play. The result is a practical overview of what an internationally active company can expect when establishing and growing a business in the Netherlands.

Info: An interactive co-creation session for entrepreneurs to identify which parts of their business can be automated, optimised, or kept human. Participants will leave with a practical framework to build smarter workflows and focus on what truly matters.

Info: Building a company rarely looks anything like the neat version people tell afterwards.

I’ll share what it’s actually been like building New Schools. Leaving a long career behind, betting on an idea, running low on money, changing direction, finding customers, getting things wrong and somehow carrying on.

I’m not coming along to tell anyone how to become a successful founder. I’m still figuring that bit out myself.

This is more of an open conversation about what entrepreneurship actually feels like when you’re in the middle of it.

So bring the thing you’re stuck on, worried about, trying to build or just can’t bloody work out, and let’s talk about it.

Info: Co-creation depends on how well we handle differences, tension and conflicting needs. In this hands-on session, you learn to recognise unproductive relationship dynamics, move from blame or avoidance to shared responsibility, and say what you need without damaging trust.

Monika draws on the Drama Triangle, The Empowerment Dynamic® and Nonviolent Communication. You leave with practical tools for difficult conversations that you can use right away with co-founders, collaborators, clients and business partners.

Event venue & nearby stays

Social Impact Factory - Kauwgomballenfabriek, 2 Willem Fenengastraat, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups — all the happenings, one place.

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