Once a year we put 100 founders and CEOs of Europe’s next consumer brands in one room, with the partners and investors who back them, to set the course for the year ahead. In 2027 that is two days in Amsterdam, 24 and 25 February. By application only.
Apply for 2027 →
In 1271 a merchant’s son left Venice and followed the Silk Road east. Marco Polo came home with something worth more than cargo: an account of what he had seen, the routes, the markets and the people, so others could find their way.
In his spirit we built a room for the people building Europe’s consumer industry. One hundred leaders, once a year, navigating the future together.
Four forces are redrawing it faster than any one company can chart on its own.
The 100 founders and senior executives from Europe’s most interesting consumer brands joining Marco Polo 2027. Every seat is numbered, and every seat is one person.
Capital C is a creative workspace and event venue in the former Diamond Exchange, De Diamantbeurs, in the centre of Amsterdam. Gerrit van Arkel built it in 1911. It was restored with modern Dutch design, meeting rooms designed by artists and a glass rooftop dome with a 360-degree view of the city. The right place for our first edition.
We reserved rooms at two hotels, both a five-minute walk from Capital C, the canals and the city centre.
Botanical rooms, a 24-hour gym and Mama Makan restaurant, on the edge of the old centre and the east of the city. Condé Nast Traveler readers voted it the second-best hotel in Amsterdam in 2025.
A home for people who travel for work and stay a few days or a few weeks: a relaxed place to live, work and meet people, as part of the city. A natural base during Marco Polo.
As founders we have been to a lot of conferences, drinks and dinners. Almost all of them were paid for by someone with something to sell. That shapes what is said on stage and who sits next to you, and it turns a dinner with peers into lead generation.
So when we described the event we wanted to attend ourselves, “unsponsored” came first. Marco Polo takes no money from sponsors, suppliers or anyone outside the room.
Everyone pays their own way: ticket prices cover the event, and nothing else does.
For founders, leaders and C-suite of consumer brands based in Europe.
€1,500For VC, growth equity and family offices that invest in European consumer brands.
€2,000For agencies and software companies that work for consumer brands in Europe.
€2,500You apply on the website. We read every application ourselves, Patrick and Marcel, and we may ask you a question or two by email. We reply within ten working days. If we offer you a seat, you get a personal invitation with a link to confirm it. The seat is yours once you have paid.
Founders, CEOs and C-level leaders of consumer brands based in Europe, and a small number of the investors and enablers who work with them. 80 seats go to brands, 10 to investors, 10 to agencies and software companies. If you are not sure whether you fit, apply anyway and tell us why you want to be in the room.
Because 100 is the number at which everyone can still meet everyone. One hundred seats, ten dinner tables of ten, a thousand one-to-one meetings. One more person makes the room worse, so we stop at 100.
The full programme on both days: welcome drinks and walking dinner on Wednesday, breakfast, lunch, the sessions and the meet-up rounds on Thursday, drinks afterwards and your seat at one of the ten dinner tables across the city on Thursday night. Travel and hotel are not included.
€1,500 for brands, €2,000 for investors and €2,500 for enablers, excluding VAT. Everyone pays their own way: ticket prices cover the event, and nothing else does.
Because a sponsor shapes what is said on stage and who sits next to you. We have been to enough of those dinners. Marco Polo takes no money from sponsors, suppliers or anyone outside the room, so the programme and the guest list have exactly one purpose.
Every seat is one person, and every person applies. If a colleague wants to come, they apply too, and we read their application as we read yours. If you cannot make it after all, you can offer your seat to a colleague in the same category until 10 February 2027, and we confirm them within three working days.
The summit runs under the Chatham House Rule. You may use what you hear, but you do not say who said it or where. Nothing is recorded, and we never share the attendee list outside the room. That is what makes people talk.
We announce the sessions first and the speakers as they confirm. The programme is on this page; the names follow. You see the full list once you are selected.
Before the summit you tell us who you want to meet. We build a personal schedule of short one-to-one meetings for you, two rounds on Thursday, in the style you may know from Beanstalk.
We hold rooms at Hyatt Regency Amsterdam and Zoku Amsterdam, both five minutes on foot from Capital C, with 20% off for Marco Polo guests. The booking links are on this page under Stay. Hotel bookings are a contract between you and the hotel.
Capital C is at Weesperplein 4B in the centre of Amsterdam, 20 minutes by train and metro from Schiphol airport and five minutes on foot from both hotels. Weesperplein metro station is across the street.
Email us. Until 26 December 2026 you get the full ticket price back, until 25 January 2027 half, after that nothing. You can offer your seat to a colleague instead, right up to 10 February 2027. The full rules are in the Return and Refund Policy.
Tell us when you confirm your seat. We arrange meals, the dinner table and the venue around it, and we delete those notes 30 days after the summit.
English.
Whatever you wear to meet people you respect. There is no dress code, and there are no lanyards.
We photograph and film for our own website and next year’s invitations, never for anyone else’s marketing. If you prefer to stay out of the pictures, tell us at registration and we brief the photographer.
Patrick Crowley, founder of Venice, the private network of European consumer founders and CEOs, and Marcel van der Heijden, founder of GoodKarma and co-founder of DEPT. We built the event we wanted to attend ourselves.
