Techsylvania

Techsylvania 2026 wouldn't have been what it was without the right partners, and VistaJet was one of the finest examples of what a true partnership looks like. The Official Reception at Techsylvania 2026 was something special and that's largely thanks to VistaJet for hosting it in true style. ✈️ A special thank you to Madison Jones for being an incredible representative for VistaJet throughout the event, and to Michelle Rosa-Wolfe for commanding center stage in a way that left a real impression on everyone in the room. 🙌 Grateful for the partnership, the presence, and the people. See you next year. ✈️🥂

Day 2 of #Techsylvania2026: the moment it all came together. A week on, we're looking back at how the second and final day unfolded in Cluj: the closing conversations, the connections made, the energy that carried the whole event through to the end. Here's the recap. 🎥

Day 1 of #Techsylvania2026 in three words: energy, ideas, connection. A week later, we're still buzzing from the conversations that happened on stage and off it. Here's a look back at how Day 1 unfolded in Cluj: the talks, the moments, the community that showed up. Missed it live? This recap captures the spirit of it. 🎥

That's a wrap on #Techsylvania2026! Two days of honest, generous conversations from people who know what they are talking about. That sounds simple but it is not easy to pull off and this community keeps doing it. Founders, investors, engineers, researchers and builders from across the world gathered in Cluj to share what they know and challenge what they think they know. That is what this conference has always been about and this edition delivered it in full. To the Techsylvania team and every volunteer who made it run: this does not happen without you. Thank you! 🙏 To everyone who was in the room: we hope you are taking something real back with you. And to our sponsors: thank you for being with us, this event would not be the same without you! 🚀 Until next year, #techsylvanians! 

If you want to understand what it takes to build deep tech at a European scale, there are few people better placed to talk about it than Hermann Hauser. Hermann co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners, helped spin out ARM from Acorn Computers, and has founded or backed companies across semiconductors, genomics, AI and beyond, with exits to Microsoft, Illumina and Nvidia along the way. He is in conversation with Philipp Kandal at #Techsylvania2026. Hearing Hermann speak is a masterclass in how constraints actually enable groundbreaking innovation. When they were building the very first ARM chips at Acorn, they didn't have the money or the resources of their massive US competitors. Because of that severe lack of capital, the engineering team was forced to keep the microprocessor incredibly small and simple. That enforced simplicity inadvertently led to a chip with unprecedentedly low power consumption, the exact technical breakthrough that allows ARM to power virtually 100% of the world's smartphones today. 💡 It’s a powerful reminder for every builder that sometimes, a lack of resources is your greatest competitive edge.

The Q&A sessions on Day 2 of Techsylvania 2026 were exactly what this conference is built for. No filters, no scripts, just the audience going head to head with some of the sharpest minds in tech. The questions were bold, the answers were honest, and the conversations that followed were even better. That's a wrap on Day 2. Thank you for showing up fully. 🙌

What if the most radical thing you could do in a room full of tech leaders was ask them to stop — and breathe? That's exactly what Laura Calmore (Revera) did at Techsylvania 2026 — and the room was better for it. As a Conscious Regenerative & Mindfulness Facilitator, Laura brought a perspective that cut through the noise of optimization culture with a simple but profound question: we are arguably the most optimized generation in human history — but are we the most alive? Her argument: the systems we've built — from business to institutions to universities — are running on a logic of efficiency, control, and extraction that is fundamentally disconnected from the logic of life itself. Nature doesn't produce all year round. It breathes. It rests. It moves through seasons. And the moment we forget that, we start optimizing ourselves out of our own humanity. She also reminded the audience that everything is relational — we are not isolated nodes, but part of a wider web of life that includes our teams, our communities, and the ecosystems in which we build our businesses. And then she did something you don't often see at a tech conference: she guided the room through a live breathing and relaxation exercise — creating a rare moment of stillness and genuine presence in the middle of a packed conference day. Because before we can build systems worthy of humanity, we need to remember how to be human together again. #Techsylvania2026

Four companies founded and sold by 32. Now Noah Berkson is asking a different question at #Techsylvania2026: "How do you become irreplaceable in a world where AI is changing what skills actually matter?" Noah runs Austin Capital Partners, a family office focused on fintech and financial services, and co-founded Irreplaceable Institute, a platform built to help professionals figure out exactly that. 💡 The World Economic Forum's core skills for 2030 are not what you would expect at a technology conference: curiosity, creativity, social influence, emotional intelligence, self-awareness. The most valuable people will not just be the most technical, they will be the ones who combine technical knowledge with something deeply human.

What if the next game you play was created specifically for you — by an AI agent, on demand, from scratch? Mihai Pohonţu, CEO of Amber, sat down with Elena Enache at Techsylvania 2026 for one of the most expansive and forward-thinking conversations of the conference — spanning the history of game development, the post-pandemic industry reset, and the radical possibilities that AI is unlocking for interactive entertainment. Mihai's journey is anything but straight: political philosophy student turned QA tester in 1999, then VP & GM at EA Romania (one of the largest game studios in Eastern Europe), then Disney Interactive (600+ staff, 9 locations worldwide), then Samsung's emerging platforms, and now CEO of Amber — a 900+ person global game development agency trusted by Amazon, Netflix, Roblox, Warner, and Disney. At Techsylvania, he explored three things: 🎮 The industry reset — California alone lost nearly 100,000 game development jobs in four years. Romania's €160M gaming industry and 7,000 professionals are part of where those opportunities are being rebuilt. 🤖 AI in production — From pipeline optimization and procedural level design to AI-assisted coding and asset integration, Amber is already using AI carefully and intentionally — always with human art at the core, because gamers notice. 🌌 The future that excites him most — Games that respond to your choices, generate unique dialogue and situations, and create infinite replayability. And further ahead: an AI agent that doesn't just recommend games based on your preferences, but creates an entirely new game built just for you. Small teams with the right AI tools will be able to create experiences that previously required 300–400 people. The explosion of content is coming. And within it, there will be gems. Knowledge is still everything — because you need to ask the right questions. And creativity? It's the most adaptable thing we have. #Techsylvania2026

Can innovation be systematic? Samuel Lipoff thinks so. He leads science and product at Liminal, the early stage venture studio founded by Temasek Holdings. Before that, he co-founded ventures backed by Sequoia and YCombinator, bringing a multidisciplinary pedigree from Harvard, Cambridge, and MIT to venture creation. 💡Sam challenged the myth that innovation requires "wild creative hair" or waiting for an apple to hit you on the head. Instead, he introduced Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT), a structured algorithm for creativity. By taking an existing product and applying patterns like subtraction (think a smartphone without a camera for high-security environments) or attribute dependency, anyone can systematically build a breakthrough idea. You don't have to be born a genius; you just need the right framework to look at what's already in front of you differently.