← Default view
Wall planner / within 30 km of Slagmolen / Opglabbeek, BE

IT 2026
in Limburg.

Every conference, seminar and tech-festival date inside a 30 km drive from the Michelin watermill — plotted on one wall. Three flagship draws (BSides Limburg, IEEE WCCI Maastricht, FTI Festival), a rolling drumbeat of Thor Park and Brightlands half-days, and the dev-conference cluster you'll have to drive past Antwerp for.

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Flagship conferences
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Dated events on the wall
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Anchor venues in scope
~10 km
Closest venue (Thor Park)
30 km
Outer radius (Brightlands ⚠)
Thor Park / EnergyVille landmark in Genk, the closest in-scope venue at ~10 km from Slagmolen Thor Park, Genk · ~10 km from Slagmolen
Jan '26
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quiet month — book travel, lock the table
Feb '26
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quiet month — early-bird WCCI papers due
Mar '26
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Tue 3Power ElectronicsEnergyVille / Thor Park · Genk
Thu 5Brightlands Funding DayBrightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
Mon 9AI Leisure & HospitalityBrightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
Thu 12
Fri 13BSides Limburg 2026Corda Campus / PXL-NeXT · Hasselt — ~26 km
Apr '26
1 event
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Thu 2Long-Duration Energy StorageThor Park · Genk — ~10 km
May '26
1 event
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Tue 19AI in energy optimisationThor Park · Genk — ~10 km
Jun '26
3 events
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Tue 16Solar + Storage ComplianceThor Park · Genk — ~10 km
21–26IEEE WCCI 2026 — IJCNN + FUZZ-IEEE + CECMECC · Maastricht NL — ~25 km · ~1500 attendees
Mon 22Smart Manufacturing DayBrightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
Jul '26
1 event
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Tue 7Summer AI Summit 2026Brightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
Aug '26
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quiet month — summer hiatus
Sep '26
2 events
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Thu 17Startup League Year EventBrightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
Sat 20Brixel Hackerspace open houseHasselt · annual — ~26 km
Oct '26
4 events
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Thu 1Masterclass AI for Managers (1/2)Brightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
16 Oct
→ 15 NovFTI Festival 2026 — Flanders Technology & InnovationCorda Campus + Thor Park (Limburg hub) · 30-day festival
21–23BNAIC/BeNeLearn 2026Maastricht University · NL — ~25 km
Thu 29Masterclass AI for Managers (2/2)Brightlands · Heerlen NL ⚠
Nov '26
3 events
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Thu 12SMAFACC 2026 — smart factoriesThor Park · Genk — ~10 km
Fri 13Corda Arena opening — FTI culminationCorda Campus · Hasselt — ~26 km
Tue 24Thermal Challenges — e-boilers, heat pumpsThor Park · Genk — ~10 km
Dec '26
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quiet month — CloudBrew Mechelen, outside the radius

Flagship dates · pin these first

Five events anchor the year
BSides Limburg 2026 branding 12–13 Mar · Hasselt
Thu 12 – Fri 13 March · Cybersecurity

BSides Limburg 2026

Venue Corda Campus / PXL-NeXT City Hasselt Distance ~26 km Scale Regional

The one local IT conference everyone in scope should know. Workshops Thursday; talks Friday in the new PXL-NeXT building inside Corda Campus. Community-driven infosec, framed by the Cyber Security Coalition as a deep-discussion complement to the bigger Belgian security cons.

cites [2] [3] [4]
WCCI 21–26 Jun · Maastricht
Sun 21 – Fri 26 June · AI / CI research

IEEE WCCI 2026

Venue MECC ~1500 attendees Distance ~25 km

Three IEEE conferences (IJCNN, FUZZ-IEEE, IEEE CEC) bundled into one congress. The biggest AI/CI event ever staged this close to Limburg. New Industry Day component bridging academia and applied teams.

cites [5] [6]
FTI Festival visual 16 Oct – 15 Nov
Fri 16 Oct – Sun 15 Nov · Tech festival

FTI Festival 2026

Hub Hasselt + Genk +100 events +1000 innovations

Flanders Technology & Innovation: 30-day festival across 8 cities. Hasselt & Genk are paired as the Limburg pillar — tech safaris, Smart Manufacturing Conference, hackathon, STEM tours, public light festival.

cites [8] [9] [10]
BNAIC 21–23 Oct · Maastricht
Wed 21 – Fri 23 October · Benelux AI/ML

BNAIC/BeNeLearn 2026

Venue Maastricht Univ. Edition 38th Distance ~25 km

38th Benelux AI conference co-hosted with the 35th Belgian/Dutch ML conference. Smaller and more academic than WCCI, but the reference event for the regional AI/ML community.

cites [7]
Corda Campus / FTI 12 Nov · Genk
Thu 12 November · Smart factories

SMAFACC 2026

Venue Thor Park City Genk Distance ~10 km

Smart factories, digitisation, automation — sits inside the FTI Festival window and is the most production-engineering-flavoured day of the year. The Corda Arena opening follows the day after.

cites [11]
Closest to Slagmolen · ~10 km

Thor Park "Powering the Future" · rolling 2026 series

Pragmatic half-day workshops at EnergyVille / Thor Park in Genk, with networking. Mostly Tue/Thu mornings — easy to fit either side of a Saturday-night Slagmolen booking.

Just on the 30 km line · borderline ⚠ NL

Brightlands Smart Services Campus · Heerlen, NL

About 30 km from Slagmolen — borderline. Worth flagging because the AI/data programme is dense in 2026. Most events sit on Mon/Thu, in English, with a startup-and-corporate-AI register rather than research conferences.

Recurring / drop-in

Communities you can drop in on

  • Tue + Fri
    19:00    Brixel HackerspaceHasselt · active · annual open house Sat 20 Sep
  • dormantPHP Limburg BE423 members · no events since Jan 2024 · no organiser
  • lowLimburg Software Developers Meetup252 members · low cadence
Geography · the 30 km arc

How "within 30 km of Slagmolen" plays out

Slagmolen sits in Opglabbeek (Oudsbergen), in the Belgian Limburg "Bosbeek Valley". The 30 km circle catches Genk, Hasselt, Maaseik, Maasmechelen — and crosses the border to Sittard and Maastricht. Eindhoven, Antwerp, Liège and Aachen all fall outside.

Do not plan around these

Outside the 30 km radius

Belgium's major dev conferences cluster in Antwerp, Mechelen and Brussels — all >70 km from Slagmolen. Listed so you don't accidentally try to staple them onto a Slagmolen weekend.

Devoxx Belgium
5–9 Oct · Antwerp · ~75 km
Java & JVM, the big one — out of scope.
DDD Europe
8–12 Jun · Antwerp · ~75 km
Domain-driven design conference, overlaps WCCI week.
BruCON 0x12
21–25 Sep · Mechelen · ~100 km
Belgium's flagship security con.
CloudBrew
10–11 Dec · Mechelen · ~100 km
Azure / cloud, Belgian winter staple.

Source: dev.events/EU/BE. Eindhoven's tech scene sits at ~50 km — also outside, but inside an hour's drive if you stretch the brief.

Pinned sources · 22 citations from the canonical

1slagmolen.be
2bsides-limburg.be
3Cyber Security Coalition
410times — BSides
5IEEE WCCI 2026
6UM — WCCI news
7BNAIC 2026
8ftifestival.be
9VRT NWS
10Corda — FTI
11Thor Park events
12EnergyVille
13Thor — LDES
14Thor — compliance
15Brightlands events
16Brightlands — AI L&H
17Brightlands — SMD
18brixel.be
19PHP Limburg meetup
20besteroutes
21distance.to
22dev.events
↑ Parent expedition Weekend at Slagmolen Lodging, activities and tech events around a Michelin watermill. ↔ Sibling Day-trips and activities within 30 km Hoge Kempen, Bokrijk, C-Mine, the three Limburg "cycle-through-X" bridges. expedition ↔ Sibling Walking-distance lodging at Slagmolen Book the villa rooms first — Bed and Beyond is the only walking-distance fallback. survey