With a heavy heart but in the end inevitably we have to announce: Our 10th year anniversary will be postponed to 2021!

The world is probably in the biggest crisis of our generation and in the middle of a pandemic. Running a physical event for the foreseeable future is not feasible.

The event industry is one of the industries that was hit the hardest by COVID-19. Our businesses were the first ones to close and will be opening back up the very last. Even then, business won’t be the same, as participants and partners will still feel hesitant about physical events for a long time.

We hope to physically meet you in the summer of 2021 & celebrate our 10th edition in an appropriate fashion. We will still produce an event this year. It will be fully remote and – as we don’t think we can create the PIRATE Summit atmosphere in a remote setting – we won’t call it PIRATE Summit. 

This year’s event is called PIRATE Live. It will be a week full of amazing content, open for everyone and free to participate. The Out of the Box.NRW Award will also be part of PIRATE Live. Get ready for exciting pitches from the 12 selected startups and keynotes from renowned speakers and help your favorites to win prize money of 50.000€. 

We’ll announce more details over the coming weeks, but for now feel free to keep an eye on our website – it will be updated in record speed.

What happens to my PIRATE Summit ticket?

As mentioned before, the crisis had and still has a devastating impact on the event industry, ourselves included. At the beginning of the year we were setting up for our best year yet. All of a sudden our revenue fell to zero with no change in sight. Although we have been working tirelessly to adapt to the new reality (e.g. becoming an event remote agency), things are still pretty tight right now. 

That being said, PIRATE Summit 2020 ticket holders will have three different options and we want to let you choose.

PIRATE Summit 2020 ticket holders will have three options: 

  1. Request a full refund
  2. “Donate” your ticket and not ask for a refund to help us organize PIRATE Live this year
  3. Transfer your ticket to PIRATE Summit 2021

We received great encouragement by our community during these past months in our efforts to deliver an exciting alternative and come together as pirates, even when it’s not in person, to learn, share and connect. If you agree with that idea and want to support us, we ask you to consider options B) and C), so that PIRATE Live can be a success. It would mean the world to us!

You’ll hear from us within the next two weeks: more details on PIRATE Live and how to proceed with your PIRATE Summit 2020 tickets. 

Enjoy the summer & talk to you again soon,
Manuel & Till