The Future 500 – Champions of Growth conference will take place in Brussels, bringing together key European decision-makers, investors, entrepreneurs, and scientists with the aim of accelerating the emergence of the next generation of European global champions. Future 500 is a strategic platform of IEDC – Bled School of Management, designed to identify and support European companies with strong global growth potential.
The conference is organized by IEDC – Bled School of Management and the Atlantic Council, in partnership with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and with the support of the general sponsor BOSQAR INVEST, a perpetual capital investor and company builder in the Adria region.
Among the confirmed speakers are leading representatives of the European political, financial, and innovation ecosystem, including Marta Kos, European Commissioner for Enlargement, Maria Luís Albuquerque, European Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investments Union, Kerstin Jorna, Director-General, DG GROW, European Commission and Michiel Scheffer, President of the Board, European Innovation Council (EIC).
The conference will also feature prominent representatives of the financial and capital markets sector, including Peter Bosek, CEO & Chief Retail Officer, Erste Group Bank, Delphine d’Amarzit, CEO of Euronext Paris and Robert Knorr, Managing Partner of MidEuropa.
Speakers from the entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem include Rafał Brzoska, Founder and CEO of the logistics-technology group InPost, Mark Pleško, Co-Founder and CEO of the Slovenian high-tech company Cosylab and Fabrizio Del Maffeo, CEO & Co-Founder, Axelera AI. The discussions will also feature Guntram B. Wolff, Professor and Senior Fellow at Bruegel, Jörn Fleck, Senior Director at the Atlantic Council and William Stevens, Co-Founder of Tech Tour.
Europe – together with candidate countries – represents a market of more than 500 million people, generates roughly €17 trillion in GDP, and holds over €35 trillion in household savings. It produces world-class research and industrial depth, yet remains underrepresented among the world’s largest technology companies.
Following Mario Draghi’s competitiveness report, the urgency of mobilising capital, completing capital markets integration, and accelerating industrial scale has become central to Europe’s agenda. Future 500 positions itself as a practical execution layer within that debate, not another regulatory framework, but a platform that channels entrepreneurial energy directly into Europe’s capital and policy ecosystem.
The Future 500 Index was developed through collaboration between scientists, professors from leading European and global universities, and experienced entrepreneurs. Grounded in OECD high-growth enterprise criteria, the transparent 100-point framework integrates financial performance, innovation intensity, internationalisation, governance quality, and strategic positioning. An accompanying algorithmic application transforms the model into a scalable digital tool capable of systematically identifying high-potential firms across Europe.
At the European level, 500 companies will be selected as Champions of Growth. In parallel, 100 high-potential firms will be identified in each of 35 countries, spanning all EU Member States and candidate countries. Together, this creates one of the largest structured pools of entrepreneurial creativity, innovation capacity, and growth energy ever assembled in Europe.
The emphasis is forward-looking: mobilising capital and coordination around companies shaping the future, not primarily sustaining legacy industries of the past. Central and Eastern Europe, together with accession countries, has already emerged as a dynamic engine of growth and unicorn creation. Future 500 treats this broader European basin as a unified platform for scale.
Under the theme “The Trillion Euro Ambition”, Champions of Growth 2026 will address late-stage capital mobilisation, pension fund participation, capital markets integration, enlargement as an economic multiplier, and the strategic alignment required to convert Europe’s scientific excellence into globally scaled enterprises.
“Europe does not lack ideas, research, or entrepreneurial courage. What it needs is coordinated scale and capital directed toward the companies of the future. Future 500 is about building that engine,” said Stjepan Orešković, Founder of Future 500.
