CASE STUDY · May 2026

ECS: Three Summits, One Platform · Cologne

One platform. 3,000 attendees. €2.5M in deals proposed by run.events.

ECS is the largest Microsoft partner event in Europe, bringing together three co-located summits covering Microsoft 365, Azure & AI, and Power Platform. Powered by run.events, the 2026 edition in Cologne went AI-first with Smart Hub matchmaking, AI-generated event pages, personalized agendas, and product & sponsor spotting, making it the most advanced AI-powered event in the world.

Read the Story See the Funnel

2026

3k+ Attendees

9M Connections

1,200 Meetings Booked

The Event

Three summits. One venue. The largest Microsoft partner event in Europe.

Every May, over 3,000 Microsoft professionals from every inhabited continent on Earth converge on Cologne for three days of deep-dive sessions, expo networking, and deal-making, all powered end-to-end by run.events.

3,000+ Attendees from 53 countries

240 Sessions across 3 summits

90 Sponsors

3 Days

53 Countries

Collaboration Summit Microsoft 365 & Copilot

AI & Cloud Summit Azure & Artificial Intelligence

BizApps Summit Power Platform & Fabric

The Journey

One platform. Year after year. Each edition smarter than the last.

2024

Wiesbaden · Consolidation

One platform for the full event lifecycle

ECS adopted run.events as its end-to-end event management platform: a cutting-edge SaaS solution covering registration, ticketing, check-in, badging, the event website, mobile app, marketing, and sponsor management. Every process streamlined. One data model connecting every touchpoint from the first ticket sale to the last post-event report.

100% of the event lifecycle on one platform

2025

Düsseldorf · Scale

Scaled to three co-located conferences, flawlessly

European Collaboration Summit, European Cloud Summit, and European BizApps Summit: three distinct conferences sharing one venue, one registration system, one badge workflow. 3,000+ attendees checked in with under 8-second wait times. 94% mobile app engagement. The platform proved it could handle complexity at scale.

<8s check-in time

94% app engagement

3 conferences, one platform

2026

Cologne · Intelligence

The same data now powers AI. Nothing new to integrate.

Years of attendee profiles, session preferences, sponsor interactions, and engagement data were already in the platform. For 2026, ECS activated the run.events AI stack, and everything changed. Smart Hub turned that data into scored business matches. The AI Page Builder generated the event website. Personalized agendas landed in every attendee’s inbox weeks before the event. Content moderation ran autonomously. All on European sovereign AI, GDPR and EU AI Act compliant.

The result: the most advanced AI-powered event platform in the world.

The AI Breakthrough

Years of data. One activation.
Everything changed.

The platform had been quietly collecting rich attendee data for years. Roles, tech stacks, business goals, session preferences, sponsor interactions. For 2026, that data started working.

Smart Hub Matchmaking

AI scored every possible connection

The Attendee Analyser profiled every registrant weeks before the event. Role, tech stack, business goals, buyer/seller classification. Smart Hub then scored 9 million possible pairings across four dimensions: attendee-to-attendee, attendee-to-sponsor, attendee-to-product, and sponsor-to-attendee.

9M connections scored

4 match dimensions

Personalized agendas arrived before anyone did

Every attendee received AI-curated session recommendations and a ranked list of people they should meet, delivered to the mobile app and the AI-generated event website. By day one, 1,200 meetings were already booked.

1,200 meetings pre-booked

Sponsors got qualified buyers, not badge scans

Instead of hoping the right people would walk by, every sponsor received a prioritized list of attendees who matched their ideal buyer profile. Scored, ranked, with meeting requests sent automatically. For the first time, sponsors could prove ROI from match to closed deal.

€2.5M in documented deals

The event website built itself

The AI Page Builder agent generated the complete event website: speaker pages, session browser, sponsor showcase, and integrated registration. What used to take weeks was done in hours, and it updated itself as content changed.

Hours not weeks to publish

The Numbers

What Smart Hub delivered in its debut year

From 3,000 attendees and 90 sponsors, the AI stack produced these outcomes, all from data the platform was already collecting.

9M Connections scored by AI Every possible attendee-to-attendee and attendee-to-sponsor pairing, evaluated automatically

1,200 Meetings booked Pre-event and on-site, driven by personalized match recommendations

€2.5M Deals documented Tracked from AI match to booked meeting to closed deal on the expo floor

94% Attendee satisfaction With matchmaking quality and personalized agenda recommendations

80% Sponsor return rate Year-over-year, backed by full-funnel ROI proof for every sponsor

How It Works

How Smart Hub works: five steps from data to deals

Profile

AI ingested every attendee profile, including role, tech stack, business goals, and company size, then built a matchmaking graph weeks before the event.

Score

A multi-factor algorithm evaluated every possible pairing by expertise overlap, intent alignment, geography, and language.

Recommend

Curated match lists delivered to inboxes and the mobile app, driving pre-event engagement and one-click meeting booking.

Connect

Live match notifications during the event drove qualified traffic to sponsor booths. Real-time scoring refined recommendations as attendees interacted.

Prove

Full-funnel ROI reports gave every sponsor proof of return, from AI match to booked meeting to closed deal. No guesswork.

In Their Words

What organizers, sponsors, and attendees said

Closing Highlights

“

Thanks to run.events, we have been able to reduce the number of tools we use for event management and planning from six to just one, resulting in a 50% decrease in costs. Everything from registration and check-in to content management and AI matchmaking runs on a single platform now.

“

Managing content can be difficult and requires many different activities such as a call for content, content selection, agenda building, and speaker communications. With run.events, it has never been easier to manage all of these across three co-located summits with 240 sessions.

What This Means For You

If you’re running a conference, here’s the takeaway

Start simple. The data compounds.

ECS didn’t start with AI. They started with registration and check-in. Two years later, that same attendee data powered matchmaking, personalized agendas, and sponsor intelligence without a single new integration.

Year 1 → Year 3

Sponsorships become investments

When sponsors get a prioritized buyer list instead of badge scans, the conversation changes. ECS sponsors saw €2.5M in documented deals and 80% returned year-over-year. Revenue you can build a business model on.

€2.5M in deals

European sovereign AI

Every AI feature runs on European infrastructure with a European LLM. GDPR compliant. EU AI Act compliant. No attendee data leaves the EU. For enterprise audiences, that’s not a nice-to-have, it’s a requirement.

100% EU hosted

Gallery

Event Moments

Scenes from ECS, the largest Microsoft partner event in Europe.

The main stage during the opening keynote at Koelnmesse, Cologne

The expo hall where AI-matched meetings turned into deals

Seamless check-in powered by run.events

Deep-dive breakout session across three co-located summits

240 sessions from world-class speakers and Microsoft MVPs

3,000+ professionals from 53 countries

Technology and community in action on the main stage

The legendary ECS networking party where connections turn into friendships

ECS on the road: branding that travels