People leave Winter AI Festival Iași with defined pilot projects, B2B meetings in the diary, prototypes built by teams of pupils and students, and people recruited on the spot. Edition 01, 14-16 January 2027, at Palas Congress Hall.
The theme of Edition 01 is AI for Smart Communities & Future Economies: AI for business, for education and skills, for local government, for heritage and cultural tourism, plus governance, cyber security, investment and regional cooperation.
The festival works on a simple principle: every part of it has a verifiable outcome. The main stage produces decisions, the workshops produce working scenarios, matchmaking produces scheduled meetings, the hackathon produces prototypes and hires, and the pitch competition produces pilot projects with a public authority or a company.
“Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași and “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Iași. Tens of thousands of students: the talent pool that employers recruit from.
In 2025, the information and communications sector in Iași settled at around 16,400-17,000 employees. That makes it third in the country by headcount, less than a tenth of a percentage point behind Timiș. In other words, a B2B audience and employers who are here anyway.
Chișinău is about two and a half hours away, with a Romanian-speaking audience. Together with the opening towards Ukraine and the diaspora in the East, this makes Iași the eastern frontier of European AI.
Direct European flights, a railway station and road links. An executive festival needs a city you can reach without a stopover.
The Palace of Culture, Copou, Romania's oldest national theatre. The festival's second day falls on National Culture Day, and the cultural evenings are part of the programme, not decoration.
Palas Congress Hall, up to 1,000 seats in plenary, in the centre, next to the Palace of Culture. No improvised spaces.
Every figure here goes into the impact report published after the event.
Our other committed targets: more than 50 speakers and mentors, more than 15 startups in the demo area.
A non-governmental organisation dedicated to developing smart communities through technology. Winter AI Festival Iași is organised entirely by ARSC, which is responsible for the programme, the selection and the impact report.
The festival is not a government event and takes place regardless of the political calendar. The main stage content is editorial: a partnership package buys visibility, activations and meetings, not a place on stage.
The Smart City Romania network, run by ARSC
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