Latitude59 2026: The ‘corns return to the Estoverse

Events

Latitude59 2026 is now wrapped – and what a crazy few days in Tallinn!

So many things happened in so little time that, by the closing afternoon, we had to admit we hadn’t caught nearly as many talks as we’d have liked. What we did catch, in abundance, were moments that made the event magical for us. And Latitude never disappoints. The event brought together the right amount of the right people – startup nerds, experienced and inexperienced founders, top operators, VCs, angels, bigger tech companies, journalists, and the people working with all of them: PRs, pitch and performance coaches and many more. All united by a passion for startups and with a good mix of Estonian and international reps.

Below are our impressions of the event.

JJ on the Future Stage, all day long

JJ spent the first day co-hosting the Future Stage alongside Kaire Papp, who was also behind the stage’s programme. A full day of MCing is a marathon in its own right, and it only runs smoothly because of the people you don’t see. So kudos to the tech crew and the interns working tirelessly behind the scenes to keep everything on time and on air – you guys were very helpful!

Hosting a stage from open to close is a different relationship with a conference than attending one. You meet every speaker, you feel the rhythm of the room shift through the day, and you get a front-row read on which themes are landing and which are running out of road. It is also, frankly, the best possible way to meet people, which set up a lot of what followed…

The Runway Podcast went live, on stage, for the first time

The single biggest moment for us was also a (HUGE) first for the Runway Podcast: its first ever on-stage, live conversation. Together, JJ and Mauro sat down with Sten Õitspuu, Head of Marketing at Karma Ventures, for a proper dig into a niche but very hot topic, marketing and comms in the VC world.

It is a subject that rarely gets its own spotlight. Most marketing conversations assume you are selling a product to customers. Even in B2B marketing, conversations rarely focus on all those other stakeholders that are also so important: investors, partners, talent.

And marketing a fund is a totally different animal, with a different audience, a longer game, and a far less obvious scorecard. Sten was candid and generous with the how, not just the what, and we came away with lots of nice insights and stories.

Recording it on stage, in front of a live audience, raised the stakes in the best way. Huge thanks to Ucha Vekua for the organisation that made it possible. To learn more about VC marketing and how the conversation went, check out the episode on Spotify here and the dedicated insights blog post here. The good stuff!

A British breakfast and the UK expansion playbook

Day two started early, with JJ at a British Breakfast hosted by the British Embassy, including Oli Harris of Dream Ventures on the panel. The conversation went straight to something close to home for us – Estonian founders eyeing the UK, and what the expansion playbook actually looks like once you move past the slide and into practice.

A hot take in a driverless car

In one of the more unexpected turns of the week, Mauro got to sit down with Ucha for a (subway-like) hot take, startup edition, inside an autonomous, driverless car. It was as fun as it sounds. Thanks to Bliq and Julian Glaab for making it happen. Keep an eye out for Bliq rolling their robo taxis out across Europe!

Up early for the Karma run

Friday started with the Karma run, a 9K at a genuinely demanding pace, with just enough oxygen left over for some good chats along the way. It’s a relief not to need to rely on the afterparties for some casual, informal socialisation. Event season can pile up a lot of late nights and it’s a great option for those opting out of alcohol. In other good, news, we are closing in on that Karma t-shirt.

Cheers to the Karma running team for organising the company and the punishment. More reasons to stay fit until next year 😅

The unofficial PR and media dinner, a Latitude59 classic by now

No Latitude59 is complete without our unofficial PR and journalism dinner, and this year it ran at F-Hoone. Around the table were locals Tarmo Virki and Fiona Alston, plus Cate Lawrence and Anda Asere, and we were delighted to welcome Reetta Ilo Gilbert from San Francisco (the agency, not the city) to the group after an in-person meeting that was long overdue.

What happens at these dinners? Mostly the swapping of war stories, the ones every PR and every journalist knows by heart. “We need everything right now.” “Let’s set different times for embargoes.” “So, which journalists do you actually know?” There is a particular kind of honesty that only comes out over dinner (and drinks), and it is one of the most fun nights of any conference. However, unfortunately, it was all off-the-record and no evidence exists to prove any of it.

The people, which is rather the point

The truth about events is that the corridors and the coffee queues matter as much as the stages. We spent the rest of the conference doing what this event does best: meeting friends, catching up with existing clients, and talking to founders, operators, investors, journalists and others that live in the same world as us – the startup world.

Some of the best conversations were ones we’d been having online for ages and finally got to have in person. We met Danielle Coimbra, fellow PR at Wallester. We caught up with PR legend Adam Rang, and had a long-overdue in-person reunion with Zane Bojāre after years of working together through Startup Wise Guys (check out their case study by the way!).

Then there are the familiar faces who quietly make the Baltics feel like home. And the new connections, all of them up to interesting things, who we are fairly sure we’ll be running into again before long: Mariam Ahmed, Margaux Miller, Annika Ljaš Eilat, Jette-Mari Anni and Laura Bačinskienė, among many others we won’t manage to name here.

One cameo deserves its own line. We ran into journalism legend Richard Quest, in Tallinn on a mission to film and interview Estonian figures for CNN. Some of those segments are already up on YouTube and well worth a watch, including an interview with Veriff and another with Karma Ventures.

Until the next one!

Big thanks to Liisi Org, Kai Isand and the whole Latitude59 team for another sharp edition, and a special shoutout to Ucha Vekua, the legend, for the organising, the (autonomous) car ride and everything in between.

Until next time, Tallinn. Aitäh! 🫶 🇪🇪