Where AI meets
humanity.
Born in Berlin. Reimagined in Istanbul.
One stage. One extraordinary day.
- The people who built the internet.
- The minds defining artificial intelligence.
- The investors shaping the next generation of companies.
- The founders building what comes next.
TOA Istanbul brings them together in one room — to ask one defining question:
Where are we going next?
The World Arrives in Istanbul
Coffee. Connections. Founders. Investors. Creators.
No traditional conference opening.
The experience begins from the moment you enter.
Istanbul: The Next Bridge
Nevsah Karamehmet · Niko Woischnik
A short cinematic opening connecting Berlin, Silicon Valley and Istanbul — and introducing a new chapter for the TOA community.
Why Istanbul? Why now? And why could the next decade of technology look radically different from the last?
From the Birth of the Internet to the Age of AI
Sergey Brin — Co-Founder, Google
An intimate conversation about building one of the companies that fundamentally changed human behaviour — and what happens when artificial intelligence becomes even more transformative than the internet itself.
Alternates: Demis Hassabis — Co-Founder & CEO, Google DeepMind · Sam Altman — Co-Founder & CEO, OpenAI
What Will It Mean to Be Human?
Yuval Noah Harari — Historian & Bestselling Author
Technology is becoming more intelligent. But are humans becoming wiser?
A provocative exploration of AI, consciousness, power, truth and the decisions humanity will have to make as machines become increasingly capable of understanding — and influencing — us.
Alternates: Tristan Harris — Co-Founder, Center for Humane Technology · Mustafa Suleyman — CEO, Microsoft AI
Building the Infrastructure of the Future
Werner Vogels — CTO, Amazon
AI may be the interface. But beneath it lies an unprecedented technological infrastructure.
A conversation about cloud, AI, distributed systems and what founders need to understand to build companies capable of serving billions of people.
Alternates: Thomas Kurian — CEO, Google Cloud · Arvind Krishna — Chairman & CEO, IBM
From Zero Users to Billions
Jawed Karim — Co-Founder, YouTube
Before "creator economy" became an industry, a small group of founders changed how humanity creates, consumes and distributes information.
The story behind one of the most consequential platforms ever built — and what today's founders can learn from the earliest days of YouTube.
Alternates: Steve Chen — Co-Founder, YouTube · Kevin Systrom — Co-Founder, Instagram
Build Something That Changes Behaviour
Jawed Karim — Co-Founder, YouTube · Allen Blue — Co-Founder, LinkedIn · Ijad Madisch — Co-Founder & CEO, ResearchGate · Andy Yen — Founder & CEO, Proton
Four founders. Four platforms. Billions of interactions.
A candid conversation about what it actually takes to build technology that changes how people work, communicate, create and live.
Alternates: Luis von Ahn — Co-Founder & CEO, Duolingo · Adam D'Angelo — Co-Founder & CEO, Quora
This Is Not a Coffee Break
Founders meet investors.
Capital meets ideas.
Europe meets Türkiye.
Istanbul meets the world.
Where Will the Next Trillion Dollars Be Created?
Albert Wenger — Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures · Jeannette zu Fürstenberg — Founding Partner, General Catalyst / La Famiglia · Sarah Kunst — Founder & Managing Director, Cleo Capital · Allen Blue — Co-Founder, LinkedInHosted by Nevsah Karamehmet
A conversation about where the world's smartest capital is moving next.
AI. Deep tech. Robotics. Climate. Defence. Health. New interfaces.
And the question every investor and founder in the room wants answered: what are we still underestimating?
Alternates: Niklas Zennström — Founder, Atomico & Co-Founder, Skype · Hemant Taneja — CEO & Managing Director, General Catalyst
Can We Have Technology Without Giving Up Ourselves?
Andy Yen — Founder & CEO, Proton
As AI learns more about us, privacy becomes one of the defining questions of the next technological era.
Who owns our data? Who controls our digital identity? And can we build enormously powerful technology without surrendering individual freedom?
Alternates: Meredith Whittaker — President, Signal · Moxie Marlinspike — Founder, Signal
What Happens When the World's Minds Connect?
Ijad Madisch — Co-Founder & CEO, ResearchGate
Science has always depended on connection. AI is about to radically accelerate it.
A founder's perspective on the future of research, knowledge, collaboration and the possibility of solving problems that once seemed impossible.
Alternates: Dario Amodei — Co-Founder & CEO, Anthropic · Emad Mostaque — Founder, Stability AI
Coffee & Connections
AI Doesn't Need to Become More Human. Humans Do.
Yuval Noah Harari — Historian & Bestselling Author · Sergey Brin — Co-Founder, Google · Andy Yen — Founder & CEO, Proton · Albert Wenger — Managing Partner, Union Square VenturesHosted by Nevsah Karamehmet
The defining conversation of TOA Istanbul. Not another panel about what AI can do — a conversation about what AI means for us.
Intelligence. Consciousness. Freedom. Power. Purpose. Human potential.
When intelligence is no longer uniquely human, what becomes valuable about being human?
Alternates: Tristan Harris · Mo Gawdat
Ten Minutes. Three Ideas. No Pitches.
Three extraordinary next-generation founders are given the TOA stage. Not to pitch their companies — to tell us one thing they believe about the future that most people in the room don’t believe yet.
Three founders. Ten minutes each. Three glimpses into what may come next.
The Next Decade Starts Here
Nevsah Karamehmet
We started the day talking about technology. We end it talking about possibility.
Because technology alone doesn't create the future. People do.
The Conference Ends. TOA Doesn’t.
The community moves from the stage to the Bosphorus for an evening of music, conversations, unexpected encounters and Istanbul at sunset.
No panels. No presentations. No name badges mentality. Just the people who are building what comes next.