The Event

PI Live Europe: Festival of Partnerships London · 19-21 Oct 2026

PI Live Europe is Europe's largest performance and partnership marketing event, running across three London venues over three days. It pairs around 3,000 attendees with 16,500 pre-scheduled meetings, making it one of the most densely networked events on the European calendar. The audience skews toward marketers, publishers and technology platforms rather than brand founders directly.

If you're a US ecommerce founder weighing whether this earns a travel slot, a dedicated ecommerce show is the higher-value option first, since the room here skews toward marketers and publishers. It's still worth knowing about if partnership and affiliate marketing plays into your growth plan.

What this means for EU expansion

The Room

Who's expected at PI Live Europe: Festival of Partnerships 2026

PI Live Europe is built around the partnership marketing ecosystem: affiliate networks, publishers, agencies and the brand-side marketers who manage those relationships. It's less about brand founders walking the floor and more about the infrastructure that sits behind partnership-driven growth, which is why a US ecommerce founder will find fewer peers in the room than at a dedicated ecommerce show.

Where this room does add value for a growing brand is in finding the affiliate and publisher relationships that support performance marketing into Europe, a longer-term payoff rather than a quick pipeline of new contacts.

Affiliate & Partnership Marketers Publishers Retail Media Buyers Martech Platforms Agencies Brand-side partnership managers

For a growing brand seeking the next step up, is PI Live Europe: Festival of Partnerships 2026 a good fit?

Lower priority if you're hoping to network with peer founders; treat it as a partnership and affiliate-relationship trip instead.

Most relevant track

The Retail Media & Commerce Summit stream is the closest match to a brand founder's interests, covering retail media and commerce partnerships rather than pure affiliate mechanics.

Honest fit assessment

This is a stronger fit for finding European partnership and affiliate relationships than for meeting other brand founders directly, given the marketer and publisher-heavy audience.

Scale advantage

The pre-scheduled meeting format means a huge number of structured conversations can happen in a short window, which suits partnership-building even where founder density is lower.

Programme

What's on at PI Live Europe: Festival of Partnerships 2026

Three tracks anchor the confirmed agenda.

01 Retail Media & Commerce Summit

The track most relevant to ecommerce brands, covering how retail media and commerce partnerships are reshaping acquisition across European markets.

Retail media growth across Europe
Commerce partnerships that scale

02 Affiliate & Partnership Strategy

Core programming on affiliate network strategy, publisher relationships and performance measurement for partnership-driven growth.

Scaling affiliate programs internationally
Publisher partnership models
Attribution across partnership channels

03 Cross-Border Partnership Growth

Sessions on expanding partnership programs across European markets, relevant to any brand building a multi-country affiliate or influencer strategy.

Localizing partnership programs by market
Working with EU-based publishers

Live Intelligence

What's being said about PI Live Europe: Festival of Partnerships 2026

Themes shaping the October 2026 program.

Retail media is the fastest-growing track

ECOMMERCE EVENTS CALENDAR · JUL 2026

The Retail Media & Commerce Summit has expanded as brands look for partnership models beyond traditional affiliate marketing. This is the track worth prioritizing if founder time at the event is limited.

Meeting volume continues to scale

INTELLIGENCE UPDATE · JUN 2026

The event's 16,500 pre-scheduled meetings across three days confirm its position as Europe's largest performance marketing gathering. That density makes it efficient for partner discovery even when direct brand-founder attendance is lower.

Publisher and platform mix continues to diversify

INTELLIGENCE UPDATE · MAY 2026

The event has broadened beyond classic affiliate networks to include a wider range of martech and retail media platforms. That shift is widening its relevance slightly for ecommerce brands, though marketers still dominate the room.

Best treated as a partnership-network trip, not a founder-networking one

INTELLIGENCE UPDATE · JUL 2026

Given the audience mix, this event is better suited to European partner and publisher relationship-building than to meeting other brand founders directly. That's unlikely to change unless the founder-side attendance shifts materially.

The bigger picture

A partner-network event more than a founder event

PI Live Europe's real value for a growing US brand is less about meeting other founders on the show floor and more about building relationships with the European publishers, agencies and platforms that support partnership-driven growth. This is a partnership-network event, not a founder-networking one.

The audience is predominantly marketers, publishers and tech platforms rather than ecommerce brand founders.
The Retail Media & Commerce Summit track is the single most relevant stream for anyone thinking about brand growth.
The scale of pre-scheduled meetings makes it efficient for building a European partner and referral network.
Any US brand attending should expect to network with partnership infrastructure providers, not primarily peer founders.
Lower priority if you're looking to meet peer founders; worth attending specifically for partner-network development.

Treat this as a partnership-building trip rather than a customer-hunting one.

Total attendees

PI Live Europe pairs about 3,000 attendees with 16,500 pre-scheduled meetings, making it Europe's largest performance and partnership marketing gathering by scale.

3,000across 3 days

Pre-scheduled meetings

Higher meeting density than most events of its size, though founder representation is lower

16,500structured conversations

UK VAT threshold

UK VAT registration is triggered once turnover passes £90,000, a useful benchmark for any brand building partnership programs that eventually turn into UK sales.

£90,000registration trigger

Good to Know

Questions about PI Live Europe: Festival of Partnerships 2026

Is PI Live Europe built for ecommerce founders or for marketers?

Mostly marketers, publishers and technology platforms rather than brand founders directly, so you'll find fewer peers than at a dedicated ecommerce event, even though the content is relevant.

Which track at PI Live Europe is most relevant to a US ecommerce brand?

The Retail Media & Commerce Summit track is the closest match, covering retail media and commerce partnerships rather than pure affiliate mechanics.

Is PI Live Europe worth attending if you're not primarily an affiliate marketer?

It can be, if partnership and affiliate marketing plays into your growth plan. The event's scale and pre-scheduled meeting format make it efficient for building European partner and publisher relationships, even though you'll meet fewer peer founders than at a dedicated ecommerce show.

How big is the ecommerce opportunity in Europe for US brands?

Europe is one of the world's largest ecommerce regions, and many categories are less saturated than the US with lower advertising costs. Growth rates and shopper habits vary widely by country, so market data should be read per market.

Which EU countries should a US brand prioritize?

Germany is the largest EU ecommerce market and the Netherlands is one of the most logistics-friendly, with fast VAT registration and a central location. Many US brands use a Netherlands warehouse to serve both.

Should PI Live Europe be a priority for a growing ecommerce brand?

Lower priority if you're hoping to meet peer founders, but a reasonable one specifically for partner-network building. The two goals call for different expectations, and treating this as a founder-networking trip would overstate its value.

Make Your Move

Heading to London?

If PI Live Europe has you building out a European partnership strategy, it's worth pairing that with a clear view of the compliance and logistics groundwork behind it.

Expandly's Global Expansion Pathway (GEP™) covers what a US brand needs for VAT, product compliance and fulfillment before scaling partnership-driven growth into the UK and EU. We're happy to brief you before the event on how that groundwork supports your partnership plans. Want to talk through it ahead of October?