[tomsmeding]

I live in the Netherlands, and I've never heard anything like that before. I live in The Hague, maybe it's a regional thing?

[sytse]

I used to live in the Netherlands and I'm writing this from Utrecht. The valleys are regional:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_Valley in Wageningen

2. https://www.healthvalley.nl/ in Nijmegen

3. http://www.metalvalley.eu/nl/home in Brabant

4. https://www.immunovalley.nl/ in Utrecht

5. https://legalvalleynederland.nl/ in Arnhem

6. https://www.energyvalley.nl/ in the northern provinces

If you like partying you can always go to: https://dancevalley.com/

[skrebbel]

The pattern is so overused that organizations that never even tried to amount to something adopted it. Eg I was once at an event organized by "DSP Valley", which was never more than someone behind a desk organizing a few (mediocre) networking events: https://www.hightechcampus.nl/bedrijven/dsp-valley.

[Aeolun]

Coming back to the Netherlands from abroad it often feels like they’re pretty good at coming up with what I would consider fairly cringeworthy names.

[skrebbel]

Yep! I myself live and work in the area (Eindhoven) that willingly calls itself "Brainport". I hear the word almost daily for ten years and I still cringe.