Sourcing clarity in the fog of ideas. Lighting your way to ideas.
In-person and across the Bay.
The Bay's intellectual scene is rich, varied, and hard to find.
Burnoff brings it into view. Expand your horizon.
96 upcoming conferences and symposia in the Bay Area. 29 are in the next seven days; the list is updated daily.
A week-long series of talks, workshops, and hackathons exploring open-source artificial intelligence. The event brings together researchers, engineers, and developers to discuss advances in open-source AI models, tools, and methodologies, with hands-on sessions designed for participants at all experience levels.
A weekend hackathon tackling real-world challenges in climate, mental health, justice reform, and art & design in partnership with the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and four Bay Area nonprofits. Developers and non-technical innovators form teams to build solutions including a satellite-based land-planning game for community engagement, mental health support tools for formerly incarcerated people, impact-tracking systems for rehabilitation programs, and scalable design-justice practices. Past winners have presented at UN conferences and launched YC-backed startups. $5,000 in total prizes. Hosted by Value Economy Network.
An interactive afternoon summit centered on youth voice and civic engagement for children and families. Participants will engage with hands-on stations in art, music, writing, and voting, with inspiring youth speakers, movement breaks, and a quiet room for reading and regrouping. Hosted at Santa Clara University.
A full-day family event exploring AI's impact on child development, education, and human connection. The program features research presentations and founder conversations on how generative AI is reshaping childhood learning; panels on skills children need for an AI-driven world; workshops including a philosophy discussion ('Can a robot be a friend?') led by The Paradox Lab; an exhibition on brain development co-created with illustrator Linda Liukas; and a startup showcase where families can try emerging AI products for children. Speakers and workshop leaders include researchers, educators, and builders from leading institutions and startups.
Launch event for the new Center for Global Maternal and Child Health, a collaborative initiative between the UCSF Institute for Global Health Sciences and the UCSF Bixby Center for Reproductive Health. The symposium showcases maternal and child health research and programs across UCSF with lightning round presentations, roundtable discussions, and opportunities for cross-campus collaboration. Lunch provided.
Veena Dubal, Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law and General Counsel of the American Association of University Professors, whose research combines legal and ethnographic methods to study gig work and algorithmic wage-setting, presents Data Laws at Work — the closing session of the Future of Workplace Regulation Colloquium, a five-part series on how emerging technologies are reshaping employment law. Held in the Deb Colloquium Room.
A two-day conference on market and consumer research — how insights teams work, and what AI, behavioural science, and UX methods are doing to the discipline. Greenbook runs it across three stages, sixteen hosted roundtables, and some sixty sessions, with live technology demonstrations and a startup pitch competition alongside the talks. Speakers include Stanford professor Byron Reeves; Kristen Griffith, insights director at Clorox; Rob Gaige, global head of marketing insights at Reddit; Kendra Shapiro, who leads consumer insights and UX research at Ancestry; Mike Carlon of Charter Communications; and Maya Kantak of Rocket, with further speakers from Microsoft, Visa, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Airbnb. Part of the programme is reserved for client-side researchers.
An annual summit on artificial intelligence and leadership hosted by ODSC (Open Data Science Community). The event brings together data scientists, AI practitioners, technology leaders, and business professionals to explore emerging trends, applications, and implications of AI systems. Held at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport. Pre-registration required; paid attendance.
ODSC AI West 2026 is a multi-day conference bringing together practitioners, business leaders, and AI professionals to explore reskilling opportunities, emerging technologies, and leadership strategies in an AI-driven economy. The summit features keynotes, expert panels, and topic-focused sessions on AI applications, workforce transformation, and organizational strategy. Hosted by the Open Data Science Community at Hyatt Regency SFO.
The Open Data Science Conference (ODSC) AI West 2026 brings together data scientists, machine learning engineers, and AI practitioners for workshops and hands-on training led by industry experts. The conference features technical sessions on AI research, applications, and emerging tools, with opportunities to learn from leading practitioners across academia and industry. Multi-day program with keynotes, breakout sessions, and networking.
A series of four seminars on advances in genome engineering for stem cell biology and therapeutic development. Featured speakers include James Gardner (UCSF) on normothermic perfusion systems for ex vivo human biology, Dan Wagner on single-cell phenotyping in CRISPR-edited embryos, Michelle Gbenedio on organoid development, and Alex Pollen on experimental techniques for village culture organoids. Sessions run Oct 13–Dec 8, 2026 at UCSF.
The Information's annual summit for women in tech, media, and finance — what the initials stand for — held over two days at a Yountville resort. The format is onstage interviews with chief executives across the three industries, together with panels, breakout sessions, and networking; published topics include AI agents, the changing shape of SaaS, robotics, crypto financing, and AI in creative work. Tuesday runs as an evening reception and dinner, with the main interview programme on Wednesday. Speakers had not been announced at the time of listing.
A regional summit convening 250+ senior women leaders from Bay Area business and civic sectors to discuss pressing issues shaping the region's economic and social future. Keynote from First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Hosted by the Bay Area Council at PG&E Auditorium.
The Future of Decision-Making Conference examines how AI-enabled systems are reshaping high-stakes decision-making across military commands, intelligence analysis, crisis management, and clinical settings. Hosted by Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation, the conference brings together scholars, practitioners, and operational experts to discuss cognitive surrender, military decision-making and AI, and featured research presentations. Topics include how reliance on machine outputs reshapes professional judgment and how AI is changing command decisions in practice. October 28, 2026.
An in-person summit for enterprise IT leaders, technical decision-makers, and infrastructure architects scaling agentic AI systems at scale. Hear from enterprise leaders deploying and debugging AI agents in production, exchange technical strategies on inference economics, memory and context infrastructure, AI factory architectures, and agentic workload orchestration. VentureBeat curates a focused peer-networking environment designed for meaningful one-on-one conversations across industries and access to proprietary research on how enterprises are scaling agentic AI.
A conference bringing together customer experience leaders and AI experts to explore the intersection of AI and business strategy. Speakers include James Green and Hemant Taneja, alongside industry practitioners and researchers examining how organizations are deploying AI systems and rethinking customer engagement in an AI-driven landscape.
A Stanford HAI conference exploring the societal implications of rapid AI advancement, centered on workforce and labor concerns. Keynote speakers include Fei-Fei Li (Founding Director, Stanford HAI), James Landay (Denning Director, Stanford HAI), Jeff Dean (CEO, DiscoveryLoop), and Audrey Tang (Cyber Ambassador-at-large, Taiwan). The conference addresses widespread anxiety about AI's impact across sectors, examining questions of human worth and place in a shifting technological landscape.
A summit bringing together 1,000+ founders, investors, and innovators from 30+ countries to advance immigrant entrepreneurship and build connections across the global startup ecosystem. The event features keynotes, expert panels, and networking sessions designed to support immigrant-founded companies, attract venture capital, and showcase the economic contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs to innovation and job creation in the Bay Area and beyond.
Regenerate Conference explores the intersection of ranching and grassland bird conservation. Hosted by Point Blue Conservation Science, the conference brings together land managers, conservationists, ranchers, and ecologists to discuss sustainable grazing practices and habitat restoration that support bird populations and ecosystem health across working rangelands.
A symposium connecting UCSC students with BIPOC environmental and sustainability professionals, organizations, and career pathways. Attendees will learn directly from practitioners across environmental fields, explore diverse career opportunities, and build professional networks. The event centers BIPOC leadership and businesses in the sustainability sector, offering students resources, mentorship, and connections to support their academic and career development in environmental work.
The 4th annual Collaborative Learning Experience on Reproductive Justice brings together medical students, law students, social work students, undergraduates, and others for a day of transdisciplinary learning. Co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley–UCSF Joint Medical Program, UC Berkeley Gender & Women's Studies, the School of Social Welfare, and the Center on Reproductive Rights & Justice, the workshop integrates perspectives from medicine, law, social work, and gender studies to explore reproductive justice as a framework connecting health, rights, and systemic inequality.
The EaRTH Center's 5th Annual Research & Translation Forum convenes researchers, clinicians, and innovators around the theme 'Shaping Health Futures: Leveraging Emerging Technologies to Advance Chronic Disease and Pediatric Research.' The day-long program features research presentations, an environmental health poster session, and collaboration opportunities among Center members and awardees. Hosted at UCSF Mission Bay.
A half-day summit on infrastructure for autonomous AI agents, featuring 10 live product and technical demos from selected teams, a keynote on connected and collaborative AI systems, and a panel discussion on the infrastructure requirements for agentic applications. Speakers and judges include Dan Ndombe (Docker), Brett Liu (Sixty Degree Capital), Benny Liao (Acorn Pacific Ventures), and Vandon Duong (DCVC). Topics span agent runtime, tool use, multi-agent orchestration, context and memory systems, inference and serving, and evaluation and security. The curated room of approximately 80 attendees includes founders, engineers, researchers, investors, and enterprise leaders building in the agentic AI space.
A multi-session conference for forward-deployed engineers, founders, and operators working in AI. The program features keynotes, breakout sessions, and fireside chats exploring emerging practices, technical challenges, and industry trends in AI deployment and engineering. Designed for practitioners navigating rapid AI adoption across organizations.
Open Source AI Week is a multi-day conference featuring expert-led tech talks, workshops, bootcamps, and crash courses on building and deploying AI systems. This session showcases three leading platforms: Temporal (workflow orchestration), Arize (ML observability), and Databricks (data and AI infrastructure). Designed for developers at all levels seeking to deepen their skills in open-source AI tools and methodologies.
A comprehensive conference on heart rhythm disorders and arrhythmia management, featuring world-renowned cardiologists and electrophysiology experts. Plenary sessions explore digital health, wearables, and emerging technologies in arrhythmia care. Three parallel tracks with rapid-fire sessions cover mechanisms of cardiac fibrillation, inherited arrhythmias, catheter ablation strategies, and stroke prevention. Designed for physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, fellows, residents, and students seeking CME/CEU credits. Free in-person registration for Stanford-affiliated attendees; professional registration available at sliding scale ($90–$390). Hosted by Stanford University.
A summit on belonging, identity, and America's future co-hosted by UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, School of Law, Graduate School of Journalism, and the Othering and Belonging Institute. The event brings together scholars, policymakers, journalists, and community leaders to explore how Americans can reimagine national identity and strengthen social cohesion at a pivotal moment. Free to attend.
USF's second Enterprise AI Summit brings together industry leaders, researchers, and practitioners to explore applications of AI in enterprise settings. The event spotlights USF's MS in Data Science and AI program and Data Institute, featuring talks on AI research, career pathways, and industry trends. Designed for students, professionals, and anyone interested in understanding how AI is reshaping business and technology.
A conference celebrating the academic legacy of David Hoy, Professor of Philosophy at UC Santa Cruz. The program features panels on his scholarly contributions, mentorship, leadership as department chair, and intellectual influence, with speakers including Christoph Cox (New School), Colin Koopman (University of Oregon), Martin Jay (UC Berkeley), James Clifford and Donna Haraway (UCSC), David Chalmers (NYU), and many of Hoy's former students and colleagues across philosophy, history, and the humanities.
Stranger Builds is a one-day in-person hackathon (October 31) followed by seven days of remote development, challenging builders to ship new software and find real users. Participants compete for $10,000 in cash prizes and credits, with challenges announced during the event. The hackathon brings together engineers, designers, and makers to build AI agents, apps, and other creative projects, supported by sponsors Base44, Fetch.ai, Vonage, and Shelled AI. Part of NERDCONF's global network of 25,000+ builders.
Death Day is a half-day symposium exploring mortality, grief, and meaning-making through talks, storytelling, and conversation. Ecologist Kirra Swenerton discusses ecological grief as reverence for biodiversity loss; Maria Mangini traces the cultural history of mourning dress and bereavement customs from the Middle Ages to present; Tom Banger explores terminal diagnosis and proximity to death. Hosted by The Berkeley Alembic.
OSA Con 2026 brings together engineers, architects, and builders working at the intersection of open source data infrastructure and AI. The conference features deep technical talks on AI workloads and data management, agentic analytics platforms, real-time analytics, shared data lakes, and emerging open-source architectures. Speakers include Lisa Cao (Databricks) on AI agents writing Apache Spark pipelines, Wei-Chin Call (Grafana Labs) on benchmarking AI agents for debugging, Jason Smith (Google) on serverless eventing for AI data pipelines, Aditi Pandit (IBM) on the Presto C++ engine, and Alex Merced (Dremio) on agentic lakehouses, alongside sessions on AI-generated code licensing, infrastructure dashboards, data lock-in, RISC-V Kubernetes clusters, and AI-powered analytics for gaming. November 2, 2026, AWS Builder Loft, San Francisco.
AgentCamp is a community-led unconference where early adopters of AI agent technologies gather to share experiences, challenges, and solutions. The program opens with lightning talks on agent engineering, AI memory, AI loops, and LLMs, followed by attendee-proposed breakout sessions across three rounds. Designed for builders, entrepreneurs, and anyone curious about practical AI applications, the event emphasizes peer learning and real-world use cases. Hosted by TechEquity AI, a nonprofit democratizing access to AI knowledge, as part of the broader TechEquity AI Summit series.
The Stanford Medicine Children's Health Center for IBD and Celiac Disease Research Symposium brings together faculty, trainees, postdocs, students, and researchers to discuss the latest advances in diagnosing, managing, and treating pediatric inflammatory bowel disease and celiac disease. The day-long program features translational research presentations and clinical discussions at the forefront of both fields, with opportunities to learn about innovations in therapy and patient care. Researchers are invited to submit abstracts.
TechEquity AI Summit 2026 features keynote talks and hands-on AI agent workshops. The event explores applications of generative AI across industries and skill-building in emerging AI tools and methodologies. Free to attend.
A mission-driven summit for founders building defense tech and dual-use startups, alongside government officials and investors. The conference aims to highlight early- and growth-stage companies, foster public-private collaboration, and equip founders with insights and community to succeed in defense innovation. Includes a pre-conference Founder Bootcamp on November 3rd with tactical guidance and direct engagement opportunities. November 4, 9:00 AM–5:30 PM PT.
A hands-on workshop introducing Snowflake Data Cloud, covering platform navigation, data organization, access management, querying structured and semi-structured data, and built-in AI/ML capabilities. Led by Dave Doan and Richie Bachala, Senior Delivery Manager and Senior Manager of Applied Engineering at Snowflake, respectively. Part of the TechEquity AI Summit, a series of events combining keynotes, panels, and technical workshops designed to democratize AI knowledge and applications.
The 14th Structural Proteomics Symposium brings together world leaders in structural biology, mass spectrometry, cryo-electron tomography, computational structure prediction, and integrative modeling. Following the 2025 Milan meeting (130+ participants), this West Coast premiere promises an exceptional lineup of keynotes, cutting-edge research presentations, and collaboration opportunities spanning crosslinking, hydrogen-deuterium exchange, covalent labeling, limited proteolysis, native mass spectrometry, and top-down approaches. Hosted by the Quantitative Biosciences Institute at UCSF.
Part of the TechEquity AI Summit, this half-day program combines a keynote on GraphRAG patterns with a hands-on 90-minute workshop on AI Gateway architecture and governance. Learn core concepts including build-vs-buy tradeoffs, cost visibility, rate limiting, and sensitive data redaction using Snowflake AI Gateway as a primary case study, with comparison to alternatives like LiteLLM, Kong, and Cloudflare AI Gateway. Speakers: Okhtay Azarmanesh, Principal AI/ML Architect at Snowflake, and Stephen Chin, VP of Developer Relations at Neo4j. No prerequisites beyond familiarity with AI agents and LLMs.
A one-day summit exploring the data systems and infrastructure that power AI training. Attendees will hear from practitioners running some of the most ambitious training runs, discussing their architectures, technical tradeoffs, failures, and lessons learned. Designed for AI builders, engineers, researchers, and those working on the systems enabling large-scale model training.
Data for AI meetup exploring open versus proprietary approaches to data infrastructure in the age of AI agents. Topics include open table formats (Iceberg, Delta, Hudi), semantic standards, catalog federation, and the trade-offs between interoperability and vendor lock-in. Practitioner talks and case studies from data engineers, AI/ML engineers, and platform architects on production experiences with open standards, agent deployment patterns, and when walled gardens make sense.
AIAS+ 2026 brings researchers, founders, and students together to explore AI applications in scientific discovery across disciplines. The three-day conference features frontier talks, seven workshops, and collaborative roundtables—Nobel and Turing laureates, founders, and students at the same table. Participants share work in progress, present selected projects on the main stage, and build collaborations designed to last beyond the event. Hosted by the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, the conference emphasizes problem-solving over disciplinary silos, with daytime conversations, shared meals, and evening receptions. Early-stage work and individuals attending solo are equally welcome. Register at aiasplus.org.
BoxWorks Dev Summit is a two-day conference for developers, technical leaders, and builders working with intelligent content management and AI. Thursday features keynotes from Aaron Levie (Box), Jensen Huang (NVIDIA), and Lip-Bu Tan (Intel), followed by technical sessions and interactive demos in the Expo Hall Dev Zone. Friday offers hands-on programming workshops and technical deep dives on building with Box, AI, and leading AI tools. The summit includes peer networking and developer community connection. November 5–6, San Francisco Marriott Marquis.
An exploration of bioelectricity across molecular, membrane, and cellular scales, featuring scientific presentations from leading researchers. The 2026 Philomathia Day honors Associate Professor Karthik Shekhar, John F. Heil Jr. Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and member of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley. Speakers include Stephen Brohawn, Na Ji, Olga Dudko, Kranthi Mandadapu, Bill Jia, Eric Mulhall, and Christoph Haselwandter. The day includes breakfast, lunch, and an evening reception.
A two-day conference on how product, design, research, and engineering teams actually work together, built as one cross-functional agenda rather than separate tracks per discipline. Speakers include Rachel Been, SVP of design at Expedia Group; Sneha Narahalli, who heads product and UX at Sephora; Richard Dalton, chief design officer at Verizon; Shobha Diwakar, VP of ads product and engineering at Snap; Ashley Nutter, SVP of product and design at CNN; Purvi Shah, who leads UX design, research, and accessibility at Target; and Maz Brumand, VP of product at Ōura. Keynotes and case studies run alongside hands-on workshops, a partner expo, and evening socials.
A one-day summit for engineers, founders, and product leaders building and deploying voice agents in production environments. The program covers practical technical and operational challenges: latency, turn-taking, interruptions, handoff, observability, orchestration, and compliance. Confirmed speakers include Kaan Karakas (Delphi), Vyoma Gajjar (ServiceNow), Pete Warden (Moonshine AI), Jessica Powell (Audioshake), and others. Sessions include opening keynotes, technical talks, hands-on workshops, lightning talks, and direct access to 20+ vendor booths. Attendees will gain architecture patterns, evaluation frameworks, and lessons from real deployments—what worked, what broke, and what changed after launch.
A day of talks and fireside chats on AI infrastructure and security from The Velocity Room, a technologists' membership community. Tom Edwards, EY's Americas consumer AI lead, on what it takes to scale generative and agentic AI across an enterprise; Zane Niyazbekov of AWS infrastructure supply on the land, power, and water behind a hyperscale data center; Christine Boles, a 33-year Intel veteran who ran its federal and industrial edge-computing business, on edge compute and physical AI in industry; Joseph Bisaccia of Behavior Frontiers on standing up an AI function under HIPAA; and Cal Al-Dhubaib of Rubrik on keeping AI systems from becoming autonomous insiders. A security session, a community AMA built from questions gathered over lunch, and a closing happy hour round out the program.
A summit convening practitioners, leaders, and organizations across the Bay Area focused on inner development goals—the personal capacities, skills, and mindsets needed to address complex social challenges. The event brings together advocates of systems change, social innovation, and human-centered approaches to community impact.
The Startup World Cup Grand Finale brings together founders, investors, and industry leaders for a day of startup pitches competing for $1M in investment. The event features keynote speakers, networking, and a live pitch competition modeled on a venture-capital tournament. Special guest Daymond John from ABC's Shark Tank will participate. Hosted by Santa Clara University at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco on November 6, with transportation provided from the SCU campus.
A one-day conference examining how major technology platforms shape public life for billions in the Global Majority—Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and parts of Asia and Oceania—and why rights and safety protections remain concentrated in wealthy nations. Three panels explore the ideological foundations of tech power (the tech right), geopolitical dimensions of AI governance, online harms and accountability mechanisms, and the labor and financial systems sustaining counter-power. Hosted by Stanford's Center for South Asia in partnership with the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, We Are Noor, and DRF USA.
A full-day symposium exploring how artificial intelligence can create meaningful real-world impact while ensuring its progress benefits society. Participants engage in five interconnected areas: Responsible & Sustainable Innovation, AI Safety, Long-Context Web Search, Climate Change, and the ethical implications of technological advancement. The program includes a resilience workshop, frontier exploration sessions, a hands-on 2-hour prototyping workshop with mentors from Neo, Frontier Lab, and major tech companies, live demos, judging, and networking. Designed for researchers, engineers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, students, and anyone curious about the future of AI.
A pitch competition and conference showcasing deep-tech ventures at the intersection of health, AI, brain-machine interfaces, longevity, precision health, wearables, and robotics. Five finalist teams present to compete for a $25K prize. Keynote by John L. Hennessy, President Emeritus of Stanford and Chairman of Alphabet, in conversation with Prof. Zhenan Bao, eWEAR Faculty Director. The day includes pitches from teams including AlignSight Medical, Lume Health, CircuCare, and others, followed by a startup demo showcase and networking reception. Hosted by Stanford University's eWEAR initiative.
The 23rd Annual Graduate Research Symposium celebrates work across all academic divisions at UC Santa Cruz, featuring graduate student presentations in poster, talk, and mixed-media formats. The event showcases research from sciences, engineering, humanities, social sciences, and other fields, offering a window into current graduate scholarship and emerging work by early-career researchers.
A full-day film and dialogue event exploring the Ecosex Movement—a practice that reimagines Earth as lover rather than resource, blending environmental activism, art, and sensuality. Founders Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle present three documentary films spanning their work from Appalachian mountaintop removal protest (Goodbye Gauley Mountain, 2013) to California water politics (Water Makes Us Wet, 2017) to wildfire aftermath (Playing with Fire, 2025). Each screening includes a Q&A with the directors. The day also features an interactive Ecosex Bingo game, book signings for Assuming the Ecosexual Position, tabling, and community conversation. Doors open 11:30 AM; programming runs through 8 PM.
A day-long celebration of marine science at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center featuring the return of Ms. Blue, a reconstructed Great Blue Whale skeleton. Attendees can ask marine scientists about whale biology, ocean ecosystems, and the Center's conservation research; create art at a community mural; explore a special exhibit on the whale's reconstruction; participate in music and movement activities; and enjoy coastal explorations and behind-the-scenes experiences. The festival includes food trucks, local makers, and live music throughout the day.
After Tokens is a one-day technical conference on the infrastructure behind AI product economics: metering, credits, entitlements, billing, and the systems that keep them in sync. Speakers include Dor Sasson (CEO, Stigg), Jonah Cohen (Tech Lead for Financial Engineering, OpenAI), Jerone Z. Ng (Former Head of Monetization Engineering, GitLab), Vidhi Agrawal (Director of Commercial Capabilities, Databricks), and engineering leaders from Webflow, Mixpanel, and other companies. Topics span metering and usage data, pricing infrastructure, AI cost control, and agent economics. Designed for backend, platform, and AI infrastructure engineers, technical founders, and engineering leaders building AI products.
A full-day conference for builders, founders, and engineers working with Apify's AI agent platform. Featuring keynotes, live demos, and talks from teams already shipping with Apify Actors, plus direct access to the Apify team. All-day catering and an evening reception included. Apify is the largest marketplace for AI tools, providing ready-made solutions for powering AI apps, lead generation, market research, and web automation.
A one-day summit on real-time AI infrastructure and agentic AI for enterprise. Speakers include Akamai leaders, NVIDIA engineers, industry visionaries, and futurist Salim Ismail discussing inference optimization, AI agent security, scaling strategies, and organizational transformation. Programming features a live multimodal application teardown, hands-on code workshops, and networking with CTOs, founders, and engineering leaders. Held at Oracle Park, San Francisco, November 2024.
A four-part lecture series on advances in genome engineering for stem cell biology and therapeutic development. Sessions feature cutting-edge research on organoid models, single-cell phenotyping, ex vivo tissue engineering, and culture techniques. Speakers include Michelle Gbenedio (UCSF) on organoid basics, Dan Wagner on Cas9-edited embryos, James Gardner on perfusion systems, and Alex Pollen on analytical techniques for organoid culture. UCSF, Fall 2026.
TAP (Technology in Architectural Practice) Symposium explores the integration of AI and emerging technologies into architectural design and professional practice. Hosted by AIA San Francisco at the Center for Architecture + Design, this symposium brings together architects, technologists, and design leaders to discuss how AI is reshaping workflows, creative processes, and the future of the built environment.
A two-day multidisciplinary symposium exploring precision pharmacology for pregnant women, fetuses, and children. Despite advances in precision medicine, maternal and pediatric populations remain underrepresented in pharmacology research. The symposium brings together researchers, clinicians, pharmacologists, trainees, and experts across maternal and child health, precision medicine, translational science, and implementation science to identify evidence gaps, advance safe and individualized pharmacotherapy, and foster interdisciplinary collaboration. Hosted by UCSF at the Wayne and Gladys Valley Center for Vision.
Santa Clara University's celebration of World Philosophy Day features a full day of talks, panels, and performances exploring philosophical questions. The schedule includes keynote addresses from philosophy faculty and alumni, including Dr. Meilin Chinn on 'Singing in a Thicket of Questions,' panels with SCU alumni and department faculty (Drs. Justin Clardy and Scott LaBarge), student lightning talks, and the university's Ethics Bowl Team. The event combines formal presentations with social time, meals, and community engagement.
A showcase of practical ethics projects from Stanford's 2026 Ethics and Technology Practitioner Fellows, exploring critical intersections of technology and ethics through inquiry, stakeholder engagement, and organizational reform. Projects span community deliberation on data centers, AI-accelerated carbon emissions, and AI regulation. The event welcomes civil society actors, policymakers, industry leaders, and academics to discuss exercising ethical leadership amid barriers to change.
A two-day symposium on artificial intelligence applications in biology, organized by the Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) at UCSF. Speakers and organizers include Brian Cheung, Tanja Kortemme, Nevan Krogan, and Kliment Verba, alongside leading experts in protein design, structural dynamics, cell systems, and deep learning algorithms. The program features focused presentations and discussions designed to foster collaboration among researchers, learners, and innovators working at the intersection of AI and biological science.
An unconference for edtech founders, leaders, and educators to share ideas and learn from peers. Participants suggest topics at registration, then break into three rounds of facilitated discussion groups organized around those themes — no presentations or pitches. Dinner provided. Hosted by The Commons SF.
Vision Weekend USA 2026 marks the 40th anniversary of the Foresight Institute, a three-day conference celebrating frontier science and technology. The gathering features keynotes and expert panels from prominent researchers and technologists including Adam Marblestone, Alex Gladstein, Christine Peterson, Erika DeBenedictis, Hannu Rajaniemi, Illia Polosukhin, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, and 54+ additional speakers. Programming includes cutting-edge presentations, expert office hours, unconference discussions, 1:1 networking, immersive experiences, and live technology demonstrations. The institute will award a $10,000 grant to a project advancing the frontiers of science. Foresight Institute has historically championed early-stage research in nanotechnology and artificial general intelligence.
A full-day hands-on workshop where participants build an AI Software Factory using Band's infrastructure for agent collaboration. Developers, designers, founders, and builders of all experience levels will learn how AI coding agents coordinate to produce working software from specifications, using Band Desktop tools. The day includes prize announcements, a panel discussion, and technical introductions. Participants may work solo or in teams; bring your laptop and relevant tools/accounts. Organized by HackerSquad at AWS Builder Loft.
A symposium honoring film theorist Mary Ann Doane, featuring scholars across three thematic sessions: Technology/Epistemology (Wendy Hui Kyong Chun on LLMs and archives, Nico Baumbach on cinema, Kristen Whissel on 3D film and doubling, Yuriko Furuhata on climate and deep time); Mediating Time (Althea Wasow on cinema and racialization, Pooja Rangan and Joshua Guilford on politics and avant-garde form, Rosalind Galt on anticolonial feminism); and Desire and the Politics of Form (Maggie Hennefeld, Karl Schoonover, Erika Balsom on voyeurism and feminist film theory, Marc Steinberg on Japanese cinema). Facilitated by Kristen Whissel and Damon Young of UC Berkeley.
Vision Weekend USA is Foresight Institute's flagship three-day conference celebrating the organization's 40th anniversary. The event brings together frontier researchers, builders, and funders working on transformative science and technology across AI safety, neurotechnology, longevity, molecular manufacturing, energy, and space. The program features keynotes from leading researchers including Wojciech Zaremba (OpenAI), Robin Hanson (George Mason University), Adam Marblestone (Convergent Research), and others; lab tours at venues including the Internet Archive and Lighthaven; 1:1 connections; tech demos; and office hours. Attendees compete for a $10,000 grant for frontier projects. Includes VIP pre-party aboard the USS Hornet. March 2026, San Francisco.
A beginner-friendly, hands-on hackathon where builders, hackers, artists, and scientists conduct real wet-lab experiments and compete for prizes. Tracks include longevity & AI, robotics, biosecurity, DeSci tooling, and real-time bio-imaging. No PhD, entry fee, or prior experience required—designed for anyone biocurious enough to engage with biotech as a tool for creative expression and learning. Judged by biotech founders and backed by frontier-science partners. Hosted at Frontier Tower.
A five-day curated delegation to Japan examining industrialized housing construction methods and mass timber prefabrication in seismic zones. Bay Area Council delegates tour cross-laminated timber plants, prefabrication facilities, and finished projects in Tokyo, Yokohama, and Shizuoka, meeting with Japanese developers, manufacturers, and government agencies. The program is designed for California housing and policy leaders to evaluate which industrialized construction methods are economically viable in California markets, establish supplier relationships as domestic CLT and prefab supply chains form, and study seismic-tested precedents for mass timber construction.
Microsoft's flagship conference for IT professionals, developers, and enterprise technology teams, running four days at the Moscone Center with a pre-day of training on 16 November. The program covers the company's AI, cloud, and security stack through breakout sessions, hands-on labs, and technical deep-dives, and runs as a hybrid event with sessions also delivered online. It is Microsoft's main annual venue for product announcements, so much of the schedule is oriented to its own platforms rather than to the field at large.
The 3rd Annual Silicon Valley IP Forum convenes judges, law firm and in-house counsel, and IP law academics for substantive discussion on intellectual property practice and policy. Hosted by Stanford University at Munger Complex.
A two-day summit exploring AI's transformation of software engineering and the infrastructure needed to scale from individual agents to enterprise-grade AI software factories. Day 1 features hands-on workshops on Terraform automation, MCP servers, AI SRE governance, and engineering workflows. Day 2 includes keynotes from Kelsey Hightower (GitHub) and speakers from NVIDIA, 1Password, and Port, covering agentic SDLCs, orchestration, security, and scaling. Breakout sessions and technical deep dives with 200 engineering leaders, CTOs, and AI practitioners. November 17–18, 2026 at SHACK15, Ferry Building, San Francisco.
A two-day conference exploring the contemporary relevance of Jaina ethics across normative philosophy, virtue and care ethics, environmental sustainability, bioethics, and political discourse. The conference examines foundational Jaina principles—reverence for life, nonviolence, karma, dharma, and moral duties—and their practical applications to questions of self, other, and society. Hosted by Professor Bilimoria and featuring guest speakers from around the world, the program includes keynote lectures, panel discussions, and breakout sessions at the University of San Francisco.
UCSF's Engineering Biology Initiative inaugural symposium brings together researchers and innovators in synthetic biology and bioengineering. The program features a keynote by Dr. Dawn Beraud (UCSF Resource Allocation Program awardee), project presentations showcasing EBi-supported research, lightning talks, and an interactive poster session. Attendees will learn about emerging work across the engineering biology community and connect with peers in the field.
A multi-track technical deep dive into agentic AI systems and their real-world deployment across the full application stack. Engineers and founders will hear from leaders at Databricks, Neon, SpaceX AI, Vercel, OpenAI, and WorkOS on production patterns, failure modes, and architectural models for autonomous agents — covering backend infrastructure, data layers, quality control, and observability. Topics include live demos of agent-driven infrastructure, strategies for production-quality code generation, democratizing app development for non-coders, and deploying agents safely with human guardrails. The evening includes networking with software engineers, ML/AI developers, and startup founders.
The Big Tent is an AI safety convention convening researchers, technologists, policymakers, and advocates to shape humanity-driven AI futures. Hosted by Effective Altruism San Francisco, the two-day event brings together the AI safety community for panels, talks, and discussion on technical safety research, governance, alignment, and societal implications of advanced AI systems. November 20–21, 2026 at Mox, San Francisco.
First session of a four-part salon series exploring generative (rather than extractive) capital and organizational models aligned with social healing and ecological stewardship. The salon convenes angels, family offices, philanthropic foundations, mission-driven VCs, and systems thinkers to reimagine how capital flows through organizations built for mutual benefit. This session defines generative capital through keynote provocations, case studies of eight organizations operating outside traditional for-profit and non-profit structures, and small-group dialogue exploring organizational needs and ontological design principles. Participants will co-create a draft list of Generative Capital Principles. The series will continue with sessions on legal and financial innovation models, funder thesis and landscape mapping, and organizational prototyping. Ticket sales support DrawBridge's arts programs for children experiencing housing instability.
A day-long celebration of The Berkeley Alembic's new managing director Anisa Charucksiri and the organization's next chapter, featuring eight teachers offering art, meditation, voice, dance, somatic connection, and kirtan throughout the afternoon and evening. Co-founders Michael Taft and Erik Davis will share long-term visions, with a community gathering and guided meditation in the late afternoon, followed by dancing, kirtan, and live music into the night. Food trucks and tea service available. Open to the Alembic community and curious guests.
A one-day symposium convening climate and environmental justice leaders, practitioners, policymakers, and academics to reimagine how billions in climate financing can serve frontline communities. The event explores pathways for adaptation and mitigation funding that center community voices while aligning investment strategies with academic research and policy. Keynote speakers include Silvia Paz, Founder and Executive Director of Alianza Coachella Valley, and Dave Jones, former California Insurance Commissioner. The symposium features presenters from CBOs, environmental justice organizations, global climate justice practitioners, and local and global leaders. Participation is capped at 50 to facilitate meaningful discussion. Apply to attend or propose a breakout session. Hosted by UC Santa Cruz at the Silicon Valley Campus on December 4, 2026.
The largest annual gathering of Earth and space scientists, back at the Moscone Center for five days and drawing a stated 25,000-plus researchers from more than 100 countries. The program spans the range of the geosciences — climate, atmospheric and ocean science, seismology, volcanology, hydrology, planetary science, and space physics — through technical sessions, poster halls, workshops, and panel discussions. AGU also runs mentoring and career programming, a careers fair, and sessions putting researchers in front of policymakers. Sessions are available both in person and online.
The Bay Area Council, LAUNCH Apprenticeship Network, and Northern California Apprentice Network are bringing together Bay Area businesses facing talent challenges, with the education and workforce systems capable of providing solutions. Businesses will hear how workforce, education, and their peer business leaders within California & the Bay Area have come together to build programs and talent pathways that respond to today's most critical labor needs.
The BUILD SF Summit convenes business and civic leaders to examine how San Francisco can address its housing and infrastructure needs through strategic development. The program showcases transformational projects underway in the city, explores the real estate landscape and the policies shaping new development, and identifies innovative public-private partnerships tackling the city's economic and civic challenges. Attendees will learn about mixed-use development hurdles—zoning, financing, changing demand for office and residential space—and how investment drivers and policy incentives influence project feasibility and long-term competitiveness.
A symposium celebrating student research in data science and analytics. Participants present poster projects developed with mentors across UC Berkeley and industry, applying data skills to real-world challenges in design, analysis, and tool-building. The event includes presentations, networking, and awards recognizing contributions to the data research community.
A 3-day conference (January 14–16) exploring cutting-edge health technologies and advancements across longevity, women's health, diagnostics, biotech, peptides, stem cells, mental health, digital infrastructure, DeSci, and healthcare finance. Hosted by Aiify.io as a major JPM Healthcare Week side event, the summit features keynote presentations, panels, fireside chats, product demos, and a startup pitch competition with investor audience. Includes networking, co-living community options, and a HealthTech Wearables Fashion Show. In-person with livestream available.
Asia Society Northern California's annual conference on U.S.-China relations and future engagement. Convenes policy experts, business leaders, academics, and civic stakeholders to discuss bilateral relations, trade, technology, security, and strategic competition between the world's two largest economies. January 14, 2026, at the City Club of San Francisco.
FOG Design+Art Fair celebrates leading international art galleries and contemporary design dealers with four days of exhibitions and programming. FOG Talks features dynamic conversations with artists, designers, and technology leaders exploring current practice across visual arts and design. Single-day tickets ($35–$40) and four-day passes ($95–$100) include entry to both the main fair and FOG FOCUS, plus access to all talk sessions.
The CIFE annual Industrialized Construction Forum convenes industry leaders, innovators, and startups exploring off-site construction, prefabrication, 3D printing, robotics, and emerging business models reshaping how buildings are made. Since 2014, the IC Forum has served as the premier knowledge-exchange hub for this growing community across the Bay Area and globally, bridging research and practice in next-generation construction technology and methodology.
The Military Veteran Startup Conference convenes the veteran-founded startup ecosystem for its 6th year. Attendees—founders, venture capitalists, and investors—learn how to build and scale businesses while networking with peers and supporters. The program features veteran-led and veteran-focused VC firms, with a focus on connecting entrepreneurs to capital and community.
A statewide symposium on the evolution of prehospital emergency medical services and community care, convening EMS leaders, frontline providers, researchers, regulators, trainees, funders, and community partners from across California. The conference explores how prehospital care is adapting to pressing challenges, with emphasis on mental health, substance use disorder, and homelessness. Led by UCSF Department of Emergency Medicine and San Francisco Fire Department with support from the CARESTAR Foundation, the event bridges research and operational practice through keynotes, expert panels, and collaborative sessions on innovative care models, quality improvement, and emerging data to strengthen patient outcomes and system performance.
The 2027 Global and Planetary Health Research Convening brings together physician-scientists, engineers, economists, earth scientists, ecologists, and mathematical modelers to share original research and explore collaborations in global and planetary health. Hosted by Stanford's Center for Human and Planetary Health and Center for Innovation in Global Health, the full-day convening welcomes abstract submissions across disciplines addressing this year's theme. Thursday, February 11, 9am–3pm at Stanford.
UC Santa Cruz's Teaching Symposium showcases innovative teaching practices, programs, and scholarly work from across the campus community. The event brings together faculty, instructors, and educators to share methodologies, discuss pedagogical challenges, and explore new approaches to learning and instruction.
The 24th annual Practical Activism Conference is a day-long student-designed gathering on social justice issues, featuring keynote speaker Melina Abdullah, alongside panels, workshops, and hands-on creative activities. The conference, coordinated by students from College Nine and John R. Lewis College with support from UC Santa Cruz's CoCurricular Programs Office, aims to generate dialogue, question assumptions, and build tools for local and global change.
The BlackStar Greaves Seminar is a three-day gathering for artists, filmmakers, scholars, and curators working in cinematic media. Hosted by Stanford University's Institute for Diversity in the Arts, the seminar explores the technical and creative aspects of media-making through sessions, artist presentations, and intimate peer exchange. Attendees will connect with peers and center their practice while engaging with the natural beauty of northern California. Open to curators, film programmers, filmmakers, film workers, and film scholars; proposals for sessions are invited through October 5, with general registration opening in November.
The 51st annual Berkeley-Stanford Conference on Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies convenes scholars and experts to examine desire and dissent across the region. Co-hosted by UC Berkeley's Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ISEEES) and Stanford's Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREEES), this flagship interdisciplinary conference brings together researchers, historians, and policy analysts to discuss contemporary and historical dimensions of resistance, cultural expression, and social movements in Russia and Eastern Europe.
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