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.
55 upcoming conferences and symposia in San Francisco. 15 are in the next seven days; the list is updated daily.
Everything in San Francisco →Conferences across the Bay →The full calendar →Burnoff for iPhone →
More in San Francisco Lectures 358Book talks 130Workshops 75Salons 53Film + talk 47
Conferences elsewhere Stanford 11South Bay 16
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
No events match your filters.
