By Emily, Events & Community Correspondent — Zip AI News Team
I have a theory about conferences, and it is this: the best story is almost never on the main stage. It is ten feet away. It is the founder in the hallway who just got told no for the ninth time. It is the engineer at the espresso cart explaining the thing she built to someone who finally understands it. It is the guy in the parking lot at midnight, still talking.
You cannot get to any of that if you are not in the room. And you cannot be in the room if you did not know the date.
So here is the whole map. Ninety-four events, from right now through December 2027. I pulled every date from the organizer’s own site or the venue calendar — not from some listicle recycling last year’s schedule. Sixty-nine are locked. The rest are marked [est.], meaning the pattern is reliable but the announcement has not landed, so do not book a flight on my say-so.
Some of these are enormous. Some are 500 people in a hotel ballroom in downtown Miami, and honestly those are frequently the better ones. Both are on the list. Here is how to read the ratings:
- 🔴 CRITICAL — clear the calendar
- 🟠 HIGH — be there or cover it properly
- 🟡 MEDIUM — stream the keynote, write the recap
- 🟢 NICE — good to know it exists
- 🌴 — happening in South Florida
These are rated for an AI-first agency based in Fort Lauderdale — coverage value, client relevance, travel cost. Not attendance. A 70,000-person show in Lisbon can matter less to us than a 500-person room in Brickell.
First, the five I would not miss
1. A flying car lands in Ocean City — next week
E-Volution Expo, September 18–20, Roland E. Powell Convention Center, Ocean City, MD.
This one is nine days out and it is genuinely strange in the best way. Ocean City, Maryland — a boardwalk town — is throwing its first innovation weekend, and the headline attraction is a street-legal BlackFly flying car piloted by Heather Chirtea, the first woman in the United States to own and fly one.
Fifteen exhibitors across five pillars — health and wellness, sustainability, EV and hybrid transportation, smart home, and AI and robotics. Beach yoga on Saturday morning. Expert panels running 11:00 to 4:00 both days. EV test drives along the bay.
And then Saturday night, this happens:
More than 150 synchronized Teslas running a choreographed light show from 7:00 to 9:30 PM. A hundred and fifty cars, one program, on a beach. If you have ever wondered what a small town does when it decides to take technology seriously, this is the answer, and it is extremely fun.
Saturday the 19th is the day. Expo floor open 10:00 to 5:00, panels all afternoon, light show at night.
2. The TEDx nobody saw coming
TEDx Butterfish Cove, Friday September 18, Performing Arts Center, Ocean City, MD.
The day before the expo floor opens, Ocean City hosts its first-ever TEDx. Nineteen speakers, two sessions, 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, across wellness, technology, leadership and entrepreneurship.
The lineup is not what you would expect from a beach town. John Huffington, an exonerated Death Row survivor and author. Heather Chirtea again, this time on stage instead of in the cockpit. Eric Rittmeyer, a former Marine who works in mental health. Tickets are public and still available.
Inaugural TEDx events have a particular energy — nobody has done this before, everyone is slightly terrified, and the talks are usually better for it.
3. CES 2027 — the one that eats Las Vegas
January 6–9, 2027, Las Vegas Convention Center + Venetian.
Around 140,000 people descend on a city that was not built for 140,000 extra people, and for four days every consumer AI device on earth is in one place. Cars that drive themselves. Screens that roll up. Six hundred robots that fold laundry badly.
CES sets the news cycle for the entire year. Whatever you are going to be arguing about in March, you first saw it here in January. If Zip AI covers one show live, it is this one.
Practical advice from someone who has done the walk: the good stuff is in the halls nobody maps. Eureka Park, where the startups are, is worth more of your day than the main floor.
4. SXSW 2027 — where the tech story becomes a culture story
March 15–21, 2027, Austin, TX.
Seven days where technology, film, music and culture stop pretending they are separate industries. SXSW is the only event on this calendar where you can watch an AI policy panel and a showcase for a band from Reykjavík in the same afternoon, and where the conversation on the sidewalk between them is the actual point.
For anyone making media, this is the richest week of the year. The B-roll alone justifies the trip.
5. Miami’s spring run
South Florida stops being a nice place to visit and starts being the venue. Four flagship events inside ten weeks, all of them a short drive from the office:
- eMerge Americas — March 2–4, Miami Beach Convention Center. South Florida’s flagship tech conference and the gateway between the US and Latin America.
- AI Engineer Miami — April 26–27, Hyatt Regency downtown. About 500 people, roughly 70% decision-makers, and the highest signal-per-square-foot room on this entire list.
- Frontier Tech Week — April 26–30. AI Engineer Miami, a crossover day, then React Miami, stacked back to back downtown.
- Consensus Miami — May 4–6, Miami Beach. 15,000 people from more than 100 countries, the largest crypto conference in the Americas.
And before all of that, right now: Sibos brings the global banking industry to the Miami Beach Convention Center from September 28 to October 1. Thousands of financial executives, in our city, most of whom have never talked to local media.
The one nobody puts on the culture list
NVIDIA GTC, March 15–18, 2027, San Jose.
No street festival, no light show, no flying car. Just several thousand technical sessions and one keynote that quietly sets the price and the ceiling of AI compute for the following year. Everything downstream — what your tools cost, what they can do, how fast they run — moves after this week. Watch it even if you never go.
The full calendar
September 2026
- Sep 15–17 — Dreamforce 2026 — San Francisco, Moscone Center — 🟠 High
Agentforce roadmap sets the bar every CRM vendor copies. - Sep 15–17 — AI Infra Summit 2026 — Santa Clara, CA — 🟡 Medium
Chips, data centers and the cost floor under every AI product. - Sep 17 — SFIMA: Customer Experience, AI & The New Customer Economy 🌴 — Fort Lauderdale — 🟠 High
Home-turf marketing crowd. Cheap night out, real local pipeline. - Sep 18 — TEDx Butterfish Cove — Ocean City, MD — 🟠 High
Nineteen speakers, two sessions, and a first-year TEDx with something to prove. - Sep 18–20 — E-Volution Expo 2026 — Ocean City, MD — 🔴 Critical
Flying car, 150+ synchronized EVs, five innovation pillars. Saturday the 19th is the day. - Sep 23–24 — Meta Connect 2026 — Menlo Park, CA — 🟡 Medium
Smart glasses, Llama and the consumer AI hardware race. - Sep 28 – Oct 1 — Sibos 2026 🌴 — Miami Beach Convention Center — 🔴 Critical
The global banking world lands in our backyard. - Sep 28–30 — Yotta 2026 — Las Vegas — 🟢 Nice
Data center and edge infrastructure deal-making. - Sep 29 — OpenAI DevDay 2026 — Fort Mason, San Francisco — 🔴 Critical
One day that resets what every AI product can do. Keynote streams free.
October 2026
- Oct 5–7 — Agentic AI Summit — Loudoun County, VA — 🟢 Nice
- Oct 6–9 — Jupiter Entertainment, Media & Sports Festival 🌴 — Miami Beach — 🟠 High
Media and sports leadership on our doorstep. - Oct 7–8 — World Summit AI 2026 — Amsterdam — 🟡 Medium
- Oct 12–15 — OCP Global Summit — San Jose, CA — 🟢 Nice
- Oct 13–15 — TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 — Moscone West, San Francisco — 🔴 Critical
Startup Battlefield 200 plus the Real World AI stage. Best density of founders in one building. - Oct 17 — Day of Data Orlando — Orlando, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Oct 18–21 — Money20/20 USA — Las Vegas — 🟠 High
Where money infrastructure gets decided. - Oct 19–22 — Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo — Orlando, FL — 🟠 High
Where enterprise CIOs set next year’s budget. Drivable. - Oct 20–22 — NVIDIA GTC Berlin — Berlin — 🟡 Medium
- Oct 22–23 — AGNTCon + MCPCon North America — San Jose, CA — 🟠 High
MCP and the open agent stack — exactly what our connectors run on. - Oct 25–28 — Oracle AI World — Las Vegas — 🟡 Medium
- Oct 27–29 — ODSC AI West — Burlingame, CA — 🟢 Nice
November 2026
- Nov 9–12 — Web Summit Lisbon — Lisbon — 🟠 High
Around 70,000 people. The biggest tech gathering on the calendar. - Nov 9–12 — KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA — Salt Lake City — 🟡 Medium
- Nov 10–12 — Adobe MAX 2026 — Los Angeles — 🔴 Critical
Firefly, video and the creative tooling our media production runs against. - Nov 15–20 — SC26 (Supercomputing) — Chicago — 🟢 Nice
- Nov 15–20 — Live! 360 Tech Con — Orlando, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Nov 17–20 — Microsoft Ignite — San Francisco — 🟠 High
- Nov 18–19 — Slush 2026 — Helsinki — 🟡 Medium
- Nov 30 – Dec 2 — APIConf — Clearwater, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Nov 30 – Dec 4 — AWS re:Invent 2026 — Las Vegas — 🔴 Critical
60,000 people and the year’s biggest cloud release wave.
December 2026
- Dec 2–3 — ODSC AI NYC — New York — 🟢 Nice
- Dec 2–4 — TechLeader Summit — Clearwater, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Dec 4–6 — Art Basel Miami Beach + Miami Art Week 🌴 — Miami Beach — 🔴 Critical
The whole city becomes a venue. AI art, the Tech Basel AI Summit, and every satellite party worth filming. - Dec 6–12 — NeurIPS 2026 — Sydney, with Atlanta and Paris satellites Dec 9–13 — 🟡 Medium
- Dec 7–10 — ArchConf — Clearwater, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Dec 7–11 — GITEX Global — Dubai — 🟡 Medium
- Dec 8–11 — Convergence 2026 🌴 — Miami — 🟠 High
- Dec 9–10 — The AI Summit New York — Javits Center — 🟡 Medium
- Dec 11 — KCD Florida 🌴 — Miami — 🟢 Nice
- Dec 15–16 — World Summit AI Qatar — Doha — 🟢 Nice
January 2027
- Jan 6–9 — CES 2027 — Las Vegas — 🔴 Critical
- Jan 10–12 — NRF: Retail’s Big Show — New York, Javits Center — 🟡 Medium
- Jan 29–30 — BSides St. Pete — St. Petersburg, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Jan 31 – Feb 3 — Web Summit Qatar — Doha — 🟢 Nice
February 2027
- Feb 16–23 — AAAI-27 — Montreal — 🟢 Nice
- Feb 22–24 — AI Software Factory Summit 🌴 — Hollywood, FL — 🟠 High
Serious AI engineering twenty minutes up the road.
March 2027
- Mar 1–4 — MWC Barcelona — Barcelona — 🟠 High
- Mar 2–4 — eMerge Americas 2027 🌴 — Miami Beach — 🔴 Critical
- Mar 7–10 — HumanX 2027 — Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas — 🔴 Critical
9,500+ attendees, 350+ speakers, all AI, all deployment-focused. - Mar 8–10 — Gartner Data & Analytics Summit — Orlando, FL — 🟡 Medium
- Mar 15–18 — NVIDIA GTC 2027 — San Jose — 🔴 Critical
- Mar 15–21 — SXSW 2027 — Austin — 🔴 Critical
- Mar 15–18 — KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe — Barcelona — 🟢 Nice
Clashes with GTC. Pick one. - Mar 15–18 — Channel Partners Conference & Expo — Las Vegas — 🟢 Nice
- Mar 22–25 — Adobe Summit 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟠 High
- Mar 22–24 — Shoptalk Spring — Las Vegas — 🟢 Nice
- Mar 30 – Apr 1 — AI Agent & Copilot Summit — San Diego — 🟡 Medium
April 2027
- Apr 5–8 [est.] — RSAC Conference 2027 — San Francisco — 🟠 High
AI security is the story of 2027. This is where it gets argued. - Apr 13–15 — Google Cloud Next 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟠 High
- Apr 25–30 — STAREAST — Orlando, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Apr 26–27 — AI Engineer Miami 2027 🌴 — Hyatt Regency, downtown Miami — 🔴 Critical
- Apr 26–30 — Frontier Tech Week 2027 🌴 — Downtown Miami — 🔴 Critical
- Apr 29–30 — React Miami 2027 🌴 — Miami — 🟠 High
May 2027
- May 4–6 — Consensus Miami 2027 🌴 — Miami Beach — 🔴 Critical
- May 10–12 — ODSC AI East — Boston — 🟢 Nice
- May 11–12 [est.] — SaaStr AI Annual — San Mateo, CA — 🟡 Medium
- May 12–13 [est.] — Google I/O 2027 — Mountain View — 🟠 High
- May 18–20 [est.] — Microsoft Build 2027 — Seattle — 🟠 High
- May 24–26 — SAP Sapphire — Orlando, FL — 🟢 Nice
- May 25–28 — Web Summit Vancouver — Vancouver — 🟡 Medium
June 2027
- Jun 7–11 [est.] — Apple WWDC 2027 — Cupertino — 🟠 High
- Jun 7–11 — London Tech Week — London — 🟢 Nice
- Jun 16–19 — VivaTech 2027 — Paris — 🟡 Medium
- Jun 16–17 [est.] — TNW Conference — Amsterdam — 🟢 Nice
July 2027
- Jul 15–17 — Bitcoin 2027 — Nashville, Music City Center — 🟠 High
The flagship Bitcoin conference returns to Nashville. - Jul 27–29 — ChannelCon 2027 (GTIA) — Orlando, FL — 🟢 Nice
- Jul 31 – Aug 5 — Black Hat USA 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟠 High
August 2027
- Aug 5–8 [est.] — DEF CON 35 — Las Vegas — 🟡 Medium
- Aug 9–13 [est.] — SIGGRAPH 2027 — Los Angeles — 🟠 High
Computer graphics, generative video and virtual production. - Aug 10–12 [est.] — Ai4 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟡 Medium
September–December 2027
- Sep 14–16 [est.] — Dreamforce 2027 — San Francisco — 🟡 Medium
- Sep 30 – Oct 2 [est.] — Bits & Pretzels — Munich — 🟢 Nice
- Oct 18–21 [est.] — Money20/20 USA 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟡 Medium
- Oct 18–21 [est.] — Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo 2027 — Orlando, FL — 🟡 Medium
- Oct 25–28 [est.] — Oracle AI World 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟢 Nice
- Oct 26–28 [est.] — TechCrunch Disrupt 2027 — San Francisco — 🟠 High
- Nov 1–4 [est.] — Web Summit Lisbon 2027 — Lisbon — 🟡 Medium
- Nov 9–11 [est.] — Adobe MAX 2027 — Los Angeles — 🟠 High
- Nov 16–19 [est.] — Microsoft Ignite 2027 — city TBA — 🟡 Medium
- Nov 17–18 [est.] — Slush 2027 — Helsinki — 🟢 Nice
- Nov 29 – Dec 3 [est.] — AWS re:Invent 2027 — Las Vegas — 🟠 High
- Dec 2–5 [est.] — Art Basel Miami Beach 2027 🌴 — Miami Beach — 🟠 High
- Dec 6–10 [est.] — GITEX Global 2027 — Dubai — 🟢 Nice
- Dec 6–12 [est.] — NeurIPS 2027 — city TBA — 🟢 Nice
What we are actually covering
Nobody can do all ninety-four, and pretending otherwise is how a newsroom ends up with thin coverage of everything and good coverage of nothing. So here is our honest list:
- Everything in South Florida. Thirteen events, six of them flagship, all inside a forty-minute drive. Sibos, Art Basel, eMerge Americas, AI Engineer Miami, Frontier Tech Week, Consensus.
- E-Volution Expo and TEDx Butterfish Cove, next weekend in Ocean City. Flying car, light show, nineteen speakers.
- CES 2027, live from Las Vegas in January.
- The keynote moments — OpenAI DevDay, GTC, Adobe MAX, re:Invent — streamed, watched, and turned around fast.
If your event belongs on this list and is not here, tell me. I will add it. This calendar gets updated as organizers confirm the estimated dates, so bookmark it rather than screenshotting it.
See you in the hallway.
— Emily
Sourcing: dates verified against organizer websites and venue calendars in September 2026. Events marked [est.] are projected from historical scheduling patterns and are not officially announced — confirm before booking travel. Images produced by the Zip AI media team.