Tech Conference Series
How do I host an event at Tech Week?
5 min read
If you want to host an event at Tech Week, start on the Tech Week host page. Companies, startups, VCs, and communities can submit a proposal to host an individual event under the Tech Week umbrella. The Tech Week team reviews submissions and follows up after approval.
The value is straightforward. Distribution. Credibility. Access to the broader Tech Week calendar and audience. Tech Week is a decentralized technology conference presented by a16z, so there is no single main stage or expo hall. Instead, hundreds of events happen across each host city, and hosts build the week with their own programming.
Who can host, and what kinds of events work?
Tech Week is built for founders, investors, operators, and community builders.
The site says companies, startups, VCs, and communities can host events. That means a wide range of organizers can participate:
- Startup teams looking to meet founders and operators
- Venture funds hosting high-signal gatherings
- Companies running thought leadership or customer-facing programming
- Community groups creating meetups, dinners, or networking moments
Popular formats include panels, happy hours, hackathons, lunches, and experiential events. The Tech Week team also encourages creative ideas, so hosts are not limited to one format.
You can see that range in the featured programming on the site. Tech Week has highlighted events like IBM Masters of Scale Live with IBM CEO Arvind Krishna and Jeff Berman of WaitWhat / Masters of Scale, as well as a Deel and a16z masterclass featuring Deel co-founder and CRO Shuo Wang and a16z General Partner Anish Acharya. That is the model: practical, founder-relevant, and worth showing up for.
How the hosting process works
Hosting is simple at a high level:
- Submit a proposal through the Tech Week host page.
- Wait for the Tech Week team to review it.
- If approved, your event becomes part of the Tech Week ecosystem.
- Attendees discover it through the official calendar and register with you directly.
That last part matters. Tech Week is decentralized. Hosts control their own events. Attendees browse the official calendar, choose what fits their week, and apply or register through individual event hosts. In other words, Tech Week gives you the platform, but you still own the experience.
For hosts, that creates a clean path to reach a concentrated founder and technology audience without building the full distribution layer yourself.
What Tech Week gives hosts
Tech Week’s internal documentation is clear about the host value proposition: distribution, credibility, and access to the broader Tech Week calendar and audience.
That is especially useful if you are trying to:
- Put your brand in front of founders
- Create a curated room for investors and operators
- Launch a product or thought leadership moment
- Bring together a niche community around a specific topic
- Build relationships in a citywide, high-density environment
The public site also highlights sponsor and partner visibility. The 2026 sponsor area includes companies such as Andreessen Horowitz, Fenwick, HSBC Innovation Banking, IBM, a16z speedrun, Adobe Acrobat Studio, and Mostest. That shows the caliber of ecosystem participation around Tech Week.
And because the calendar is citywide, your event sits inside a larger flow of networking, panels, hackathons, happy hours, lunches, community meetups, and experiential events. That creates momentum. People come for one event and stay for more.
2026 cities and timing to know
Tech Week 2026 includes four major city editions:
- Boston: May 26–31, 2026
- New York: June 1–7, 2026
- San Francisco: October 5–11, 2026
- Los Angeles: October 12–18, 2026
The site notes that Tech Week will debut in Boston in 2026 and return to New York for the fourth year.
If you are planning ahead, timing matters. The homepage says submissions are open for SF Tech Week and LA Tech Week in 2026. That means if your event belongs in San Francisco or Los Angeles, now is the time to submit through the host page.
How to make your event more likely to stand out
The strongest Tech Week events are focused, useful, and easy to understand.
Lead with a real founder or operator reason to attend. A good event answers one simple question: why should this room exist during Tech Week?
A few practical guidelines:
- Choose a format that fits the audience
- Make the concept easy to explain in one sentence
- Keep the programming high-signal
- Build around a clear topic, customer, or community
- Make the event feel like it belongs in a citywide week of serious tech conversations
The site’s examples point in that direction. IBM used Tech Week for executive-level thought leadership. Deel used it for a practical founder masterclass. Both are clear, audience-specific, and valuable.
If you are a host, think like a curator. Not a programmer filling calendar space. A curator building the room people actually want to be in.
Ready to host?
Go to the Tech Week host page and submit your event proposal.
If you are a company, startup, VC, or community, Tech Week gives you a path to host under a trusted umbrella and reach the broader founder ecosystem. Panels. Happy hours. Hackathons. Lunches. Experiential events. Creative formats are welcome.
For 2026, keep an eye on the city schedule and the open submission windows. San Francisco runs October 5–11. Los Angeles runs October 12–18. Boston and New York also anchor the 2026 calendar with strong founder energy and citywide programming.
Build something people will remember. Submit it. Host it. Bring your community into the week.
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