{{ QCon San Francisco 2026 }}
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International software conference and certification for professional developers
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What's next in AI.
What's next in software.
From the teams already doing it.
60+ senior practitioners share what's working across AI, architecture, leadership, and culture so you can make better decisions for your team.
November 16-20, 2026
Hyatt Regency, San Francisco
Early Bird Deadline June 9th
Conference: $2,475
Need to convince your boss? Use our templates.
Trusted by senior engineering teams for 20+ years
What you’ll learn
Real-world patterns from senior developers at the leading edge
Architectures You've Always Wondered About
Daniela Miao
Co-Founder & CTO @Momento, Systems & Observability Nerd, ex-Lightstep, ex-DynamoDB
Architecting for Agents: Beneath the Loop
Julie Amundson
Senior AI Infrastructure Consultant, ex-Googler, ex-Netflixer
Something About Distributed Systems
Vidhya Arvind
Tech Lead & a Founding Architect for the Data Abstraction Platform @Netflix, Previously @Box and @Verizon
Staff+ Engineering Skills
Javier Fernandez-Ivern
Staff Software Engineer @Netflix with Over 24 Years in Software Engineering
Code Beyond Engineers & Engineering Teams
Blanca Rojo
Executive Director, Distinguished Engineer and Cloud Engineer @UBS
Guardrails & Safety Nets (Evals) for the New Landscape
Modern API Design
Krystal Flores
Staff Software Engineer @Crunchyroll, Previously @Carta, @Lob, @Simple Habit, and @Nordstromrack.com|HauteLook
Real World Platform Engineering
Daniel Bryant
Platform Engineer, Co-Author of "Mastering API Architecture", Java Champion, and InfoQ News Manager
Developer Experience as a First-Class Architecture Concern
Resilience Engineering: Everything Fails All the Time
Vanessa Huerta Granda
Resilience Engineering Manager @Enova, Co-Author of the Howie Guide on Post Incident Analysis, Board Member for the Resilience in Software Foundation
Engineering AI Systems
Melanie Zhao
Engineering Lead @BlackRock, Pioneering AI Adoption in Asset Management
Data Platforms Reimagined
Adi Polak
Director, Advocacy and Developer Experience Engineering @Confluent, Author of "Scaling Machine Learning with Spark" and "High Performance Spark 2nd Edition"
Need to convince your boss? Use our templates.
Trainings
Save your training seat today. Select your favorite training later.
All training day participants will be notified and invited to select their trainings once all training sessions are confirmed by end of August 2026.
Training days are refundable until September 21, 2026.
Thursday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / HALF DAY
Building AI Agents: A Practical Framework for Choosing the Right SDK
The AI agent ecosystem has exploded with options—Google's Agent Developing Kit, Claude SDK, OpenAI Agents, LangGraph, Pydantic AI, and more emerging monthly. But which one should you actually use?
Hien Luu
Sr. Engineering Manager @Zoox & Author of MLOps with Ray, Speaker and Conference Committee Chair
Thursday Nov 20 / 01:00PM PST / HALF DAY
AI-Assisted Coding Master Class: Build Your Mission Control
Most engineers aren't spending enough time setting up their environment to get the most out of their coding agents.
Sepehr Khosravi
Machine Learning Platform Engineer @Coinbase, Award Winning Instructor @UC Berkeley - Gen-AI Bootcamp, Founder @AI Squads
Friday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / FULL DAY
Effective AI-Native Development with Harness Engineering
Most AI coding demos are greenfield theater. Your real work isn't. It's a 12-year-old codebase with patchy tests, a tangle of frameworks from three eras, and conventions nobody can fully explain.
Zichuan Xiong
Head of AIOps @Thoughtworks
Premanand Chandrasekaran
Head of Technology @Thoughtworks
Thursday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / HALF DAY
AI for Java Developers
AI has become an unavoidable topic in software development, and many Java developers are wondering if they need to learn Python to participate. The answer is no.
Dan Vega
Java Champion & Spring Developer Advocate @Broadcom
Nate Schutta
Software Architect @Thoughtworks, Java Champion, author of "Thinking Architecturally" and "Responsible Microservices"
intermediate
Friday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / FULL DAY
Agent MCP Workshop: Building Your Own Java-Based MCP Server
The MCP Workshop is an instructor led, hands on learning series focused on building a Java based server that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) from the ground up.
David Parry
Principal Architect @Qodo
intermediate
Thursday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / HALF DAY
The Human Architecture Problem: Designing Teams That Scale With AI [Half-day version]
Your technical architecture is sound. Your human system is broken. In AI-driven organizations, the bottleneck usually isn't the tool - it's the team structures, decision rights, and trust dynamics that determine whether humans and AI can actually work together effectively.
Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg
Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders
Thursday Nov 20 / 01:00PM PST / HALF DAY
The Fundamentals of Software Engineering in the Age of AI
Every few years, something comes along that's supposed to end software engineering as we know it. IDE features that write code for you. Low-code. No-code. Now AI. And every time, the role adapts, the fundamentals stay, and the people who understand the craft come out ahead.
Nate Schutta
Software Architect @Thoughtworks, Java Champion, author of "Thinking Architecturally" and "Responsible Microservices"
Dan Vega
Java Champion & Spring Developer Advocate @Broadcom
intermediate
Thursday Nov 20 / 01:00PM PST / HALF DAY
Psychological Safety as Infrastructure: Building Teams That Fail Fast With AI
AI adoption doesn't fail because of bad tools. It fails because people don't feel safe to experiment, flag errors, or admit they don't trust the output.
Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg
Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders
intermediate
Friday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / FULL DAY
The Human Architecture Problem: Designing Teams That Scale With AI [Full-day version]
Your technical architecture is sound. Your human system is broken. In AI-driven organizations, the bottleneck usually isn't the tool - it's the team structures, decision rights, and trust dynamics that determine whether humans and AI can actually work together effectively.
Charlotte de Jong Schouwenburg
Co-founder of @Bravely, Business Psychologist, Executive Coach, Trainer, Speaker, 12+ Years Experience Enabling High Performing Teams and Leaders
Friday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / FULL DAY
Architectural Decision-Making: Trade-Offs, Constraints, and Long-Term System Health [TENTATIVE]
More details coming soon.
Thursday Nov 19 / 09:00AM PST / HALF DAY
Cracking the Black Box: Forensic Debugging Post-LLM [TENTATIVE]
More details coming soon.
Friday Nov 20 / 09:00AM PST / FULL DAY
From Startup to Hyperscale: Engineering Organizations and Platforms for Growth [TENTATIVE]
More details coming soon.
Thursday Nov 19 / 09:00AM PST / HALF DAY
From Kubernetes-Native to Ai-Powered: Java With Langchain4j [TENTATIVE]
More details coming soon.
Thursday Nov 19 / 01:00PM PST / HALF DAY
"AI Powered" DevOps Lifecycle [TENTATIVE]
More details coming soon.
Thursday Nov 19 / 01:00PM PST / HALF DAY
Next Generation Inclusive UIs: Building Accessible and Performant User Interfaces [TENTATIVE]
More details coming soon.
The InfoQ Certified Architect Program at QCon San Francisco
A cohort of senior engineers and architects, working through QCon together.You already know how to build systems. You've shipped production software, navigated tradeoffs, and made decisions under pressure.
Luca Mezzalira
Principal Serverless Specialist Solutions Architect @AWS | Author of “Building Micro-Frontends” | International Speaker
2026 Program Committee
Meet the international senior software
practitioners curating the conference
Why attend QCon San Francisco
Validate your approach. Move forward with conviction.
Technology decisions are getting harder.
You don't need another hidden product pitch.
You need senior practitioners who've been where you are.
QCon connects you with senior practitioners who've already navigated similar trade-offs.
Need to convince your boss? Use our templates.
Validate your strategy
Benchmark your approach against teams who've faced similar challenges
Real production patterns
Learn from systems at scale, not proof-of-concepts
Honest lessons
Hear what failed, not just what worked
No hidden product pitches
Sessions selected by practitioners, not sponsors
Career-defining skills
Technical and leadership practices that differentiate you
Senior practitioners helping senior practitioners.
No hidden product pitches. Just peers sharing what works.
The breadth of topics and the quality of speakers is incredible.
QCon puts more emphasis on the human connections between the sessions.
Speakers from all around the world, at the forefront of their field.
QCon puts more emphasis on the human connections between the sessions.
Unconferences are a space for everyone to share best practices.
Eye-opening! I can't wait to implement what I've learnt.
You don't see big pressure on selling you stuff. It’s all about learning and helping you grow.
Unconference sessions— they turn out to be a really beneficial feature of the conference.
Curation sets QCon apart. Tracks are curated by track hosts that know that field well.
Connections. Everyone here is passionate about what they do and how they grow.
It's one of the most innovative conferences I've been to.
QCon gives us the opportunity to zoom out and look at our reality from a different perspective.
Practical takeaways. New perspectives.
The QCon experience
Deep technical sessions. Peer conversations that change how you think.
Conference experience
12 curated tracks
60+ peer-selected international speakers
Deep technical dives
Hear what failed, not just what worked
Extended networking
Conversations, peer sharing and social events
Video access
12 months of on-demand recordings
Optional experiences
Understand what’s coming next
QCon speakers are at the leading edge adopting emerging technologies in
production before they're proven. Learn from their experience to reduce your
risk.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)
- Multimodal AI
- Agentic AI / Orchestration
- Physical AI
- Reasoning Models
- AI DevOps
- AI-powered hardware
- AI in Robotics aka Embodied AI
- LangOps or LLMOps
- Knowledge Graphs
- Brain-Computer Interfaces
- Robotics
- Edge inference and model training
-
Large-scale distributed
deep-learning
- Small Language Models (SLMs)
- Explainable AI
- Automated Machine Learning (AutoML)
- Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
-
Generative AI/Large
Language Models (LLMs) - Cloud agnostic computing for AI
- Data Contracts
- Data Observability
- Virtual Reality e.g. VR/AR/MR/XR
- Cognitive Services
- Graph Data Analytics
- IoT Platforms
- Synthetic data generation
- MLOps
- Vector Databases
- AI coding assistants
-
Image Recognition
(Computer Vision) - Natural Language Processing
- Deep Learning
- Open Table Formats (OTFs)
- Data Mesh
- Digital Assistants
- Apache Beam
Source: InfoQ AI, ML and Data Engineering Trends Report - 2025
Your team at QCon
Bring your colleagues for faster results
Engineering Leaders & CTOs
Validate multi-year technology strategy. Understand which emerging practices are ready for enterprise adoption.
Software Architects & Principal Engineers
Get architectural patterns from teams who've scaled systems you're planning to build. Learn their tradeoffs.
Senior Developers & Staff+ Engineers
Develop technical judgment for complex decisions. See how leading teams solve problems similar to yours.
Need to convince your boss?
Use our pre-written templates.
Get three days of practical insights from 60+ senior
software practitioners. Use these takeaways to:
Reduce project risk
Learn from real-world failures to avoid costly mistakes
Benchmark your approach
Understand how leading teams tackle problems you're facing
Accelerate delivery
Apply architectural and operational patterns that work at scale
Validate technology bets
Learn from engineers who adopted first to reduce your risk
Build team capability
Equip yourself and your team with durable, relevant skills
Reduce decision risk
Validate technology direction with practitioners who've already made the bets you're considering
A safe and inclusive environment
The QCon 'We Care' experience
Enforced Code of Conduct
All-Gender restroom
Prayer room
Lactation room
Quiet areas
Sessions feedback for constant improvement
Badge optimized for peer-sharing
Accessible event space
Variety of food options (vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, special diet meals)
Detailed food labels
Diversity scholarships
Community events
DEI guidelines for track hosts and speakers
All-day coffee
Flexible online experience
On-demand access for 12 months
QCon San Francisco venue
Hyatt Regency - San Francisco
Our official venue and hotel sits right on the Embarcadero waterfront, offering stunning views and easy access to SF's best attractions. Skip the morning commute and stay right where the conference happens.
Visit the venue page to book your hotel room at the QCon exclusive rate.
Explore past QCon talks
Who attends QCon
Technical leaders, senior engineers, and software architects making technical decisions
34%
TECHNICAL TEAM LEADS AND HIGHER,
SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS
23%
SENIOR DEVELOPER / LEAD ENGINEER
24%
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER
Trusted by senior engineering teams for 20+ years
QCon and InfoQ have guided software teams through every shift: cloud, containers, microservices, and now AI.
Sessions are selected by an international program committee for depth, relevance, and real-world value. No hidden product pitches.
Real teams. Real stories. Real results.
20 years
Helping senior dev teams adopt the right patterns and practices
550k per month
Global senior software developers relying on the InfoQ community to stay ahead
4,500+ per year
Senior developers learning emerging trends and practices at our QCon international software development conferences
Unable to make it to QCon San Francisco?
Take a look at:
QCon AI Boston 2026
When: June 1-2, 2026
Where: Boston University, George Sherman Union, Boston, MA