Join Google DevFest 2026: Dates, Tracks, and RSVP

DevFest season is open. Google says the 2026 run starts October 1 and ends December 31, with nearly a million developers and builders expected across more than 800 events in 115 countries. Each event is hosted by a local Google Developer Group, not by a single global venue.

If you write Android apps, prototype in Google AI Studio, or want a day of workshops on Firebase and Gemini, this is the practical way to meet people doing the same work. Tickets are not one global price. Some events are free. Others charge a small fee for the venue and catering. You have to check the page for the city you plan to attend.

What DevFest 2026 is

DevFest is the community conference series run by Google Developer Groups. Google backs the season. Each group sets its own agenda for the local tech scene. The official theme this year is “Build, Secure, Scale: Developers and Builders in the Agentic Era.”

Google lists the tools attendees should expect to use in codelabs, workshops, and agent-athons: Gemini, Google AI Studio, Google Antigravity, Google Cloud, Firebase, Android, Flutter, Angular, and Web MCP. Sessions are meant to be hands-on, not a slide deck about a product you cannot try.

The season page on Google for Developers splits the audience into three groups. Professional developers are pointed at safer, scalable apps on the Google stack. AI builders who are not full-time engineers are pointed at moving a first app toward something they can run in production. Tech enthusiasts are pointed at live Gemini demos and workshops.

Who can go, and what it costs

DevFest is not limited to professional developers. Google says events are open to product managers, designers, students, and people who want to use AI on real problems. Sessions span AI, Cloud, mobile, and web, and they are written for mixed skill levels.

Cost is local. The FAQ on the DevFest page says ticket prices vary because each Google Developer Group organizes its own event. Do not assume a meetup in your city matches the price or the schedule of a DevFest two countries away.

You do not need a Google AI subscription to attend. Bring a laptop if the agenda includes a codelab. Most workshops ask you to sign in with a Google account so you can open AI Studio, Firebase, or Android Studio on site.

How to find and register for a local event

1. Open the DevFest event directory at developers.google.com/community/devfest. Google points to that page as the place to find a local event.
2. Search by city or country. The directory lists events planned by Google Developer Groups. If your city is missing, check gdg.community.dev for the nearest group. A group may publish its DevFest page a few weeks before the date.
3. Read the agenda before you pay or RSVP. Look for the track names, the length of workshops, and whether a session needs a laptop, a GitHub account, or a specific Android Studio channel.
4. Register on the event page. Some groups use a simple RSVP. Others use a ticket platform with a waitlist. Save the confirmation email. It usually has the venue address and any badge pickup time.
5. Follow #DevFest for schedule changes. Google asks attendees to use that tag for updates, recaps, and news. Local groups also post changes on their own channels.

If you already use coding agents in the IDE, read the Android Studio bring-your-own-agent setup before a studio workshop. That guide covers the Rabbit 2 canary path for Antigravity, Claude Agent, and Codex, which is the kind of workflow agent-athon sessions tend to assume.

Tracks you should expect

Google describes three realities the tracks are built around.

Build. New tools let more people prototype and ship faster. Expect sessions on Gemini, Google AI Studio, and Antigravity, plus Android and Flutter labs if the local group covers mobile.

Secure. The brief from Google is that speed should not skip stability. Look for sessions on secure deployment, data privacy, and responsible AI guardrails. If a talk only shows a demo with no mention of keys, permissions, or data handling, ask about those in the Q&A.

Scale. The third track is production infrastructure: models and cloud services you can run after the weekend, including Firebase and Google Cloud. A useful session names the product, the quota, and what happens when the free tier runs out.

Local groups choose the mix. A city with a strong Android community may fill the day with device labs. Another may spend the afternoon on web and Angular. Read the schedule instead of assuming every event matches the global theme slide.

What a useful day looks like

A full DevFest often mixes short talks, panels, project showcases, and longer workshops. Google’s community page lists technical content from Googlers and Google Developer Experts, community meetups, hacking and debugging sessions, and mentorship blocks. You will not get all of that in every city. Smaller events compress the same idea into one room and a few hours.

Pick one workshop you will finish, not four you will sample. Agent-athons reward a working prompt, a repo, and a short demo more than a notebook full of slide photos. If you are new to the stack, start with an AI Studio or Firebase lab. If you already ship Android apps, pick a session that uses current platform APIs rather than a general intro to Kotlin.

Ask speakers for the codelab URL before you leave the room. Many labs stay online after the event. That link is more useful than a photo of the final slide.

The Google for Developers recap above covers the 2025 season, when groups in 114 countries ran events on safe, secure, and scalable AI and cloud work. The closing line points ahead to DevFest 2026. Use it as a preview of the room, not as a schedule for this year.

Tips before you leave home

Confirm the date on the event page the night before. Groups sometimes move a workshop between rooms or shift a start time after the first announcement.

Charge your laptop and install the tools named on the agenda. A Firebase lab that asks you to create a project on site goes faster if you are already signed in. An Android lab goes faster if Android Studio is already downloaded.

Keep API keys out of public repos you open during an agent-athon. Use a throwaway project if the exercise needs a key. Delete the key after the session if you will not keep the demo.

Introduce yourself to the organizers. Google Developer Groups run these events as volunteers. A short note about what you want to learn helps them match you with a mentor block if the schedule has one.

Do not treat swag as the reason to attend. Some groups have stickers. Some do not. The official pages do not promise giveaways.

After the event

Write down one thing you will ship in the next two weeks. A finished Firebase function, a Gemini skill you reuse at work, or a small Android change is a better outcome than a folder of slides.

Share a recap with #DevFest if the group allows photos. Tag the local GDG so other people in your city can find the next meetup. Many groups keep meeting after December 31. DevFest is the large event. The monthly meetup is where the same people debug the project you started on site.

If you missed every date near you, the directory stays useful through the end of the year. Events continue through December 31, 2026. A city that has not posted yet may still add one.

Sources

• DevFest is back, Google Blog, September 14, 2026. Authors: Justyna Politanska-Pyszko and Natalie McHugh.
• DevFest, Google for Developers. Includes audience notes and the FAQ on ticket prices.
• Google Developer Groups, community directory used to find a local group.
• DevFest 2025 Recap, Google for Developers, February 10, 2026.