DevFest 2026: 800 events, 115 countries, Oct 1 start

DevFest is Google's annual community-led conference series, hosted by Google Developer Groups (GDGs) around the world. The 2026 season is positioned around a theme — "Build, Secure, Scale: Developers and Builders in the Agentic Era" — that signals a shift toward hands-on experimentation rather than passive talks. Rather than a single central event, DevFest is distributed: more than 800 events across 115 countries, each curated locally by its GDG chapter and tailored to its local tech ecosystem.

The tracks this year reflect three ideas Google lays out: that new tools make prototyping and deployment faster and easier than before; that speed should not come at the expense of secure deployment, data privacy, and responsible AI guardrails; and that builders can work with production-ready infrastructure to scale from day one. Attendees will engage directly with a broad Google stack — including Gemini, Google AI Studio, Google Antigravity, Google Cloud, Firebase, Android, Flutter, Angular, and Web MCP — through live codelabs, workshops, and agent-athons.

How much practical value these events deliver will hinge on how each local GDG curates its agenda; the body notes that while Google backs the program, individual groups tailor content to their own ecosystems. For developers and solution builders weighing where to spend time in late 2026, the DevFest Event Directory is the place to check what is being offered locally.