AO
Dr. Amara Okafor
Principal Research Scientist
DeepForge Labs
Beyond Transformers: Architecting Reasoning Systems That Actually Generalize
Three days at the edge of what's next — where AI researchers, web pioneers, DevOps mavericks, designers, and engineering leaders converge to chart the next decade of building.
FrontierConf is where the conversations that define the next year of technology actually happen — not on a stage removed from the audience, but in the hallways, workshops, and late-night demos between sessions.
Across three days and five tracks, you'll hear from researchers shipping production LLM systems, engineers running 50-million-user platforms, designers rethinking interface paradigms, and leaders building teams that ship — not just talk about shipping.
Every talk is curated. Every workshop is hands-on. Every evening ends with the kind of networking that turns into next year's partnerships, hires, and side projects.
AI & ML, Web, DevOps, Design, and Leadership.
Half-day sessions with limited seats and real outcomes.
Matchmaking, mentor hours, and an after-party on the bay.
Live, on-stage deployments and uncensored Q&A.
A curated lineup of researchers, engineers, designers, and leaders — each on stage for one reason: they're building things the rest of us will be talking about next year.
Beyond Transformers: Architecting Reasoning Systems That Actually Generalize
Edge-Native Architectures: Running Stateful Workloads at 50ms p99 Globally
Designing for Trust: Interfaces That Survive the Age of Generated Everything
The Platform Team of One: Scaling Internal DevEx Without Scaling Headcount
The Maintainer's Dilemma: Funding, Burnout, and the Future of Open Source
Zero-Trust at Scale: Lessons From Defending a 200B-Request-Per-Day Edge
From Demo to Deployment: Shipping Embodied AI Systems That Don't Embarrass You
Leading Through Uncertainty: What 1,000 Engineering Skip-Levels Taught Me
A curated agenda across five tracks — no filler panels, no recycled decks. Switch days to preview what's on each stage.
Every track runs in parallel across three days — switch freely, or commit deep. Either way, you'll leave with notes you'll actually use.
From reasoning architectures to RLHF at scale — the production side of intelligence.
Edge runtimes, island architectures, web standards, and the future of the browser.
Platforms, observability, zero-trust, and the economics of running things at scale.
Trust, motion, systems, and the craft of interfaces that age well.
Hiring, leading, scaling — and the unglamorous craft of shipping with humans.
The companies building frontier infrastructure, tooling, and platforms — and the ones who make FrontierConf possible.
Perched on the Embarcadero with bay views from every main hall, Aurora is San Francisco's newest purpose-built conference space — 240,000 sq ft of stages, labs, lounges, and a rooftop terrace built for after-hours conversations.
Embarcadero waterfront · 8 min from BART Embarcadero
Every track gets its own purpose-built room
Bay-view after-parties, mentor hours, and demos
Three quotes from three different years — pulled straight from post-event surveys. No marketing edits.
I came for the AI track and stayed for the hallway track. Walked away with two collaborators, one job offer, and a notebook full of things I'm still implementing six months later.
The curation is genuinely different. No vendor pitches disguised as talks, no panels of people who agree with each other. Just builders showing their work and answering hard questions.
Worth the ticket price for the workshops alone. The LLM-in-production session paid for itself within a week of getting back to the office. Already booked next year.
Early Bird pricing closes when the countdown hits zero — or when seats sell out, whichever comes first. All passes include the after-party.
If something's not here, our team replies to every email within one business day.
FrontierConf 2026 runs September 15–17, 2026 at the Aurora Convention Center, 1 Harbor Boulevard, San Francisco, CA. Doors open at 8:00 AM PT each day, with the first keynotes starting at 9:00 AM.
Every pass includes access to all three days, all five tracks, the after-party, lunch and coffee, and the full session recording library. Higher tiers add workshop seats, mentor hours, networking access, and VIP experiences — see the tickets section above for the full breakdown.
Absolutely — every track runs in parallel and seating is first-come, first-served (VIP gets reserved front rows). Workshops require a seat reservation because capacity is limited; you can reserve when you check in or via the attendee app.
Full refunds are available up to 60 days before the event. Between 60 and 14 days out, tickets can be transferred to another attendee for a small fee. Within 14 days, transfers are still allowed but no refunds — we're happy to help with name changes via email.
Yes — every talk on every stage is recorded and published to the attendee library within 48 hours of the session. Recordings remain available to ticket holders for 12 months after the event. Workshops are not recorded, to keep them hands-on and candid.
Yes — we have partnered rates with three hotels within walking distance of the venue, plus discounted BART and airport shuttle codes. Full details and booking links are emailed to all ticket holders immediately after purchase.
Aurora Convention Center is fully ADA-compliant with step-free access to every stage and lab. We also provide ASL interpretation, live captioning on all main-stage talks, quiet rooms, and dietary accommodations at every meal — just note your needs at checkout or email us anytime.
Early Bird pricing disappears the moment the timer runs out. Lock in your seat — and we'll see you on the frontier.