Everything dated you can sign up for β webinars, hackathons, capture-the-flag events, scholarship windows and pitch competitions. For a month-by-month view, use the events calendar.
A long-running free listing of technology events, meetups, talks and job fairs in New York City, updated continuously.
Details: The most reliable single place to find what is happening in NYC tech this week. Most listings are free to attend; a few charge, so check each one.
LinkedIn's directory of live and upcoming professional events - webinars, audio rooms, panels, and hiring sessions you can register for and attend from anywhere.
Details: Free events are the cheapest warm introduction there is. Register, show up with one good question, and connect with the speaker the same day while you are fresh in their feed.
A free recurring coffee meetup in New York for tech professionals who have been laid off, are job searching, or are hiring, with a rotating format so you meet several groups in one hour.
Details: One of the warmer rooms for a job search in New York. Follow the calendar so you catch the next date.
A LessWrong community thread listing 2024 Secular Solstice gatherings and rationalist megameetups by city, with dates, locations and links posted by organizers.
A small, recurring in-person meetup for developers, tinkerers, and anyone building something technical β AI, cybersecurity, full-stack development, Linux/macOS, shell scripting, Git, and more.
From the site: There's almost nowhere left locally to just show up and work alongside other tech people in person. This is that: a small, recurring meetup for developers, tinkerers, and anyone building something technical, AI, cybersecurity, full-stack development, Linux/macOS, shell scripting, Git, or anything in
Details: Joining the Meetup group is free. Individual events may mention venue costs, but the group itself has no paywall.
Free online session with Brandon Waselnuk of Unblocked on giving AI coding agents real context so they produce usable work the first time, including a live before-and-after demo and two open-source tools to try.
Details: Free, online, 9:00 AM PT on September 23, 2026. Registration required.
A free weekly live webinar where startup founders pitch and receive real-time public mentoring feedback from veteran advisor Sramana Mitra. Open to anyone to attend; pitching slots limited to IT/IT-enabled-services startups.
Details: Recurring weekly on Thursdays - 8:00 AM PDT
A free, two-day virtual summit on AI in education. Designed for educators at community colleges, public schools and other broad-access settings, with keynotes and participatory workshops on teaching, learning and AI policy.
Details: Free virtual AI education summit with practical workshops for educators. Useful if you teach or train people on AI tools and want classroom-ready guidance.
Free live conversation with Matt Wilson, CEO of Jack & Jill, on where hiring is heading, hosted by Hung Lee's Brainfood community. September 15, 2026, 2:00 PM BST.
Details: Listening to recruiters talk shop tells you more about how hiring really works than most job-search advice does. Free, and the replay is usually up afterwards.
A curated community for fathers with young children (under 5) who are building ambitious careers in the middle of beautiful chaos.
Details: I love seeing communities built around real life constraints. If you are a dad juggling toddlers and ambition, peer support like this can be a real game-changer.
Free, community-led virtual workshops running five to eight times a week, 60-75 minutes each, led by members of the CreativeMornings community. Recent sessions cover SEO keywords and content repurposing, how AI is changing marketing, client presentations for freelancers, turning your process into content, freelancer client relationships, and reflective sessions on creative blocks. You create a free account and register for the ones you want; the site states plainly that they are free, funded by community donations and corporate partners.
Details: A good low-pressure way to get practical skills and meet people in the same week, especially if conference tickets are out of reach. Two things to know: CreativeMornings also sells a paid CreativeGuild membership and job listings, so expect that to be mentioned, and sessions average about 450 registrations with roughly 210 people actually turning up live, so register early for the popular ones and check the date and time zone on their page rather than trusting a listing anywhere else.
A Supermoon Playbook session on using live events as a growth channel: how to design gatherings that build community, generate leads, and compound over time. New York, September 29, 2026, 5:30-7:00pm.
Details: Good one if you are building an audience without an ad budget. Events are the cheapest trust you can buy.
Free SCORE workshop on October 13, 2026 covering where small business grants actually come from, which ones you qualify for, and how to search federal, state, corporate, and foundation sources without wasting time on scams.
Details: Grant hunting eats time. Start with a session like this so you only chase the ones you can actually win.
The GatherVerse Women's AI Summit 2026 is a free virtual global gathering of women building the future of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, running September 15-17 and September 22-23, 2026, starting 8:00 AM PT each day. Sessions span technology, healthcare, education, business and community work, with a humanity-first focus on experiences, opportunities and what comes next at the intersection of AI and people.
Details: Free, online, and five days of it across two weeks β pick the two sessions closest to your field rather than trying to attend everything. The speaker list is also a ready-made list of people to follow afterward.
A free Google Cloud OnAir session on CodeMender, an AI agent that scans, verifies and fixes software vulnerabilities with developer review.
From the site: Discover CodeMender: the AI agent that autonomously scans, verifies, and fixes software vulnerabilities at machine speed, enabling rapid remediation with complete developer control.
Details: Free to attend, but you need to sign in with a Google or email account to register. It is Google presenting Google's own product.
A free one-hour online session on September 28, 2026 (1β2 p.m. ET) about helping middle managers turn a company's AI plans into everyday team habits. Speakers: Michael Domanic (Head of AI, Section) and Monika Saha (Chief Commercial Officer, Articulate).
Details: Free RSVP, but it asks for your work email, company and job title. Section sells AI training to companies, so expect the session to also promote their services. Useful mainly if you manage a team or want to.
#ai adoption#management#leadership#webinar#workplace ai
Free registration webinar on how technology is used both against and in support of refugees and people migrating. 1 October 2026, 12:00 PM US Eastern Time.
From the site: On October 3, 2013, 368 people, mostly Eritrean refugees, lost their lives in the Lampedusa shipwreck. On the 13th anniversary of the tragedy, join DAIRβs "Refugees, Migrants, and AI" project for an event that commemorates those who died and asks why, more than a decade later, Lampedusa keeps happening. Bringing togetβ¦
Details: Free to attend with registration. Good if you want the human-rights side of technology rather than the product side.
Free two-day virtual professional development summit on AI in education, co-hosted by the AI Pedagogy Project and the Data Nutrition Project: keynotes, hands-on workshops, course policy, assessment, and career readiness. Sept 16 12:00-3:30pm ET and Sept 17 1:00-3:30pm ET.
Details: If you teach, train, or support educators, this is a good place to see how AI policy is being translated into practice.
A no-cost SBA webinar on protecting a small business from common cyber threats: the tricks attackers use, simple security steps, and where to get help.
Details: Free, plain-language and aimed at owners rather than IT staff. A sensible hour if nobody at your business owns security.
A free one-hour live SCORE webinar on bookkeeping, cash flow, financial statements and getting your books ready for funding. Sponsored by Visa. 22 September 2026, 1:00 pm ET.
Details: Free to attend live, and live attendees get the slides and recording link. The credit-card section is sponsor content β take that part with a pinch of salt.
A 90-minute SCORE webinar with attorney Barbara Weltman on year-end tax moves for small businesses, including new rules, deadlines, deductions and 1099 reporting.
Details: Attending live is free. The on-demand recording is sold separately through SCORE's course platform, so catch it live if you can.
Sep 11, 2026 β Sep 11, 2026Nervous System Mastery
Free online workshop from Nervous System Mastery on working with AI without burning out: the four ways of relating to AI, spotting AI-driven dysregulation, and body-first practices between work sprints.
Details: Burnout is a career problem, not just a wellness one. If AI work leaves you wired and drained, this is a practical place to start.
An in-person tech social hosted by Supermoon with Avahi and Concord Visa: casual networking for founders, operators, and technologists. September 22, 2026, 5:30-8:30pm.
Details: Show up with one sentence about what you are working on and two questions. That is the whole prep.
Free IEEE-USA livestream webinar on navigating career evolution for engineers amid changing technology and workplace demands.
Details: Registration page explicitly states "No Admission Charge." IEEE members can also claim a PDH certificate, but attendance itself is not restricted to members.
A free series of afternoon Build Days in New York City where nonprofit and social sector leaders sit down with technologists to work on practical ways to use AI in their organisations. Run by Decoded Futures, a Tech:NYC program. Sessions run from Thursday 24 September 2026 through 22 October 2026, 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM, in person in New York.
Details: Free and in person, and the point is that you leave with something built rather than notes from a talk. Register on the event page and check which individual dates still have spaces, since the series runs across several afternoons. It is aimed at nonprofit teams, so go with a real problem from your own work.
Free 30-minute live session for job seekers, hosted weekly with a guest recruiter or expert: what is working in the market right now, open sharing, and LinkedIn networking. Cameras optional.
Details: Laid off, burnt out, or getting ghosted β this is a low-pressure room where you hear what is actually working from people in it with you.
A free WiCyS AI Affiliate webinar: "Security in the Era of AI: Implications for Cybersecurity Teams," presented by cybersecurity leader Noureen Njoroge. 24 September 2026, 12:00β1:00 pm. CPE/CEU credits available.
Details: Open to all career levels and registration runs through the linked event page. Good for anyone weighing a move into security work.
Free Workiva webinar for students on landing a software engineering internship: resume tips that clear automated screening, interview tactics, application deadlines, and a Q&A with current interns.
Details: If you are a student targeting an engineering internship, this is the kind of session where recruiters say out loud what they actually screen for. Go and take notes.
Free SCORE workshop on October 20, 2026 on writing the grant application itself: structuring the narrative, budget, and supporting documents reviewers expect.
Details: Take this one right after the finding-grants session β the pair works as a short course.
Zapier's annual virtual conference on September 23, 2026 at 9AM PT: live workshops, keynotes, and playbooks on connecting AI agents to the apps a business already runs on and automating critical workflows.
Details: Free and virtual, so the only cost is your morning. Go for the workflow sessions, not the keynotes β automating two repetitive tasks is worth more than another AI overview.
A skills-based volunteer hackathon in New York City where participants collaborate with 1% for the Planet Impact Partners to solve real fundraising, storytelling, and launch challenges in 75 minutes.
Details: A great way to donate your professional skills rather than just your money. If you are between roles and want proof of impact, this is a high-signal, low-commitment option.
Free virtual hackathon open to students worldwide, run through Devpost with a submission deadline in mid-October.
Details: Open to current students (high school, undergrad, or grad) worldwide, ages 13+. No entry fee is stated on the page, consistent with Devpost's standard no-cost entry model, but it isn't spelled out explicitly. Submission deadline is Oct 10, 12:00pm EST.
A beginner-inclusive hackathon open to developers designers and innovators of all experience levels worldwide including those with no prior hackathon experience.
Details: No explicit fee statement found on the official page; appears free based on standard hackathon format -- worth a quick double-check before publishing. Winners announced Oct 21.
Free online hackathon for ages 13+ building AI projects for mental and physical health and concussion recovery, with cash and non-cash prizes and public voting on submissions.
Details: Social-impact hackathons are the friendliest entry point if this is your first one β judging rewards the idea as much as the code.
Nov 7, 2026 β Nov 8, 2026Major League Hacking (MLH)
Free, beginner-friendly, in-person 24-hour hackathon hosted by RIT's Golisano College of Computing & Information Sciences, part of the MLH collegiate hackathon league.
Details: In-person only, in Rochester, NY. A specific fee wasn't stated on the event page, but MLH-league hackathons are traditionally free for participants (often including meals).
Canada's largest beginner-only hackathon, run by nwPlus on November 7-8, 2026, built for first-time hackers with hands-on workshops and no coding experience required.
Details: Beginner-only means nobody there expects you to know anything yet. This is the one to start with.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's student hackathon, held in person in Troy, NY, on November 7β8, 2026. Registration via Devpost. Devpost page blocked automated checks; hackathons like this normally have no entry fee.
Oct 1, 2026 β Oct 7, 2026Devpost (GIS Engineering Club)
Free online hackathon focused on building technology that addresses real-world community and global challenges, organized by the GIS Engineering Club.
Details: Students only (must be above the legal age of majority in their country). No entry fee is listed on the Devpost page, consistent with Devpost's standard no-cost model, but it isn't spelled out explicitly.
Free global hackathon where teams use NASA's open data to tackle real-world challenges, with local in-person and fully virtual participation options.
Details: Long-running annual NASA event; the specific page sections retrieved didn't use the word "free" outright, but multiple independent write-ups this cycle describe it explicitly as a free, worldwide hackathon with no entry fee.
A free global AI hackathon to build on open infrastructure, hosted on Devpost with Nebius and NVIDIA.
From the site: Build the next frontier of AI on open infrastructure
Details: Free to enter, and a decent excuse to try GPU infrastructure you would not normally pay for. Check what compute credits the organizers hand out.
#hackathon#ai#open-source#developers
Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI HackathonAdded Sep 21, 20260 opens
Free two-day online student hackathon building next-generation cybersecurity solutions, with about $6,600 in cash prizes, open to ages 13+ working solo or in teams of up to four.
Details: A weekend hackathon gives you a finished project to talk about in interviews. Ship something small and complete.
One of the oldest and largest capture-the-flag competitions, designed as an entry-level jeopardy-style CTF for students breaking into security, with a September qualifying round and a November final round. Run by NYU's student security group.
Details: A CTF placement is real, checkable evidence of security skill. Enter the qualifier even if you only solve a couple of challenges.
A free online jeopardy-style capture-the-flag run by Cyber Hacktics with U.S. Air Force veterans for Cybersecurity Awareness Month. 17 October 2026, 14:00 UTC to 19 October 2026, 00:00 UTC.
From the site: DEADFACE CTF features jeopardy-style challenges and is hosted by Cyber Hacktics and veterans of the United States Air...
Details: Beginner-friendly as CTFs go, and a real thing to point at in an interview. Free to play.
Nov 6, 2026 β Nov 7, 2026HKCERT / Hong Kong Productivity CouncilRegister by Oct 20, 2026
Free jeopardy-style capture-the-flag qualifying round from Hong Kong's CERT, with an Open division alongside student categories; top teams advance to an in-person Hong Kong final.
Details: The event page doesn't state a fee explicitly, but HKCERT's CTF has historically been a free, HKPC-backed community competition. Confirm the Open division's eligibility for non-Hong-Kong participants before committing.
A free capture-the-flag run by George Mason University's Competitive Cyber Club, played in teams.
Details: Free to play. The scoreboard shows a start of 11 September 2026 and no published end time, so check the site for the current round before planning around it.
Nov 6, 2026 β Nov 7, 2026New Jersey Institute of Technology
A free online jeopardy-style capture-the-flag organised by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. 6 November 2026, 17:00 UTC to 7 November 2026, 17:00 UTC.
From the site: REGISTRATION IS NOW AVAILABLE! BOO!! Welcome to SpookyCTF 2026! Organized by the New Jersey Institute of Techno...
Details: Registration is open. A 24-hour format, so it fits into one weekend rather than eating a week.
Nov 20, 2026 β Nov 22, 2026University of Florida Student InfoSec Team
Free 48-hour online jeopardy-style capture-the-flag competition November 20-22, 2026, run by the University of Florida Student InfoSec Team, with challenges in pwn, reverse engineering, forensics, and cryptography.
Details: Student-run CTFs are usually the most welcoming. Team up with two or three people and split the categories.
Nov 13, 2026 β Nov 15, 2026WolvSec (University of Michigan)
Free online jeopardy-style CTF hosted by the University of Michigan's WolvSec student club, open to teams worldwide.
Details: The official wolvctf.io site couldn't be loaded directly (blocked by robots.txt), so dates/format are confirmed via CTFtime instead. No fee is mentioned; university-run CTFs on CTFtime are conventionally free to enter.
Apply for a scholarship covering WiCyS 2027 conference registration, all activities and meals, plus two nights of shared lodging. Applications run 2β30 September 2026.
Details: Free to apply, and the award covers the expensive parts of attending a technical conference. Applications close 30 September 2026, so this is a now-or-next-year thing.
A multi-tiered free cybersecurity skills-training scholarship aimed at students and career changers seeking a cybersecurity job within about 1.5 years.
Details: Page describes this as for "WiCyS members" -- confirm whether WiCyS membership itself is free before publishing.
Google-owned platform hosting data-science and machine-learning competitions, many with cash prizes. Free to enter; a strong way to build a portfolio.
Details: Free to enter and useful for a portfolio, but Kaggle is owned by Google and some competitions require agreeing to sponsor terms β read each competition's rules before submitting work.
Free monthly AI building challenge from IBM SkillsBuild and BeMyApp: learn the tooling, submit an AI project for judging, and attend the AI Builders Conference on September 16, 2026 with IBM experts and developers. No cost to register or participate.
Details: Challenges like this give you a finished project to point at, which is worth more in interviews than another certificate.
A free four-week online business competition starting 24 October 2026, with over $1 million in prizes, live expert support, tools and business playbooks for people starting or growing a business.
Details: Free to enter and the four weeks of playbooks and live sessions are worth it even if you never place. Sign up early so you get the pre-work.
Every open XPRIZE challenge with its prize purse, deadlines and entry requirements β multi-million-dollar competitions in health, climate, education and AI.
Details: Free to enter and open to teams anywhere β a real route to funding if you have a technical idea and a team.
The Sustainable Media Center hosts a live debate at Mintz in New York on September 23, 2026: Gen Z is fluent in AI but anxious about the future it is creating, while Gen X and older bring experience, skepticism, and sometimes more optimism. Free registration on Eventbrite.
Details: Cross-generational conversations about AI are rare and usually more honest than either side's echo chamber. Worth the trip if you are in New York.
Free virtual three-day conference run by AI Builders Network, 14-16 October 2026, with 300+ planned speakers on building and shipping AI systems in production.
From the site: Join the AI Builders Global Conference 2026 - a 3-day virtual conference for AI builders, founders, and investors. 200+ sessions across 8 tracks and 47 topics, live workshops, pitch competition, and networking.
Details: Ten of the speakers now have full profiles on the People page. Pick the two or three talks closest to your own work rather than trying to watch a three-day event end to end.
A public, continuously updated calendar of events, workshops, hackathons, networking sessions and career programmes aimed at students and early-career people. Each row lists who it is for, the date, the application deadline, the location, the cost and a registration link, with ready-made views for free events, online events, London events and things closing soon.
Details: Free to view, no account needed. The "Free Events" and "Closing Soon" views are the fastest way in. It is UK-heavy, with a lot of London listings β check the location column before you plan around anything. Always confirm the date and deadline on the organizer's own page, since a shared calendar can fall behind.
A free public talk series in Stromness, Orkney bringing residents together to discuss what AI is, what it changes and what it could mean for the community. The opening session on September 29, 2026 features Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mei Fong, Chief Storyteller at the Windfall Trust, on why AI is different from past technologies and how the Trust stress-tests its potential impact on jobs, income and communities. Sponsored by Aquatera; no cost is listed to attend.
Free virtual career fair for Women in Cybersecurity members on September 23, 2026, connecting attendees directly with WiCyS strategic partners hiring for internships and part- and full-time roles at entry, mid, and senior levels.
Details: Members only, so join WiCyS first. Bring a one-page resume and a two-sentence introduction you can paste into chat.
A free, live, online one-day conference on 22 October 2026 with 122 speakers across four tracks: BUILD (building with and of AI), LEAD (managing an AI-native organisation), SECURE (trust and safety) and a business track. Sessions are 30-minute practical implementation talks from engineers and managers at OpenRouter, Microsoft, Accenture, Qualcomm, CVS Health, Mastercard, Anaconda, Illumina and MITRE. The organisers state there are zero vendor pitches. Registration is free; the site also publishes free directories of AI conference dates, deadlines and free virtual events.
Details: Worth the calendar slot if you want to hear how AI is actually being shipped inside large companies rather than how it is marketed β the 30-minute implementation format and the no-vendor-pitch rule are the reasons. Register free and pick the track that matches your job; the talks run in parallel, so you cannot see everything live. Check their own page for whether replays are posted, and confirm the start time in your own time zone.
An in-person networking event in New York City for engineers, product managers, and technical professionals navigating layoffs or searching for their next opportunity, co-hosted with 645 Ventures portfolio startups that are hiring.
Details: I love the bell-ringer format: every 10 minutes you meet someone new. If you are a recently impacted tech worker in NYC, this is one of the warmest rooms to walk into.
Two-day in-person AI summit in New York, November 9-10 2026 at Borough of Manhattan Community College, bringing together Latino leaders, builders and professionals for responsible-AI talks and hands-on workshops. Seating is limited.
From the site: Join the Latino AI Summit NYC, November 9β10, 2026 at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Our first in-person AI event brings together Latino leaders, builders, professionals and allies for responsible AI conversations, community and hands-on AI workshops. Limited seating.
Details: A rare in-person AI event aimed at community rather than vendors. Check the ticket page before you plan travel - seating is limited and the site does not publish a price on the live page.
Major League Hacking's week-long online Global Hack Week, 9-15 October 2026, themed around Hacktoberfest and open source. Daily workshops streamed live, mini-events in the MLH Discord, and social, technical and design challenges you can complete solo or with others for points.
Details: Free to join and beginner-friendly; everything runs on Twitch and Discord. The page now lists the Hacktoberfest theme rather than the open-source wording the link suggests, and MLH says details are still being added, so confirm the schedule on their page before planning your week.
Sep 29, 2026 β Sep 30, 2026New Jersey State Data Center
Registration form for the New Jersey State Data Center's Annual Network Meeting on 29 and 30 September 2026. The State Data Center is New Jersey's official partner in the Census Bureau's programme for making population, housing and economic data usable locally; the network meeting is where affiliates and data users are brought up to date.
Details: Worth knowing about if you use public data for job targeting, grant writing or a business plan β these are the people who make state figures usable. Be aware of what the link is: a bare registration form asking name, organization, email and phone. It states no fee, no agenda and no venue or joining details, so ask the State Data Center directly before you plan travel around it.
The fourth global online PyLadies conference, 5-7 December 2026, free and run across multiple timezones in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Japanese and Chinese. Tutorials, open-source sprints with project maintainers, panels on Python and career growth, open spaces and networking.
Details: Free, online and explicitly welcoming to first-time speakers and first-time open-source contributors, with no prior experience required. Runs on Discord to keep the barrier low; the sprints are the fastest honest route to a first real contribution.
Real-time data streaming for AI: a global chip manufacturer shares what worked, what failed, and what they'd do differently. Includes CIO insights on evaluation, implementation, and vendor selection for enterprise AI data infrastructure.
From the site: Real-time data streaming for AI: a global chip manufacturer shares what worked, what failed, and what they'd do differently. Includes CIO insights on evaluation, implementation, and vendor selection for enterprise AI data infrastructure.
Details: Virtual fireside chat with GlobalFoundries and Redpanda on real-time data migration for AI. Useful for anyone evaluating streaming data infrastructure, enterprise AI adoption, or semiconductor/tech career paths.
An in-person New York evening (Tue 13 Oct 2026, 6:30β9:30 PM) of drinks and candid talk with ex-consultants from Accenture and McKinsey who moved into AI startups β no panels, just stories about going from advising companies to building one.
Details: Registration needs host approval and the address is shared after you're accepted. No ticket price is shown.
Oct 21, 2026The Startup StationRegister by Oct 15, 2026
The fifth edition of The Startup Station's Speed Pitch in New York: 36 startup spots, each matched into guaranteed one-to-one meetings with investors instead of the usual keynote-and-mingle format. Confirmed funds include New York Ventures, New York Bay Capital, Hexa-AI, Vamos Ventures, Gaingels, Yan Ventures, Lightscape Partners, Valued Ventures, BuenTrip Ventures, Zavo Ventures and Ensemblex Venture. Wednesday, October 21, 2026, 4:30β8:30 PM; registration is by host approval and closes October 15. Investors apply through a separate link.
Details: Guaranteed meetings are rare β come with a two-minute version of your pitch and a clear ask, because 1:1 slots here are short.
Free virtual conference on 9 December 2026, 8:30am to 2:00pm Pacific, on running streaming data and AI agent systems in production. Sessions cover streaming plus SQL and agents on one platform, locking down agent access with an agentic data plane, streaming at scale, and open Q&A with the product and engineering teams. Speakers are engineers, architects, customers and industry experts.
Details: Worth a morning if you work with data pipelines and want to hear how agents are actually being governed in production rather than demoed. Two honest flags: it is the vendor's own event, so the answer to most architecture questions will be Redpanda, and registration asks for your job title, company and work email, and signs you up for their marketing email. Use a filterable address if that matters to you.