Tech and startup events in Palo Alto

Palo Alto does not have a convention center or a famous annual festival of startups. What it has is better for most people: a steady rhythm of talks, workshops, hackathons and small gatherings, many of them free, all within a short bike ride of University Avenue. Add the big conferences in San Francisco and San Jose and there is something on almost every week of the year.

This guide focuses on recurring events we could confirm in 2026. We list exact dates only where the organizer has published them. For everything else, check the official page before you plan a trip. For community festivals, concerts and farmers markets, see our main Palo Alto events guide.

Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders at Stanford

The single best recurring event for anyone curious about startups is Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, known as ETL. The Stanford Technology Ventures Program hosts it. Founders, investors and executives speak in a 50 minute session that usually ends with audience questions.

• When: Wednesdays, 4:30 to 5:20 p.m., during the academic year.
• Where: NVIDIA Auditorium, 475 Via Ortega, on the Stanford campus.
• Who can attend: Stanford's event listings mark ETL talks as open to everyone.
• Can't make it? Recordings are posted on Stanford's eCorner site and in the ETL podcast feed.

The autumn 2026 lineup runs through November 18. Speakers on the remaining dates include Celine Halioua on November 4, Lauren Kolodny on November 11 and Demi Guo on November 18. Check the STVP events page for winter and spring speakers once they are announced.

Plan your arrival. Parking on campus is limited and enforced on weekdays. Many people take Caltrain to Palo Alto and ride the free Marguerite shuttle or bike to the engineering quad. Arrive 15 minutes early for popular speakers.

Other Stanford events

STVP also runs workshops. In November 2026 its calendar includes an executive roundtable on leading through AI disruption and a hands-on STVP Studio design workshop in the Y2E2 building on Via Ortega. Some workshops require registration or are aimed at the Stanford community, so read each listing carefully.

Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, launched in March 2019, hosts seminars and conferences on AI research and policy. The university's main events calendar at events.stanford.edu lists public lectures across every department. Each listing says who can attend. Our Stanford visitor guide covers campus parking, maps and food.

TreeHacks

TreeHacks is Stanford's big student hackathon. The 12th edition in February 2026 ran for 36 hours, from Friday night to Sunday morning, at the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center. More than 1,000 students took part, chosen from over 15,000 applicants. Sponsors included OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and NVIDIA. Prizes topped $500,000 across 14 categories.

TreeHacks 2027 is set for February 12 to 14, 2027, according to the TreeHacks site, which also handles applications. Our hackathons guide covers other hackathons in the area.

Hacking is limited to accepted students. Sponsors and judges come from the companies involved. If you work at a company that hires engineers, sponsoring or judging is the way in. Dates for 2027 had not been announced when we last checked.

Demo days and pitch nights

StartX

StartX, Stanford's nonprofit accelerator, holds investor demo days three times a year, in person and online. Companies that are raising present to a vetted audience of active angel investors and firm decision makers. Investors request access through the StartX site. StartX also runs info sessions for founders who want to apply. An early 2026 info session for summer applicants was held in the Press Building on campus.

Band of Angels

The Band of Angels, a Silicon Valley angel group founded in 1994, meets monthly. It screens more than 50 startups each month and picks three to present to its 150 plus members. Founders apply to present through its website. The meetings are for members, not the public.

Accelerator programs

Pear VC in Menlo Park runs PearX, a 12 week program for early founders. Accelerators usually end each cohort with a demo day for invited investors. Watch the program websites and social accounts for dates.

Computer History Museum

The Computer History Museum at 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard in Mountain View is about 15 minutes south of downtown Palo Alto by car. CHM Live is its main event series, with conversations on technology, entrepreneurship and computing's effect on society. Many events are later posted online. The museum is generally open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the museum's visit page for hours and the event calendar.

Pair an evening event with a daytime visit to the galleries. They cover the Fairchild era, the personal computer and the internet, which gives useful background for our famous tech addresses tour.

Big conferences nearby

Hotels near the conference centers sell out fast during big events. Many attendees stay in Palo Alto and ride Caltrain instead. San Jose's Diridon station and San Francisco's 4th and King station are both on the line. Compare Palo Alto hotels early if your dates overlap with a conference or Stanford commencement. Our getting around guide covers Caltrain fares and schedules.

Meetups and smaller gatherings

Most of the smaller tech gatherings in the area are now listed on Luma and Meetup. Founders, investors and research groups post coffee meetups, paper reading groups, demo nights and panels there. The mix shifts with the market. In 2026 events about AI agents, robotics and biotech are easy to find.

A few tips for finding good ones:

1. Search for Palo Alto, Stanford, Menlo Park and Mountain View, not just Palo Alto. Many events sit just over the city line.
2. Follow the hosts. A good organizer usually runs a series, so one great event leads to more.
3. Look for events with an application or waitlist. They tend to draw a more focused crowd.
4. Check the venue. Talks at company offices often need ID at the door.

Getting the most out of an event

Talks are where you learn. The conversations afterward are where you meet people. Stay for 20 minutes after an ETL session or a CHM Live event instead of rushing to your car. Have a one sentence description of what you work on ready. Ask people about their work before you pitch yours. Speakers are often swamped at the front of the room, so a short follow-up email that mentions a specific point from the talk works better than a hurried handshake. If you are new to the area, set a simple goal for each event, such as meeting two people working in your field. Over a few weeks that adds up to a real network.

Community events with a tech crowd

Not every useful connection happens at a tech event. Thursday Live on Cal Ave is a free outdoor concert series on the car-free part of California Avenue between El Camino Real and Birch Street. It runs on selected Thursday evenings from spring through September, 5 to 8 p.m. The downtown cafes on University Avenue are another common spot for informal meetings.

Frequently asked questions