If you're interested in robotics, Internet of Things security, blockchain, marketing tech, 3D design or even just the super vague "futuristic stuff," the dozens of major tech events coming to Boston this fall may pique your interest But that's not the only reason people will flock to these events: a number of them are also bringing celebrity speakers along.
For instance, HubSpot's annual INBOUND event is following up last year's slate of headline speakers like Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari with Serena Williams, Alec Baldwin, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates and the creators of the Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer." Another major event, the Forbes Under 30 Summit, which is coming to Boston for the first time, will bring Sir Richard Branson, Ashton Kutcher, Jessica Alba and Martellus Bennett to just name a few.
If you're looking for tech events happening earlier in September, you will be able to find them in our summer tech conference compilation. Otherwise, everything else of note happening for the rest of the year can be found below.
September
Sept. 19 - 20 — NativeScript Developer Day 2016— Calderwood Pavilion — Organized by Progress Software, this is the first-ever conference completely dedicated to NativeScript developers. The conference will include panels, workshops, keynotes and demonstrations ranging in topics from rethinking mobile application strategy to building a robot app.
Sample of speakers: Todd Anglin, chief evangelist and vice president of developer relations at Progress; Gavin Bauman, technical evangelist for Microsoft; and Jeff Whelpley, CTO at GetHuman.
Sept. 21 - 22 — FutureM— Innovation and Design Building — MITX promises this two-day conference will inspire and facilitate “provocative conversations” and “strong connections” with keynote speakers sharing “breakthrough ideas in their field of expertise” and C-level executives revealing their “perspectives on the future of their roles and their businesses.”
Sample of speakers: Joi Ito, director of MIT Media Lab; David “Shingy” Shing, digital prophet at AOL; David Kenny, general manager at IBM Watson; and Jessica Gelman, CEO of Kraft Analytics Group.
Sept. 22 — The Security of Things Forum — The Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge — Hosted by The Security Ledger and The Christian Science Monitor’s Passcode, this day-long event will cover a variety of cybersecurity topics, including the security of medical devices and connected vehicles, supply chain security, identity and the Internet of Things.
Sample of speakers: Kevin Fu of Virta Labs, Sung Lee of Intel and Donald Dixon of Trident Dixon.
Sept. 22 - 23 — Hippo.Connect 016— Calederwood Pavilion — This two-day conference will showcase how some of Hippo’s top enterprise clients have used web content management “to transform their digital presence, foster deeper customer engagement, and prep their business to stay ahead of the digital curve.”
Sample of speakers: Ted Schadler, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester; Jay Acunzo, VP of platform at NextView Ventures; and Kendall Morris, chief strategy officer at AuthX.
Sept. 22 - 24 — Boston Data Festival 2016— Microsoft NERD Center — This three-day festival is about bringing together the data-centric community to showcase greater Boston’s talent; highlight the diversity of people, startups and companies involved; and help community members achieve their goals. Topics include the future of healthcare analytics, using Boston crime data to make Pokemon Go a safer space and overcoming big data fragmentation.
Sample of speakers: Beth Logan, vice president of optimization at DataXu; Amara Keller, analytics platform community manager at Intel; and Joseph Cauteruccio, Jr., machine learning engineer at Spotify.
Sept. 25 - Oct. 1 — HUBWeek 2016— Multiple Venues — This week-long creative festival “celebrates innovation at the intersection of art, science and technology,” and it was founded by a partnership between The Boston Globe, Harvard University, MIT and Mass General Hospital. The festival includes a Demo Day, a showcase of innovation happening in Roxbury, a brewery competition, a celebrity panel with Harvard “rock star” philosopher Michael Sandel and other events.
Sample of speakers: Jules Pieri, co-founder and CEO of The Grommet; Bernard S. Meyerson, VP and chief innovation officer at IBM; and Chelsa Barabas, head of social innovation for MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative.
Sept. 26 — Develop3D Live — District Hall — After running in the United Kingdom for five years, this conference is coming to the United States for the first time, and it’s all about “celebrating design, engineering and manufacturing technology and how it brings world-leading products to market faster.” The event will include panels, keynotes and networking opportunities. Participating companies include Autodesk, PTC, Formlabs and Solidworks.
Sample of speakers: Frank Marangell, CEO and president of Rize; Jon Friedman, president and co-foudner of Freight Farms; and David Lakatos, head of product at Formlabs.
Sept. 29 — TEDxCambridge— Boston Opera House — Considered one of the largest TEDx conferences in the world, this two-hour event “celebrates the remarkable innovation, creativity and inspiration found within New England and beyond,” and its presentations cover many subjects, including science, design, technology, business, education and the arts.
Sample of speakers: technology enthographer Tricia Wang, multimedia journalist Janet Wu and labor economist David Autor.
Sept. 29 — SIM Boston Technology Leadership Summit— Boston Marriott Newton — This conference is for leading information technology executives, consultants and academics to share best practices, trends and lessons about the future of IT and IT management. Topics include becoming a better “business technologist” and trends in data lifecycle management.
Sample of speakers: Tom Catalini, chief information officer at Museum of Fine Arts; Mojgan Lefebvre, SVP and chief information officer global specialty at Liberty Mutual; and Rob Demartini, president and CEO of New Balance.
October
Oct. 6 — MassTLC D3 Conference: Data, Development & Drive— Microsoft NERD Conference — This one-day conference will gather “some of the most innovative designers, developers, product, and process people in the country” and feature tracks for managers and hackers on the topics of product innovation.
Sample of speakers: Ben Alamar, director of sports analytics at ESPN; Danielle Greshock, manager of solutions architecture at Amazon Web Services; and Lee Weiner, chief product officer at Rapid 7.
Oct. 13 — 3rd Annual DisruptCRE Boston— Hatch Fenway — According to its event page, this half-day event “showcases the best and brightest ideas from the most innovative minds in technology and commercial real estate.”
Sample of speakers: Jordan Nof, head of investments at Tusk Ventures; James J. Whalen, SVP and chief information officer of Boston Properties; and Tom Zampini, CEO and founder of Beco.
Oct. 16 - 19 — 2016 Forbes Under 30 Summit— Forbes’ annual gathering of young entrepreneurs is coming to Boston for the first time and “more than tripling its size and scope,” with over 5,000 people expected to attend. The four-day event will comprise of five interconnected summits: Science and Technology, Finance and Investing, Media and Creativity and Policy and Social Good. It will also include the Under 30 Music Festival and the Under 30 Food Festival.
Sample of speakers: Sir Richard Branson, Jessica Alba, Ashton Kutcher, Jim Koch and Martellus Bennett.
Oct. 17 - 19 — IoT Security Summit— Hynes Convention Center — This three-day event is dedicated to Internet of Things security, privacy and blockchain. The first day is completely focused on all things blockchain for end users, developers and business strategists. Topics for the other two days include enterprise risk management, creating solutions that better prepare for future security threats and developing more secure connected devices with artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Sample of speakers: Bruce Fenton, executive director of Bitcoin Foundation; Reginald Brothers, under secretary for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and Katie Curtin, lead product marketing manager of IoT security at AT&T.
Oct. 17 - 21 — Women Entrepreneurs Boston Week — Multiple Venues — This is a weeklong celebration of women entrepreneurs in Boston, and it will include a series of workshops, roundtable discussions and networking opportunities with high-profile speakers. According to its website, the goal is to “help women entrepreneurs build their networks and learn new skills to build and scale their businesses.” A full calendar events is expected to be posted in early September.
Oct. 18 - 20 — MIT Technology Review’s EmTech— MIT Media Lab — At the convergence of tech, business and culture, this three-day conference is all about discovering future trends and understanding the “technologies that will drive the new global economy.” Topics include breakthroughs in robotics, the future of energy, artificial intelligence’s next leap forward and gene editing for better health.
Sample of speakers: Meron Gribetz, CEO of Meta; Karl Iagnemma, CEO and co-founder of nuTonomy; and Jean Yang, assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University.
Oct. 20 — TUGG’s 6th Annual Tech Gives Back — Multiple Venues — This day-long event brings together tech companies to volunteer in the community, with activities like remodeling classrooms, planting community gardens and serving meals in soup kitchens. The day ends with what it calls “the best block party of the year.” Oct. 28 — 5th Annual Boston App Expo & Festival— Boston Convention & Exhibition Center — This is a full-day event that covers various topics in app development through exhibitors, panels and workshops. Topics include outsourcing versus in-house development, customer engagement and getting downloads.
November
Nov. 1 — Boston Startup Expo & Tech Job Fair — Innovation and Design Building — TechBreakfast hosts this event, which aims to give startups visibility in front of community members, investors, press and potential employees. The event is expected to sell out.
Nov. 2 — 2nd Annual She Demos — C-Space — SheStart and Babson WIN Lab co-host this event for women-run startups. Five of them will pitch in a live presentation and another 10 will be able to showcase before the presentations. One presenting startup will be chosen as the winner and one from the presentation area will be selected as a fan favorite.
Nov. 2 — MassChallenge 2016 Awards Ceremony — Boston Convention & Exhibition Center — This is the final awards ceremony for MassChallenge’s Boston cohort of 128 startups. A handful of winners will walks away with over $1 million in cash. Special guests have yet to be announced.
Nov. 2 - 4 — API Strategy & Practice Conference— Marriott Long Wharf — This three-day conference promises to bring together API leaders together to discuss opportunities and challenges in the API space.
Sample of speakers: Charles L. Ashley III of Cultivating Coders, Pamela Dingle of Ping Identity and Kirsten Hunter of Akamai.
Nov. 2 - 4 — EdTechTeacher Boston Innovation Summit— Boston Convention & Exhibition Center — This three-day conference “brings together the best of iPads, Chromebooks, Google Apps, and innovative instruction to improve student learning,” according to its website. The conference will include keynotes, workshops and collaborative sessions on topics ranging from maker spaces and design thinking to project-based learning.
Sample of speakers: Jaime Casap, global education evangelist at Google; Justin Reich, executive director of the Teaching Systems Lab at MIT; and Sabba Quidwai, director of innovative learning at University of Southern California.
Nov. 8 - 11 — HubSpot’s INBOUND 2016— Boston Convention & Exhibition Center — INBOUND is HubSpot’s annual event for marketing and sales professionals. Last year, it had five keynotes from celebrity speakers, more than 170 educational sessions and over 14,0000 attendees. For the first time this year, the conference will include the INBOUND Pitch-Off, which will give winning startups over $30,000 in prizes.
Sample of speakers: Ta-Nehisi Coates, journalist and 2015 MacArthur “Genius” award recipient; actor Alec Baldwin; star athlete Serena Williams; and Laura Ricciardi and Moria Demos, directors of Netflix documentary “Making a Murderer.”
Nov. 29 - 30 — Gilbane Digital Content Conference— Fairmont Copley Plaza — According to its website, the conference “brings together content strategists and managers, marketers, technologists, IT and business executives, as well as external service providers to learn and share how” the different components of digital experiences come together. The conference has four different tracks: content, marketing and customer experience; content, collaboration and digital workplace experience; technologies for content, marketing and digital experience; and re-imagining digital strategies for publishing and media.
Sample of speakers: Tim Ahlenius, director of experience marketing, AmericanEagle.com; Alice Carpenter, director of creative operations at America’s Test Kitchen; and Erin Martin, senior product manager at NPR.
December
Dec. 1 — MassTLC’s Future of Robotics Summit— Microsoft NERD Center — This half-day event will include panels and research presentations on surgical robotics, next-generation soft wearable robotics and other topics. The event is meant for entrepreneurs, robotics community leaders, university researchers and students and anyone interested in robots.
Sample of speakers: Andrew Bennet of Olin College, Conor Walsh of Harvard University and Holly Yanco of University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Dec. 3 — The Future of People— MIT Media Lab — This day-long event aims to envision “how science and technology impact the human body, mind and society.” The event start with a breakfast and dance kickoff, a startup showcase and panels focusing on a wide range of subjects, including the future of the human mind, body and society. There’s also the Prospective Challenge, which challenges attendees to design their own futurist scenario.
Sample of speakers: Rani El-Kaliouby, CEO of Affectiva; Rebecca Peel, associate director of talent at Rockefeller Foundation; and Rish Mitra, CEO of Blippar.
Dec. 7 — 50 on Fire — John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse — This is BostInno's headline annual event that celebrates Boston's inventors, disruptors, luminaries and newsmakers across all industries. This is not your average awards ceremony (meaning no boring speeches). Nominations for this year's 50 on Fire can be made right here.