OC Tech Week 2026 runs October 19–24, 2026 across Orange County. Tech Coast Venture Network (TCVN) hosts this six-day, decentralized celebration of founders, investors, and builders. Think opening ceremony, trade summit, pitches, MasterMinds, and dozens of partner events—not one mega-conference badge.
Confirm every time and venue on the official site, octechweek.com. The calendar keeps growing as partners add sessions.
Whether you call it OC Tech Week 2026 or Orange County Tech Week, the brief is the same: six days, many rooms, one regional story. Use this guide to plan routes, pick tracks, and avoid FOMO sprawl.
What is OC Tech Week 2026?
OC Tech Week 2026 is Orange County’s open house for innovation. It is built for founders, operators, investors, students, and civic partners who want real face time—not a single-stage trade show.
TCVN frames the week as “Innovation in Paradise.” The goal is a unified regional voice across all 34 OC cities. MedTech, clean energy, gaming, aesthetics, and defense tech already live here. The week is the front door.
Who it is for
Early-stage founders hunting warm intros. Operators comparing AI and cybersecurity playbooks. Angels and VCs scouting SoCal deal flow. Students and university labs showing demos. Civic and trade partners talking foreign direct investment.
If you already live the Irvine–Anaheim–Newport corridor, this is your home-field week. If you are flying in after the broader SoCal circuit, OC is the next stop—not a side trip.
Dates and how the week works
Mark your calendar: Monday, October 19 through Saturday, October 24, 2026. Events land in Irvine, Anaheim, Newport Beach, UCI-adjacent spaces, and partner venues countywide.
The format is decentralized. There is no single arena ticket. Partners host breakfasts, panels, workshops, pitches, hackathons, beach walks, and evening mixers. TCVN curates the official schedule. New sessions appear as hosts clear review.
Co-chairs for OC Tech Week 2026 are Farrah N. Khan (former Mayor of Irvine; TCVN board) and Tony Crisp (TCVN president; founder & CEO of CRISPx). Their open letter on the official site sets the tone: one banner for a region that long built in silos.
Always treat published times as provisional. Prefer octechweek.com over secondary calendars when details differ.
Expect a mix of free community rooms and selective RSVP events. Some hosts publish “more info soon.” That is normal for a living calendar. Build a shortlist Monday morning of the week, then re-check Wednesday.
Secondary local calendars (including OC Startup Council roundups) are helpful scouts. When a time conflicts with the official site, trust octechweek.com.
Day-by-day schedule snapshot
Below is a practical snapshot drawn from the official preview and trusted local listings. It is not the full calendar. Partner events keep landing. Verify before you drive.
| Day | Date | Snapshot highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Oct 19 | Pitch Masters golf deal-flow; Official Opening Ceremony (Sunstone / Irvine); human-centered AI meetup listings |
| Tue | Oct 20 | Global Trade Summit (International Impact Connections); FDI and consul / trade-office conversations |
| Wed | Oct 21 | TCA “Best of the Best” pitches; OC Female Hypergrowth Leaders; yacht reception; Microsoft Innovation Hub AI session |
| Thu | Oct 22 | Sustain SoCal Energy Summit; executive coffee circles; MasterMinds Startup Accelerator Workshop (OCTW edition) |
| Fri | Oct 23 | Women in Tech at The Cove @ UCI (listed); Founder Beach Walk; Coast & Capital boat tour; roundtables and socials |
| Sat | Oct 24 | Cars & Coffee; student innovation showcases; Closing Ceremony & Concert |
Schedule snapshot only. Confirm live details at octechweek.com.
Planning a longer OC weekend around the closing night? Browse our year-round OC festival calendar and free outdoor concerts guide for non-tech add-ons.
Flagship and can’t-miss event types
Official Opening Ceremony
Monday evening sets the tone. Listings point to the Sunstone Courtyard / Sunstone Venture and Innovation Center in Irvine, with keynotes and community kickoff energy. RSVP often gates the exact address. Map search: Sunstone Venture and Innovation Center, Irvine.
Global Trade Summit
Tuesday’s Global Trade Summit (International Impact Connections) brings consul generals and trade offices into the FDI conversation. Useful if your company exports, hires globally, or courts overseas capital.
Pitch showcases
Wednesday’s “Best of the Best” with Tech Coast Angels and the Alliance for SoCal Innovation is the headline pitch room on many calendars. Monday’s Pitch Masters golf series offers a different deal-flow format for founders who network better outdoors.
MasterMinds Startup Accelerator Workshop
Thursday’s MasterMinds #73 — OCTW Edition is the growth and fundraising Q&A many early-stage teams want. Seats run limited. Treat it like office hours with investors and peers, not a spectator sport.
Closing Ceremony and Concert
Saturday wraps with a closing celebration and concert listing. Details firm up closer to the week. Pair it with a student showcase if you want the next-gen OC builder story in the same day.
Partner events already on the preview
The official snapshot already names a wide bench: Crypto and Chill at Fashion Island, an EvoNexus hackathon collaboration listing Anthropic, kids entrepreneurship story hour, ConTech / PropTech coffee, AI for social impact lunch, practical cybersecurity workshops, Built in OC storytelling, and after-hours tech socials.
You will also see marketing-agency AI roundtables, GovCloud generative-AI working sessions, and hardware-meets-software panels about OC’s seventy-year precision manufacturing base. That mix is the point. Software founders and device builders share the same week.
Other strong flavors already on the official preview: Women in Tech at The Cove at UCI, EvoNexus hackathon energy, Sustain SoCal’s Energy Summit, Founder Beach Walk, and Coast & Capital boat networking.
Tracks and industry themes
OC Tech Week aligns with the Irvine Innovation Blueprint clusters. Use the tracks to pick rooms that match your roadmap.
Healthcare Innovation and MedTech
Clinical impact, devices, and health-adjacent software. Expect social-media-in-healthcare nights and founder rooms that speak hospital and FDA language—not only consumer apps.
Enabling and Creative Technologies
Gaming, AR/VR, and digital media. Orange County’s creative-tech employers and studios show up here. If you build interactive product or entertainment tech, stack Friday and evening socials.
High-Tech, Life Sciences, and Sustainability
Defense tech, clean energy, advanced hardware, and life sciences R&D. Panels on OC’s foundational tech economy—sensors, chips, devices, aerospace—matter if your AI story still needs atoms, not only tokens.
Sample week rhythm that actually works
Monday: Opening Ceremony plus one daytime deal-flow or AI meetup. Tuesday: Global Trade Summit if international capital matters to you. Wednesday: pitch showcase and one diversity / hypergrowth conversation. Thursday: MasterMinds or Energy Summit—pick based on stage. Friday: Cove / beach / boat socials to convert weak ties. Saturday: closing celebration and student showcases.
Leave white space. The best OC Tech Week conversations often happen in the hallway after a panel, not inside the Q&A queue.
How to register, get tickets, or host an event
Start at octechweek.com. Individual sessions often use their own RSVP (Luma, Eventbrite, or host forms). Some rooms need host approval. Some are invite-only executive coffees.
Want to host? OC Tech Week is community-built on purpose. Founder breakfasts, rooftop mixers, workshops, and demos all qualify after a short steering-committee curation review. The official site has the submit form. Need a room? Tell them—you can request venue matching.
Budget tip: mix free community meetups with one or two ticketed flagship rooms. Do not assume every listing is open walk-in.
Getting around Orange County during Tech Week
Most density sits along the Irvine–UCI–Spectrum corridor, with Anaheim, Newport / Fashion Island, and coastal meetups in the mix. Build your day by geography first, then by track.
Corridors that matter
Irvine / Spectrum / Jamboree: opening energy, executive coffees, many partner HQs. Parking structures fill at lunch and 5 p.m.—arrive early or rideshare between nearby rooms.
UCI / The Cove / Beall Applied Innovation: university-adjacent panels and Women in Tech listings. Use campus guest parking rules; do not assume free street spots.
Anaheim: convention-adjacent and north-county friendly when partners book larger rooms. Map: Anaheim Convention Center area.
Newport / Fashion Island / coast: Crypto and Chill-style socials, beach walks, and boat tours. Great for evening wind-downs after Irvine daytime blocks.
Hotels and timing tips
Fly John Wayne (SNA) when you can. It beats LAX for OC days. Book Irvine or Spectrum-adjacent hotels if your calendar is mid-county heavy. Pad 25–40 minutes between venues at rush hour on the 405 / 55 / 73.
Rideshare between Irvine Spectrum, UCI, and Jamboree is often faster than hunting two parking structures. If you drive, screenshot garage levels—OC tech campuses look similar at night.
Visiting teams: keep one teammate on “logistics watch.” Their job is RSVP confirmations, walking maps, and a shared notes doc. Everyone else works the rooms.
After dark sessions, check our best live music venues in Orange County if your team wants a non-pitch night out. Festival hoppers can also skim the best beer festivals in OC for seasonal add-ons.
Networking tips for founders, investors, and operators
Decentralized weeks reward planners who design routes, not FOMO lists.
Pick two flagship rooms and three smaller ones. Depth beats twelve thin drop-ins. Bring a one-liner that names customer, traction, or thesis—not a five-minute deck monologue.
Stack geography. Cluster Irvine mornings, then Newport evenings. Crossing the county twice in one day wastes the warm intros you just earned.
Use university and nonprofit rooms. MasterMinds, Cove sessions, and Sustain SoCal events attract collaborators who stay local after the week ends.
Follow up same night. A three-sentence LinkedIn note with the session name converts better than a bulk blast on Sunday.
Respect invite-only spaces. Executive coffee circles exist for a reason. Earn the room; do not crash it.
Between sessions, reset outdoors. Our best free things to do in Orange County list helps visiting teammates see the “paradise” half of Innovation in Paradise.
How OC Tech Week fits the SoCal circuit
Organizers invite travelers who already attend Silicon Valley and LA tech weeks to extend south. That is circuit context only. OC Tech Week 2026 is its own decentralized program with OC hosts, OC tracks, and OC venues.
Come for MedTech and hardware depth you will not get in a pure consumer-app room. Stay for coastal socials that still feel like work—just with better light.
FAQ: OC Tech Week 2026
OC Tech Week 2026 is a six-day, decentralized celebration of entrepreneurship and technology across Orange County, hosted by Tech Coast Venture Network (TCVN) from October 19–24, 2026.
It runs Monday–Saturday, October 19–24, 2026, at partner venues across Orange County—especially Irvine, UCI-adjacent spaces, Anaheim, and coastal sites. Confirm each address on octechweek.com.
Partners host their own breakfasts, panels, pitches, workshops, and mixers. TCVN curates the official calendar. New events are added after a short steering-committee review, so always re-check the live schedule.
Use octechweek.com for week info and the host-submission form. Many individual sessions use separate RSVP links. Some require approval or are invite-only.
Healthcare Innovation & MedTech; Enabling & Creative Technologies; and High-Tech, Life Sciences, & Sustainability—aligned with the Irvine Innovation Blueprint.
No. Organizers invite visitors to extend a Southern California trip after other stops, but OC Tech Week is a separate Orange County program with local hosts and venues.
Final checklist before October 19
Bookmark octechweek.com. RSVP early for Opening Ceremony, MasterMinds, and pitch rooms. Cluster your venues. Leave buffer for 405 traffic. Re-check the calendar the morning of each day—OC Tech Week 2026 is designed to keep growing until kickoff.
See you across Irvine, UCI, Anaheim, and the coast.
Local operators already know the corridor. Use the week to introduce visiting investors to the parts of OC that do not show up in a single pitch deck: university labs, Sustain SoCal energy builders, MedTech operators, and creative-tech studios.
Students and first-time founders: pick one pitch room, one workshop, and one social. Ask two questions. Collect three contacts. That is a winning week.
Bring a clear ask, a warm intro list, and shoes you can walk in.
