AI Engineer Sydney 2026

• Hilton Hotel, Sydney

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The era defining conference comes to Sydney

The Sydney edition of the world's leading AI Engineer conference — two days focused on what actually matters: building production LLM systems, tooling that works, evaluation frameworks, safety considerations, and shipping AI-native products.

Join AI engineers, software engineers, CTOs, and VPs of AI who are solving these problems right now. Melbourne sold out weeks in advance with hundreds disappointed, so don't wait — secure your spot.

Shawn (Swyx) Wang at the top of a ski lift with A snow-coloured volcano in the background.

I've looked up to Web Directions for a long time as one of the highest quality technical conference organizers in the world. As we grow AI Engineer as the premier technical event for AI practitioners, we're beyond excited to work with John and Web Directions to bring AI Engineering to ANZ!

A third day to go deeper

Workshops

December 9th 2026

AI Engineer Sydney will feature a dedicated day of hands-on workshops — the day after the conference, on December 9th. Put into practice what you've learnt over the two days of the conference, led by experts to broaden your knowledge and get you up to speed with the latest technologies and techniques.

Learn more

Hackathon

Friday 4 and Saturday 5 December 2026

Most hackathons end on the day. This one ends on the world stage — our finalists pitch at AI Engineer Sydney on the Monday, to 800 engineers, founders and AI leaders, and a global audience on the AI Engineer YouTube channel.

Friday evening and Saturday. It’s free, fully catered, but places are genuinely limited.

RSVP now

Road to AI Engineer

Aug – Dec 2026 · Sydney · Melbourne · Brisbane

Join us on the road to AI Engineer with Homebrew Agents Club, AI Engineering Nights and Unconferences, running across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in the lead up to AI Engineer Sydney and AI Week.

All free, fully catered and fantastic. RSVP now — places will go quickly.

Learn more

AI Week logo

December 6–13 2026

AI Week brings together the people building with AI—engineers training models, software developers and AI engineers, researchers pushing boundaries, designers creating AI-native experiences, and product leaders shipping AI-powered products. Come to Sydney to connect with your peers, explore what's working (and what's not), and discover where this technology is actually heading. If AI is central to your work, this is where you need to be.

learn more

Past events

AI Engineer is the Australian edition of the renowned AI Engineer conference series. Our first edition was in Melbourne in June 2026.

Explore the programme

What will you learn at AI Engineer Sydney?

The programme follows the decisions teams face when AI moves from experiment to production: how to build capable systems, how to know they can be trusted, and how software work changes when agents become part of the team.

  1. Build agents that work in production

    Move beyond the demo: engineer context, memory, tools, interfaces and infrastructure for agents that must run reliably, economically and at scale.

    Follow this story

  2. Earn the right to trust them

    Replace plausible output with evidence. Trace behaviour, evaluate changes, constrain authority and design for security, auditability and real consequences.

    Follow this story

  3. Change how software gets made

    Understand what coding agents demand from codebases, tests, developer tools, review systems—and from the people and organisations adopting them.

    Follow this story

Or start with the question you need to answer.

Explore the programme

Speakers

Featuring speakers from

  • Google
  • Canva
  • Atlassian
  • AWS
  • Deloitte

More speakers will be announced in the coming weeks.

What they said about Melbourne

Ron Au

“It's 10 out of 10 for AI Engineer, it's 10 out of 10 for Web Directions and John Allsopp.”

Ron Au, Senior Software Engineer, Canva

Find your AI Engineer Sydney pass

Registration is open, and tickets are selling faster than they have for any event we’ve ever hosted. Don’t miss out—secure your seat for December 7th & 8th at the Hilton Sydney.

Booking with an AI assistant? It can find passes, current prices and a booking link at register.webdirections.org/llms.txt.

Special pricing

We have special pricing for people working in digital agencies, not-for-profits, people working in education, juniors, and anyone funding their own ticket. It’s an honour system. Just choose the ticket type that applies to you.

Ticket type:

In person · 2 days

Conference

$1,395until 20 Nov

  • Keynotes
  • Two dedicated tracks
  • Networking Reception
  • Videos post-conference, on-demand
  • Fully catered

Next $1,595 · 21 Nov

Register

In person · 3 days

Conference + Workshop Day

$1,895until 20 Nov

  • Keynotes
  • Two dedicated tracks
  • Networking Reception
  • Videos post-conference, on-demand
  • Fully catered
  • Plus the Workshop Day — 9 December

Next $2,095 · 21 Nov

Register

In person · 2 days

Leadership

$1,995until 20 Nov

  • Exclusive Leadership track
  • VIP Keynote seating
  • Access to all other tracks
  • Speaker Dinner
  • Networking Reception
  • Videos post-conference, on-demand
  • Fully catered

Next $2,195 · 21 Nov

Register

In person · 3 days

Leadership + Workshop Day

$2,395until 20 Nov

  • Exclusive Leadership track
  • VIP Keynote seating
  • Access to all other tracks
  • Speaker Dinner
  • Networking Reception
  • Videos post-conference, on-demand
  • Fully catered
  • Plus the Workshop Day — 9 December

Next $2,595 · 21 Nov

Register

In person · 1 day

Workshop Day only

$895until 20 Nov

  • Workshop Day — 9 December
  • A full day of hands-on, practical workshops
  • Fully catered

Next $995 · 21 Nov

Register

Online · 2 days

Streaming

$595until 20 Nov

  • Live stream — all sessions
  • Live chat and Q&A
  • Videos post-conference, on-demand

Next $695 · 21 Nov

Register

Teams of 5+

Conference

$1,195

per person

Conference + Workshop Day

$1,695

per person

Team passes

Bring your team to AI Engineer Sydney

Book five or more Conference passes for $1,195 per person, or Conference + Workshop Day passes for $1,695 per person. You’ll save $200 on every ticket—and for every five tickets booked, one attendee receives a complimentary upgrade to the corresponding Leadership Pass.

Build your team pass

Want the latest updates?

Get news on speakers, schedule and program updates as they land.

The Conffab streaming experience.

Online · 2 days

Watch live from anywhere

Can’t make it to Sydney? A standalone streaming pass gives you every conference session live, plus chat and Q&A.

Every session is also available on demand after the conference.

Get a streaming pass

In the heart of Sydney

Hilton Sydney

AI Engineer Sydney 2026 will take place December 7th & 8th at the Hilton Hotel, Sydney.

  • Central CBD location with rail, light rail and bus connections close by.
  • Stay at the Hilton or choose from the many hotels and serviced apartments nearby.
The Hilton Sydney

AI Engineer, for agents too

Send your agent to the conference

We’re building AI Engineer Sydney so your agent can do more than find the homepage. Ask whether this is the right conference for you, which speakers and talks matter to your work, what pass makes sense, and what it will cost. Your agent can come back with a useful answer, its sources and a ready-to-use booking link.

And once the conference starts, AgentPass by Conffab gives agents a way to attend on your behalf—following the live captions and screens across rooms, noticing what matters to you, and bringing back the parts worth knowing.

See what your agent can do Explore AgentPass

Partners

Keen to partner with us? Drop us a line—we’d love to talk more.

Partners currently announced for Sydney include:

Premium Partner

Sentry logo

Exhibiting Partners

Auth0 logo
Cloudflare logo
Dam Secure logo
Databricks logo
Deloitte logo
Sonar logo

Jobs

Roles from our partners who are hiring AI engineers, ML specialists, and the people who build the platforms behind them. Find a role that fits and apply directly.

Job listings coming soon.

The organisers

About the organisers

Web Directions

For more than 20 years Web Directions has brought together the people building the web and digital products. Our conferences are known for rigorous programs, generous hospitality and conversations that continue long after the final session.

AI Engineer Sydney brings that experience together with the global AI Engineer community.

Crowd at a conference.
Portait of John Allsopp.

John Allsopp

John Allsopp founded Web Directions and has spent nearly 30 years helping shape how the web is designed and built. His writing helped inspire Responsive Web Design, and his tools helped establish modern web typography.

He curates programs around practical ideas, candid conversations and the people moving the field forward.

A conference for everyone

Code of Conduct

Everyone deserves a welcoming, inspiring and safe conference. Our code of conduct applies to attendees, speakers, partners and organisers.

If something concerns you, please tell us. We will take it seriously.