#1 Technology Industry Event
Salesforce hosts a staggering number of attendees at Dreamforce each year, and the conference continues to grow. In 2016, there were more than 171,000 registrants from 83 countries, and another 15 million people joining the conference online. Melinda Gates, Robin Roberts, Tony Robbins, Marc Cuban, Chris Sacca, Will.i.am, Shahrzad Rafati, Billie Jean King, Rep. John Lewis, Lilly Ledbetter, and the Kelly brothers all spoke, and U2 performed for attendees. Next: November 6-9, 2017
#2 Technology Industry Event
Oracle OpenWorld is one of the biggest tech events in the world. In 2016, the conference included 60,000 attendees at 2,555 sessions across 18 venues in downtown San Francisco. Beyond networking and breakout sessions, one of the perks is the Oracle Appreciation Event—a concert for conferencegoers featuring a major musical act. Last year, it was the Piano Man, Billy Joel. Next: October 1-5, 2017
#3 Technology Industry Event
Apple Worldwide Developers Conference has become a golden ticket. Five-thousand software developers are chosen through a lottery to attend. After Apple reveals its new technology to the crowd, attendees can choose breakout sessions where they can work with more than 1,000 Apple engineers. New in 2017? Apple bid adieu to San Francisco’s Moscone Center and moved to the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. Next: June 2018
#4 Technology Industry Event
Attendance at Google’s annual developer event at the Shoreline Ampitheatre is limited to 7,200, which means wannabe attendees must rely on the luck of the draw (or the resale market) for tickets. While most conferences corral attendees inside a conference hall, I/O offers three days of product launches, office hours, codelabs, and after-hours parties in a outdoor setting. Next: Spring 2018
#5 Technology Industry Event (new to the list)
More than a billion users log onto Facebook every day, and the world’s largest social network helps thousands of developers better engage with those users at its F8 conference. This is where more than 4,000 developers head to learn about new products from Facebook, Instagram, What’s App, Oculus, and more. In addition to keynotes, the company presents more than 50 sessions and interactive experiences to educate developers about how to integrate and get value from the platform. Next: April 2018
#6 Technology Industry Event
Demo Day is private, invitation-only, and always oversubscribed. Over the course of two days in both March and August each year, some 100 founders present their companies to a room of industry insiders and investors. Each group of presentations is punctuated with breaks so audience members can meet the founders of the companies, but the catch is audience members can only attend one day. Next: August 21-23, 2017
#7 Technology Industry Event
Described as the world’s leading authority in debuting revolutionary start-ups, Disrupt gathers the best and brightest entrepreneurs, investors, hackers, and tech fans for on-stage interviews, the Startup Battlefield competition, a 24-hour Hackathon, Startup Alley, Hardware Alley, and parties. In keeping with its reputation for identifying and fostering young talent, this is one of the few tech events that offers discounted student tickets. Next: September 18-20, 2017
#8 Technology Industry Event
The conference is the world's oldest—31 years—and biggest industry event for gaming professionals. More than 26,000 programmers, artists, producers, game designers, and audio professionals gather for lectures, panels, tutorials, and roundtable discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development and VR topics taught by leading industry experts. Next: March 19-23, 2018
#9 Technology Industry Event
The biggest Java programming event of the year, Java One runs concurrently with Oracle OpenWorld in downtown San Francisco and includes 450 Java-focused sessions, demos, labs, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, and a Developer Community Day. Bonus: Since it’s part of Oracle OpenWorld, attendees also get tickets for the Oracle Appreciation concert event. Next: October 1-5, 2017
