Growing the AI Community: A Year of Daytona In-Person Events

Daytona spent the year organizing a variety of in-person events in major cities like San Francisco, New York City, and Paris to foster community within the AI ecosystem. These events included AI Builders meetups, which focused on connecting individuals actively creating AI solutions, HackSprints that encouraged hands-on building of projects, and DevTool Gatherings that facilitated relaxed networking among peers in tech roles. Over 1,600 attendees participated in 19 events featuring 68 speakers, reflecting a high level of engagement and collaboration. Notably, HackSprints saw participants submit 105 projects in partnership with companies like Anthropic and CodeRabbit. Looking forward to 2026, Daytona aims to expand its events to include new locations such as London, Boston, and Singapore, and will host its flagship conference, Daytona Compute, at the Chase Center in San Francisco. The Daytona Pacer Program was also introduced to support leaders in growing the Daytona ecosystem through education and collaboration.