QCon AI New York 2026

QCon AI New York 2026 is a two-day conference on production AI systems held 15-16 December 2026 at The Westin Jersey City Newport, one PATH stop from Lower Manhattan. Run by C4Media, the team behind InfoQ and QCon, it is chaired by Eder Ignatowicz of Red Hat AI, Faye Zhang of Google and Wes Reisz of Thoughtworks, and is organised around six tracks: agent runtime design, context engineering, evals and observability, MCP and tool access, zero-trust security for tool-using agents, and inference cost and latency. The stated goal is moving AI from impressive demo to governed infrastructure. Every proposal is judged against two questions - has the speaker run this in production, and will they discuss what failed alongside what worked - and the main programme carries no sponsored talks or product pitches. First sessions are announced in August, a preliminary schedule in October and the complete programme by early November 2026.

Date

December 15–16, 2026

Location

The Westin Jersey City Newport, New Jersey

Format

In-Person

Event Type

Conference

Status

Upcoming

Pricing

Paid

Organizer

C4Media (InfoQ / QCon Conferences)

Added

Aug 2, 2026

Updated

Aug 2, 2026

• ✓Senior software engineers running AI in production
• ✓Software architects
• ✓Staff+ engineers
• ✓ML and MLOps engineers
• ✓Platform engineers
• ✓Security engineers responsible for agent access
• ✓Engineering leaders and VPs owning production AI

This is a narrow, deliberately unglamorous conference for people who already own an AI system that is live and misbehaving. A platform or security leader gets two days on the specific failure modes that follow a successful pilot: agents that lose state mid-task, evals that pass while quality quietly regresses, MCP tool surfaces that widen the blast radius, and inference bills that scale faster than usage. Because the programme is invite-only and practitioner-selected, the numbers quoted on stage come from real production systems, and at 27-plus sessions it is small enough to actually corner a speaker afterwards.

• ✓Track: Agent runtime design - state ownership, recovery and approval boundaries
• ✓Track: Context engineering
• ✓Track: Evals and observability
• ✓Track: MCP and tool access
• ✓Track: Zero-trust security for tool-using agents
• ✓Track: Inference cost and latency
• ✓27+ sessions across two days, selected by a practitioner committee
• ✓Two attendee socials plus catered meals included in the conference pass
• ✓On-demand recordings of sessions included with the conference pass
• ✓Separate video-only pass with recordings released 15 January 2027
• ✓Programme milestones: first sessions announced August, preliminary schedule October, full programme early November 2026

• ★Scoped to teams that already run AI in production rather than organisations still evaluating adoption - the tracks assume a live system, not a pilot
• ★Invite-only, practitioner-selected programme with no sponsored talks or product pitches on the main schedule
• ★Every speaker must have operated the system they present and must cover what failed as well as what worked
• ★Dedicated zero-trust security track for tool-using agents, a topic most AI conferences leave to a single panel
• ★A 1:11 speaker-to-attendee ratio, so hallway access to the presenters is realistic
• ★Applies C4Media's 20-year QCon practitioner methodology specifically to production AI, chaired by engineers from Red Hat AI, Google and Thoughtworks

Early-bird conference pass (2 days) $1,450 - advertised as 23% off - available until 11 August 2026, after which the price rises on a published tier schedule; the registration page itemises only the current early-bird rate. The pass covers 27+ sessions, on-demand recordings, two attendee socials, meals and exhibitor area access. Group discounts open on 9 September 2026 and run from $50 to $125 off per ticket for groups of 3 to 16+. A separate video-only pass is offered, with recordings released from 15 January 2027.

When is QCon AI New York 2026?

QCon AI New York 2026 takes place December 15–16, 2026 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Where is QCon AI New York 2026 held?

QCon AI New York 2026 is held in Jersey City, New Jersey. The event format is in-person.

How much does QCon AI New York 2026 cost?

QCon AI New York 2026 is paid. Early-bird conference pass (2 days) $1,450 - advertised as 23% off - available until 11 August 2026, after which the price rises on a published tier schedule; the registration page itemises only the current early-bird rate. The pass covers 27+ sessions, on-demand recordings, two attendee socials, meals and exhibitor area access. Group discounts open on 9 September 2026 and run from $50 to $125 off per ticket for groups of 3 to 16+. A separate video-only pass is offered, with recordings released from 15 January 2027.

Who should attend QCon AI New York 2026?

QCon AI New York 2026 is aimed at Senior software engineers running AI in production, Software architects, Staff+ engineers, ML and MLOps engineers, Platform engineers, Security engineers responsible for agent access, Engineering leaders and VPs owning production AI.

What topics does QCon AI New York 2026 cover?

QCon AI New York 2026 covers Agent runtime design, Context engineering, LLM evaluation and observability, Model Context Protocol (MCP) and tool access, Zero-trust security for tool-using agents, Inference cost and latency optimisation, MLOps for production AI, AI governance and operational controls.

This page was written from 4 sources, 2 on domains other than newyork.qcon.ai.

1. 1.newyork.qcon.ai — newyork.qcon.aivendor
2. 2.newyork.qcon.ai — newyork2026vendor
3. 3.ai.qconferences.com — video only
4. 4.infoq.com — qcon ai newyork 2026 live