How to Host
Follow the official host playbook for event ideas, submission requirements, Partiful setup, marketing, guestlist management, content capture, and support resources.
New host information is added regularly, so check back for updates. For event questions, email support@tech-week.com.
Tech Week 2027 dates
2027 submission deadlines and calendar launch dates aren't announced yet. Sign up to hear first: Get involved in 2027 →
Boston
April 26 – May 2, 2027
Deadline: Coming soon
Submissions open soon
New York
June 7–13, 2027
Deadline: Coming soon
Submissions open soon
Los Angeles
September 13–19, 2027
Deadline: Coming soon
Submissions open soon
San Francisco
October 4–10, 2027
Deadline: Coming soon
Submissions open soon
Everything one click away
Submit your event proposal
Start with a clear event idea, then submit it through the official host form. The Tech Week team reviews proposals and approved events are marketed under the Tech Week umbrella and listed on the official calendar.
- You can submit up to four events per account in each city. Sponsors have no limit when signed in with their sponsor work email.
- Events you co-host don’t count toward your limit. Declined events do.
- Earlier submissions give the team more time to review and approve your event.
- Submissions for 2026 are closed, and 2027 submissions aren’t open yet. Deadlines are coming soon.
Choose a strong event format
Any event type can work when the audience and purpose are clear. The strongest events create a specific reason to attend and feel useful, memorable, or newsworthy for the Tech Week community.
Speaker panel
Curate a sharp topic and moderate a focused discussion, such as how to fundraise in 2027 from three top founders.
Happy hour
A lightweight way to gather a specific audience, such as fintech founders, AI builders, or product leaders.
Breakfast, lunch, or dinner
Best for invite-only or smaller groups where the goal is a more intimate conversation.
Experiential event
Community-building formats like tournaments, tastings, cruises, creative workshops, or other memorable activities.
- Hackathons where engineers, researchers, and developers leave with something they built.
- High-quality speaker panels with CEOs, senior executives, successful founders, talent, public figures, or other standout voices.
- Newsworthy moments such as product launches, financing announcements, or major executive announcements.
- Founder-focused activations such as fundraising events, demo days, and hackathons.
- Investor-led events for LP, seed, and angel communities.
- City-specific formats that feel native to SF or LA, such as builder sessions in SF or media, entertainment, gaming, wellness, defense, and hard-tech gatherings in LA.
If you combine a panel, fireside chat, or keynote with a mixer, run the content first and the networking second. It is much harder to quiet the room down once guests are already mid-conversation.
- Build in more audience Q&A time than you think you need.
- Use the panel to create shared context, then let guests continue the conversation during the mixer.
Pick a location, day, and time
You can host in any neighborhood, but central event hotspots usually create stronger density, better attendance, and lower attrition.
Boston
Back Bay, Seaport, Kendall Square
New York
SoHo, TriBeCa, Flatiron, Union Square
San Francisco
SoMa/Mission, FiDi, Marina. Avoid the East Bay, South Bay and Peninsula when possible.
Los Angeles
Westside, primarily Santa Monica and Venice
Select the day and time that works best for your audience and format. Close-out events often perform better on Fridays than Sundays. Panels, mixers, meals, workshops, and founder gatherings can work on any day with the right audience and promotion plan.
LA events can stand out when they draw from local strengths like media, entertainment, gaming, consumer, wellness, defense, American dynamism, El Segundo hard tech, or beach and outdoor culture. SF events often shine when they lean into builders, AI, developer tools, startups, and investor density.
Set up your Tech Week event on Partiful
Partiful is the only official events platform this year. To be listed on the official Tech Week calendar, create your event with the Tech Week Partiful template and submit your proposal through the host form. Events listed on another platform may be removed from the calendar.
Partiful is where you manage RSVPs, screen attendees, and communicate with guests before and during your event.
Create your Partiful before submitting, use that link in the host form, and treat the page as the source of truth for your calendar listing. Your date, time, title, and description can be rough at submission time; update Partiful later and the calendar will sync.
Partiful requirements
- Create the event with the Tech Week Partiful template so required settings are turned on.
- Include #[City]TechWeek at the end of the event title, such as #SFTechWeek or #LATechWeek.
- Write at least one paragraph of event description, with a minimum of three sentences.
- Include the proposed start and end time.
- List only the neighborhood at first. Share the exact address with confirmed attendees closer to the event.
- Use Tech Week branding in your event graphic. Do not use the a16z logo unless a16z is directly involved.
- Keep the required filtering questions so you can screen and approve attendees. The template now locks them for Tech Week, so add extra questions rather than editing the pre-set ones.
- Use the Tech Week template so Tech Week is added as a co-host.
Invite-only events
Invite-only events still need a Partiful link. Create the Partiful, turn on required approval, and approve only the invited guests you want in the room.
Paid or ticketed events
Partiful now sells tickets natively, with one service fee that already includes Stripe. Enter a ticket price in the tool to see the exact fee, then set either the guest-facing price or the amount you want to receive per ticket.
- Multiple ticket tiers: free, General Admission, VIP, and more.
- Promo codes for a percentage or dollar discount.
- Guest approval for ticketed events, with a card hold until you approve.
- QR code check-in from the Partiful app, and check-in-only access for door staff.
- Host-initiated refunds without leaving Partiful.
Either export your guest list, remove the existing guests, and turn on tickets, or duplicate the event page with tickets enabled and link to it from the original page. A promo code is an easy way to comp or discount the guests who RSVP'd before tickets went on sale. Partiful does not allow linking out to another site to sell tickets or collect RSVPs.
New on Partiful for Fall 2026
- Native ticketingSell tickets on Partiful with free, General Admission, VIP, and other tiers, plus percentage or dollar promo codes.
- Guest approval for ticketed eventsGuests request a ticket, a hold is placed on their card for up to seven days, and approving them charges the card and issues the ticket.
- QR code check-inEvery ticket comes with a QR code you can scan at the door from the Partiful app.
- Check-in staff permissionsGive bouncers and door staff check-in-only access to a ticketed event without making them co-hosts.
- Host-initiated refundsRefund a guest directly from Partiful when you need to.
- Locked Tech Week questionnaire fieldsThe Tech Week template now locks its pre-set registration questions, so the details Tech Week needs from guests are always captured.
- Email blastsSend custom message blasts to your guests by email as well as text.
- Emails on guest approvalGuests approved for an approval-required event get an email with a calendar attachment.
- Organization profilesBuild a following for your organization on Partiful. Guests are offered a follow when they RSVP or buy a ticket, and you can invite followers to future events.
For Partiful platform issues only, such as bug reports, account issues, or template setup problems, email techweek@partiful.com. For general event questions, email support@tech-week.com.
Market your event
As the host, you are responsible for marketing and filling your event. Tech Week helps by featuring approved events on the official calendar and coordinating launch visibility, but your own community, email list, social channels, and co-host networks will drive the strongest turnout.
How Tech Week helps
- Approved events appear on the official Tech Week calendar.
- Calendar launch visibility gives hosts a shared moment for promotion.
- Select approved events may also be highlighted through Tech Week channels.
What hosts should do
- Promote to your own audience before relying on the public calendar.
- Use the Brand Kit for logos, assets, and marketing materials.
- Coordinate with co-hosts so every partner posts around key launch moments.
- Ask every speaker and co-host to post from personal accounts.
- Personal LinkedIn and X posts usually outperform company-page posts.
- Use Social Cards for speaker, host, and attendee announcements.
- Consider creating a LinkedIn Event and pointing RSVPs back to your Partiful page.
- Keep marketing after approval with reminders, speaker updates, final event details, and day-of notes.
Instagram collabs with Tech Week (SF & LA)
Collab posts are one of the easiest ways to get your event in front of the thousands of founders, operators, and investors who follow Tech Week. Here's what gives your post the best shot at getting picked up by our content team.
Format
- Video beats carousel, and carousel beats a single photo.
- Shoot vertical and keep it short: 15–60 seconds.
- Tag @techweeka16z and use #SFTechWeek or #LATechWeek.
What makes people stop scrolling
- Real people, real moments. A face talking to camera beats a logo every time.
- A clear reason to care: the one thing that makes someone want to be there. FOMO is a huge driver.
- A caption that does some of the selling. If there’s an RSVP link, put it up top.
Email your post to alexander@tech-week.com whenever it's ready. Sending it well before your event gets you more reach, but we're happy to look at anything. Sending it blind through social media may mean a slower response, or none.
Manage RSVPs and account for attrition
Free Tech Week events regularly see 50–70%+ no-shows. Approve about 2.5–3× your target attendance, and use the Attrition Calculator to set your exact number.
Communicate RSVP status
- Approve qualified applicants within seven days of application.
- Reject unqualified applicants quickly so they can apply for other events.
- Remember that denied applicants are not notified automatically. Download the CSV if you want to contact them directly.
- Send weekly reminders leading up to the event and daily reminders during Tech Week.
- Ask guests to confirm whether they can attend so your headcount stays realistic.
Plan for no-shows
- Promote to your own audience instead of relying only on the public Tech Week calendar.
- Send personalized one-to-one invites to the people you most want in the room.
- Use the Attrition Calculator in Host HQ before ordering food or setting final room plans.
Tech Week also has community guidelines for attendee behavior, including expectations around registering for events and avoiding multiple signups during the same time slot.
Plan content and support resources
Costs and logistics
Tech Week does not charge hosts to submit an event or appear on the official calendar. Hosts own their event budget and logistics.
Capture content
Take photos and videos during your event, repost on social, and use #TechWeek plus the city hashtag so attendees and the Tech Week team can find and amplify your content. Book coverage early if you want a polished recap.
Two content teams offer discounted rates to Tech Week hosts. Book with them directly — rates and packages are on their pages.
- Roll ↗ — video production, from an onsite crew to an edit of footage you shoot yourself.
- Lighthouse Creative ↗ — event photography, interviews, and social-ready recap video.
Changing co-hosts
Add, remove, or reorder co-hosts yourself from My Events. Email support@tech-week.com only if something can't be changed there.
Canceling your event
- Cancel the event on Partiful. It comes off the Tech Week calendar automatically.
- Message all guests through Partiful so everyone hears it from you.
- Refund any tickets through Partiful.
- Send support@tech-week.com a quick note confirming the cancellation.