For twenty years, QCon has tracked the industry’s major inflections. As the conference marks its 20th anniversary with its 2026 events, the editorial stance remains consistent: sessions are curated by senior engineers, focusing on what has actually worked (and failed) in production.
The upcoming programs for QCon London (March 16–19) and QCon San Francisco (November 16–20) apply this lens to a new set of compounding decisions: moving AI from experiment to reliable production and validating the ROI of platform engineering.
Moving Beyond Chatbots to Agentic Systems
A primary focus of the 2026 anniversary editions is the shift from experimental use of LLMs to “agentic systems” that integrate models, tools, and workflows. Senior engineers are now tasked with handling non-determinism, observability, and security in critical paths.
Tracks such as AI Engineering and Architecture in the Age of AI are designed to address these constraints. For example, Hien Luu, Sr. Engineering Manager at Zoox, hosts the London track on AI Engineering, which moves beyond hype to discuss the rigorous testing and validation required when probabilistic models enter production traffic.
Architecting for Survivability
As distributed systems grow in complexity, the 2026 agenda prioritizes “survivability” over simple uptime. The Architecting for Resilience tracks examine patterns like cellular isolation and fault containment. The goal is to limit the “blast radius” of inevitable failures rather than attempting to prevent them entirely.
This focus on failure analysis is central to the conference’s identity. As one long-time attendee noted, “QCon is where you hear what failed, not just what worked. That kind of judgment is what separates senior developers from Staff-level engineers.“
The Human Side: Staff+ and Platform ROI
Technical decisions do not happen in a vacuum. The 2026 tracks acknowledge the expanded scope of senior roles:
- Staff+ Engineering: Hosted by Shawna Martell, Principal Engineer at Imprint, this track focuses on “durable skills” such as technical judgment, trade-off analysis, and influence without authority that remain relevant regardless of the technology stack.
- Platform Engineering ROI: Discussions have shifted toward evaluating internal developer platforms based on measurable outcomes, such as developer throughput and operational costs, rather than just adoption metrics.
Registration and 2026 Schedule
The 2026 events feature over 75 peer-selected speakers in London and 60+ in San Francisco.
- QCon London (March 16–19): Just a few weeks left. Save your spot now.
- QCon San Francisco (November 16–20): Registration is now open, offering the lowest rates of the year.
For engineering organizations, teams of 10+ can secure additional savings now, allowing leadership to align entire architectural groups around these emerging patterns. Email the QCon team at [email protected] to learn more.
