Sydney's startup calendar has changed: SXSW Sydney is cancelled for 2026 and 2027, and the Sydney Startup Hub at Wynyard has closed. The dates to keep now are AI Week in December 2026, the Women Leading Tech Awards on 19 March 2027 and Sydney Tech Week in November 2027.
This guide lists startup, tech, investor and women-founder events in Sydney, from November 2026 to the end of 2027. We checked every date on the organiser's own website. We mark each event as Confirmed (date on the official site), Announced (date from a reliable second source) or Expected (based on past editions only). Many of Sydney's founder events haven't published 2027 dates yet; they're under "Dates not announced yet".
This article is regularly updated with new events. Do you know about an event that needs to be added? Send us some info and we will see if it's a fit.
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Must Attend Startup Events in Sydney 2026–2027: Calendar from November 2026 to November 2027
Spring and early summer 2026
The Business Show Australia: 25–26 November 2026
Seminars, keynotes and suppliers in one place: banks, accountants, marketing and software. Useful in your first year, when you need to set up the basics fast.
Global Entrepreneurship Week runs 16–22 November 2026 worldwide; no Sydney events are listed yet. genglobal.org
DevFest Sydney: 26–27 November 2026
GDG Sydney's yearly conference on Google tools, AI and cloud. A cheap way to meet Sydney's developers and find a technical co-founder.
AI Week: AI Engineer Sydney and its hackathon, 4–9 December 2026
Web Directions runs both as part of AI Week (6–13 December), with about 800 engineers, founders and AI leaders and side events across the week. The hackathon finalists pitch on the conference's main stage, so it's the best free way in. More in our AI startup events.
Autumn and winter 2027
Sydney SEO Conference: 12 March 2027
The eighth edition, run by Prosperity Media. Practical search and growth lessons for bootstrapped founders who can't buy their way to customers. See our marketing tech events.
Women Leading Tech Awards: 19 March 2027
Run by B&T and presented by Atlassian. The Entrepreneur/Founder award is open to women who founded or lead a tech, digital or e-commerce startup up to five years old. Entering is free publicity; the night itself is Sydney's biggest women in tech gathering.
UNIHACK, the student hackathon, returns on 12–14 March 2027 in a hybrid format; a Sydney hub isn't confirmed yet. unihack.net
Gartner Data & Analytics Summit: 7–8 June 2027
Not a startup event, but the room where Australian enterprise data and AI budgets are discussed. Worth it if you sell data or AI tools to large companies.
Spring 2027
Sydney Tech Week and Sydney Tech Expo: 8–11 November 2027
Enterprise tech, cloud, AI and data centre shows, plus a week of fringe events with investor roundtables, workshops and a harbour boat party. ICC Sydney's page has the week's dates.
Dates not announced yet
- Sunrise 2027 (Blackbird): Australia's biggest founder and VC festival; the last one was on 30 April 2026 at Carriageworks. thesunrise.live
- AWS Summit Sydney 2027: free; the last one ran 13–14 May 2026 at ICC Sydney. aws.amazon.com
- Spark Festival 2027: Australia's largest startup festival, with free sessions across Sydney; the last one ran 21–27 September 2026. spark.org.au
- S2S Summit 2027 (Tank Stream Labs): the 2026 summit was on 1 September at the MCA. s2ssummit.com
- INCUBATE Demo Day (University of Sydney): the last one was on 6 November 2025. incubate.org.au
- UNSW Founders New Wave showcase for women founders: last held on 20 November 2025. cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au
- FoundHER Summit (Tech Ready Women): last held on 19 November 2025 in North Parramatta. nsw.gov.au
- DevFest Sydney 2027 and AI Engineer Sydney 2027: expected late in the year; Web Directions has only announced AI Engineer Melbourne (9–10 June 2027).
Recurring meetups and communities
- Fridays @ UTS Startups: weekly Friday sessions at Tech Central, including a Female Founder Pitch Night in July 2026. luma.com
- Road to AI Engineer: free AI meetups and unconferences run by Web Directions until December. webdirections.org
- GDG Sydney: Google developer meetups and DevFest. gdg.community.dev
- Stone & Chalk Tech Central (477 Pitt St): the new home of the Sydney Startup Hub, with programmes and events. stoneandchalk.com.au
- Antler and Startmate: accelerators with Sydney cohorts and demo days. antler.co startmate.com
- Founder Institute Australia: a pre-seed accelerator, now run online. fi.co
Quiet or gone: SXSW Sydney is cancelled for 2026 and 2027, the Sydney Startup Hub at Wynyard closed in August 2025, Fishburners went into administration in May 2026, Springboard Australia joined the global programme, Startup Grind Sydney lists no local events and YOW! has no Sydney 2026 edition. Intersekt and CyberCon are in Melbourne, and the Gartner IT Symposium is on the Gold Coast.
Events for women founders in Sydney
- Women Leading Tech Awards (19 March 2027): enter the Entrepreneur/Founder award by 28 January 2027.
- UNSW Founders New Wave: a pre-accelerator for women founders with a yearly showcase; more than 870 women have taken part since 2017.
- Tech Ready Women: programmes for women founders and the FoundHER Summit on early-stage funding. techreadywomen.academy
- Inspiring Rare Birds: mentoring for women entrepreneurs, mostly online. inspiringrarebirds.com
- NSW MVP Ventures, Stream 2: grants for majority women-owned businesses (see below).
Springboard Enterprises merged its Australian programme into the global one in December 2025. Run an event for women founders in Sydney? Send it to us and we'll add it. See also our female entrepreneurship events and women in tech events for 2027.
Funding and support to know before you go
- NSW MVP Ventures: Stream 2 pays up to 75% of project costs ($20,000–$75,000) for majority women-owned, regional or Aboriginal-owned businesses; Stream 1 pays $20,000–$50,000 at 50%. For NSW companies with turnover of $400,000 or less and 10 or fewer staff. The last round closed on 10 April 2026, and no new round is published yet. nsw.gov.au
- R&D Tax Incentive: you need at least $20,000 of eligible R&D spending a year. Changes from the 2026–27 Budget start on 1 July 2028; until then the current rules apply. business.gov.au
- Company registration: registering a Pty Ltd company with ASIC costs $636, the yearly review fee is $342 and a name reservation is $65; fees rise every 1 July. asic.gov.au
- Founders from abroad: the National Innovation visa (subclass 858) is an invitation-only permanent visa that replaced the Global Talent programme. You start with an Expression of Interest.
How to get the most out of Sydney startup events
- Book AI Engineer Sydney before 21 November. The ticket goes from $1,395 to $1,595.
- Enter the hackathon instead. It's free, and the finalists pitch to the whole AI Engineer conference.
- Enter the Women Leading Tech Awards by 28 January. A shortlist alone is good publicity for a young startup.
- Use the free events. Fridays @ UTS Startups, Road to AI Engineer, the Business Show and the Sydney Tech Expo cost nothing.
- Don't plan around SXSW Sydney. It won't run in 2026 or 2027.
List your event in this guide
Do you run a startup, tech or investor event in Sydney? Send us the name, dates, venue and official link, and we'll check whether it fits this guide. We list events for founders, with a real date and an official page.
This article is regularly updated with new events. Do you know about an event that needs to be added? Send us some info and we will see if it's a fit.
🔗 Add an awesome event
Startup events in other places
- Must Attend Startup Events in Hong Kong
- Must Attend Startup Events in Bangalore, India
- Must Attend Startup Events in Seoul, South Korea
- Must Attend Startup Events in Helsinki, Finland
- Must Attend Startup Events in Madrid, Spain
- Must Attend Startup Events in Zurich, Switzerland
- Must Attend Startup Events in Dublin, Ireland
- Must Attend Startup Events in Copenhagen, Denmark
- Must Attend Startup Events in Milan, Italy
- Must Attend Startup Events in Vienna, Austria
- Must Attend Startup Events in Austin, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in Miami, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in Seattle, USA
- Must Attend Startup Events in Warsaw, Poland
- Best startup events in Europe (with country guides)
FAQ
What are the main startup events in Sydney?
AI Engineer Sydney and its hackathon (4–9 December 2026), DevFest Sydney (26–27 November), the Women Leading Tech Awards (19 March 2027) and Sydney Tech Week (8–11 November 2027). Sunrise, Spark Festival and the AWS Summit haven't published 2027 dates yet.
Is SXSW Sydney happening in 2026 or 2027?
No. The organisers and Destination NSW cancelled SXSW Sydney for 2026 and 2027 in January 2026.
Where is the Sydney Startup Hub now?
The hub at Wynyard closed on 31 August 2025. Stone & Chalk now runs the startup hub at Tech Central, 477 Pitt Street.
Are there events for women founders in Sydney?
Yes: the Women Leading Tech Awards (19 March 2027) with an Entrepreneur/Founder award, the UNSW Founders New Wave showcase and Tech Ready Women's FoundHER Summit, both expected again.
How much does it cost to register a company in Australia?
Registering a Pty Ltd company with ASIC costs $636, and the yearly review fee is $342. ASIC raises its fees every 1 July.
About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
