RenderATL, the largest software engineering conference in the United States, opened its 2026 edition on August 12 at AmericasMart in downtown Atlanta, bringing together thousands of engineers, designers, product leaders, and founders for two days of technical programming, an AI expo, a hackathon, five co-located summits, and a concert lineup headlined by DJ Pee .Wee (Anderson .Paak), Yung Joc, and Lloyd. Atlanta rapper, activist, and entrepreneur Killer Mike delivered the keynote, and the conference operates as the flagship event of Atlanta Tech Week, a citywide initiative running August 9 through 14 that positions the city as the South’s technology capital.
Key Takeaways
- RenderATL 2026 runs August 12-13 at AmericasMart (230 John Portman Blvd NW) in downtown Atlanta, featuring 50+ speakers, workshops, and five co-located summits under a single-badge admission model.
- Killer Mike headlines as keynote speaker; Distinguished Google Engineer Kelsey Hightower and Shannon Sharpe are also on the program.
- The conference includes the Atlanta AI Expo, an OpenJS Node Interactive Summit, a Major League Hacking hackathon, an Executive Summit presented by Intuit, and a Go To Market Summit.
- RenderFEST, the opening-night concert on August 12, features DJ Pee .Wee (Anderson .Paak), Yung Joc, and Lloyd, all included with conference admission.
- RenderATL serves as the flagship event of Atlanta Tech Week (August 9-14), a weeklong series of events across the city for founders, investors, and enterprise leaders.
- Founded in 2019 by Atlanta-based engineer Justin E. Samuels, the conference has grown from a local gathering into a national draw that combines technical depth with cultural programming rooted in Atlanta’s identity.
A Conference Built Around Atlanta’s Identity
RenderATL occupies a distinct position in the technology conference landscape. Founded in 2019 by Justin E. Samuels, an Atlanta-based engineer and entrepreneur, the event was designed from the start to merge technical programming with the cultural energy of its host city. RenderATL describes its approach as building a conference where “talent feels welcomed” and “collards meets code,” a framing that distinguishes it from the corporate tone of most large-scale tech events.
That approach has scaled. The conference has grown from a gathering of local developers into an event that the organizers call the largest software engineering conference in the country, drawing attendees from across the United States to downtown Atlanta each August. The 2026 edition takes place at AmericasMart, a commercial complex in the heart of the city, with sessions running across multiple stages and tracks from 10 a.m. through 5 p.m. on both days.
Samuels has described the conference’s philosophy as intentionally blurring the lines between community, culture, and code. That ethos extends to the programming structure: a single badge grants access to the main conference, all five summits, workshops, the expo, the hackathon, and RenderFEST, the after-hours concert that closes the first evening. Most comparable conferences sell those components as separate add-ons.
Killer Mike Takes the Keynote Stage
The conference’s keynote headliner is Killer Mike, the Grammy-winning Atlanta rapper whose career has expanded into entrepreneurship, community banking, and political activism. RenderATL positioned his appearance as a bridge between Atlanta’s technology and cultural communities, bringing what the organizers described as “sharp cultural perspective, entrepreneurial fire, and Atlanta energy” to the stage.
The speaker roster extends across the technical and business spectrum. Kelsey Hightower, a Distinguished Engineer at Google known for his work on Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure, is on the program alongside Shannon Sharpe, the former NFL player and media personality. The full lineup includes more than 50 speakers across the main conference tracks, with sessions covering frontend web development, AI application building, observability, and open-source software.
Five Summits and an AI Expo Under One Badge
RenderATL 2026 expanded its programming model to include five co-located summits, each focused on a distinct segment of the technology industry. The Atlanta AI Expo functions as a full-day track dedicated to applied artificial intelligence, with hands-on workshops, product demos, and sessions from engineers working on production AI systems. The organizers noted that AI summits at comparable conferences are typically sold as premium add-ons; RenderATL includes the expo in the standard badge.
The OpenJS Node Interactive Summit brings together JavaScript developers, full-stack engineers, and open-source maintainers for sessions on Node.js, the JavaScript ecosystem, and open-source governance. New Relic sponsors a dedicated RUNTIME stage focused on observability, performance engineering, and backend infrastructure. An Executive Summit, presented by Intuit, provides programming for decision-makers, operators, and technology leaders, while the Go To Market Summit targets founders, revenue operations professionals, and developer marketers working on AI-native sales motions.
A Legal-Tech Track, new for 2026, addresses AI ethics, governance, and risk frameworks, targeting general counsel, compliance professionals, and policy teams. A Major League Hacking hackathon runs concurrently, giving engineers an opportunity to build and ship projects in a competitive environment during the conference itself.
RenderFEST Closes Opening Night With Atlanta Music
The cultural programming peaks on the evening of August 12 with RenderFEST, the conference’s after-hours concert. DJ Pee .Wee, the musical alias of Anderson .Paak, headlines the event, with Yung Joc and Lloyd performing live sets. All performances are included with conference admission.
The concert format is central to RenderATL’s identity as an event that treats the social and cultural dimensions of a conference as integral rather than supplementary. Previous editions have featured similarly structured after-hours programming, and the organizers have described RenderFEST as the element that makes the conference “feel like a movement” rather than a standard industry gathering. Delta Air Lines serves as a travel partner, offering discounted flights to attendees, and Hotel Indigo Atlanta Downtown functions as the official host hotel, located inside the conference venue.
Atlanta Tech Week Extends the Conference Across the City
RenderATL serves as the centerpiece of Atlanta Tech Week, a broader initiative running August 9 through 14 that distributes technology-focused events across the city. Atlanta Tech Week was created to bring the city’s technology ecosystem together, connecting innovation hubs, startup communities, and enterprise operations through a shared week of programming.
The initiative has grown alongside Atlanta’s broader positioning as a technology hub. The city’s combination of historically Black colleges and universities producing technical talent, a cost of living below coastal tech centers, and an established corporate presence from companies including Delta Air Lines, UPS, and The Home Depot has drawn venture-backed startups and remote technology workers over the past several years. Atlanta Tech Week events are free to attend and run throughout the city, covering topics from AI and machine learning to venture funding and startup operations.
For RenderATL, the Atlanta Tech Week framework amplifies the conference’s reach beyond AmericasMart. Attendees with conference badges gain access to the full week of citywide events, and the organizers have positioned this expanded footprint as part of the value proposition of a single ticket.
FAQs
What is included in a RenderATL 2026 badge?
A single badge covers two days of main conference programming, all five co-located summits (Atlanta AI Expo, OpenJS Node Interactive, New Relic RUNTIME, Executive Summit, and Go To Market Summit), the expo and career fair, breakout workshops, the MLH Hackathon, RenderFEST (the opening-night concert), The Commits awards show, and access to all free Atlanta Tech Week events running August 9-14.
Where and when does RenderATL 2026 take place?
RenderATL 2026 runs August 12-13 at AmericasMart, located at 230 John Portman Blvd NW, Building 2, in downtown Atlanta. Sessions run from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. RenderFEST takes place on the evening of August 12. Pre-orders and general admission are available through the conference website.
What is Atlanta Tech Week and how does it connect to RenderATL?
Atlanta Tech Week is a citywide initiative running August 9-14 that brings together founders, investors, engineers, and enterprise leaders through events distributed across the city. RenderATL is the flagship event of Atlanta Tech Week. Conference badge holders gain access to the full week of free citywide events in addition to the two-day conference at AmericasMart.
