There's a conference that's been running for more than a decade, quietly becoming the place where the people who build for developers go to figure things out together. No keynote theater (but plenty of excellent speakers). No lanyard maze (but good happy hours and the occasional magic show). Just a few hundred practitioners in a converted Brooklyn warehouse, having the conversations that actually move the work of developer relations forward.
That's DevRelCon. And this year, it's coming home to Industry City on July 22 & 23, 2026. We’ve been active partners in the DevRelCon space since the beginning and now head up the flagship conference here in New York. Here’s a look at what we have planned this year.
What DevRelCon Actually Is
DevRelCon isn't a general tech conference. It's built specifically for people who work to grow developer adoption: developer relations professionals, developer experience teams, product marketers, platform PMs, and anyone whose job involves getting developers more deeply engaged with their work.
The community is intentionally tight-knit. Each year we have about 300 attendees. People who've been coming for years show up knowing they'll run into the colleagues, collaborators, and honest sounding boards they only see once a year. At the same time, each year we get new people who show up and find out immediately that the community is one of the friendlier ones in tech.
What This Year Is Focused On
The developer relations world is navigating something genuinely new right now: the increasing adoption and sophistication of AI models across an industry that sees opportunity in the tech.
When the end user of your API might be a person or an AI agent, how do you write documentation? When everyone is using AI to generate boilerplate, what does "developer experience" even mean anymore? These are the questions DevRelCon 2026 is designed to dig into.
Sessions this year are organized around the challenges that matter most to the community right now:
- AI Developer Tooling And Platform Strategy
- Developer-First Go-To-Market Methods
- Measuring Developer Adoption And Activation
- Documentation As Product
- Building And Scaling Developer Ecosystems
- Content Strategy And Career Paths
Our format stays true to the conference's DNA: 25-minute talks, 50-minute hands-on workshops (real ones where attendees leave with something tangible…not just slides and handouts), and lightning talk sessions for the short-form ideas that still deserve airtime.
DevRelCon Is More Than It’s Daily Sessions
The conference runs Wednesday and Thursday, but the experience starts Tuesday night with a mini hackathon for early arrivals. Consider it a low-stakes place to build something, get dinner, and shake off the travel before the main event.
Industry City itself is part of what makes this work. The converted warehouse complex in Sunset Park, Brooklyn is surrounded by art studios, coffee shops, and the kind of industrial-creative energy that makes a conference feel like an adventure rather than an obligation. MLH rents out the co-working space for an un-conference track that runs parallel to the main programming: attendees vote on topics, self-organize, and lead peer discussions without a deck in sight. Some of the best conversations at DevRelCon happen there.
And yes, of course, there's a happy hour at the end of day one. And after that? There's usually karaoke.
Who Should Come to DevRelCon?
The honest answer is that, if your work touches developers in any way, there's something here for you. That includes people at large platforms, startups, open source projects, and companies that aren't developer-focused but work alongside a lot of developers internally. DevRelCon has always been better at including people across that full spectrum than most conferences in its category.
Scholarships are available for students and people currently in career transition.
If you need to make the case to your organization for attending, there's a ready-made script at the "Convince Your Boss" page on the DevRelCon site.
The Part That's New This Year
MLH has been running the New York edition of DevRelCon for several years. This year, with DEV now part of the MLH organization, the conference has a more direct connection to one of the largest developer communities on the internet. That means more paths to find your people before you arrive, more ways to keep the conversation going after you leave, and more infrastructure to make DevRelCon the year-round presence it's always had the potential to be.
The lab and the library, finally in the same building.
Tickets are available at nyc.devrelcon.dev. See you at Industry City in just a few weeks!
FAQ
July 22–23, 2026, at Industry City, 220 36th St, Brooklyn, NY. The full experience kicks off Tuesday night, July 21, with a mini hackathon.When and where is DevRelCon NYC 2026?
Anyone whose work involves developers: DevRel professionals, developer experience teams, product marketers, platform PMs, and go-to-market strategists. It's also a strong fit for people at companies that aren't developer-first but work alongside a lot of developers internally.Who is this conference for?
Multi-track sessions across two full days, including 25-minute talks, 50-minute hands-on workshops, and lightning talks. An un-conference track runs in parallel in the co-working space at Industry City, where attendees self-organize and lead peer discussions on topics they vote on the day of.What does the programming look like?
Casual and intentionally indie. About 300 attendees, a community that's been building for 10+ years, and a venue that leans into that energy. Expect good conversations in the hallway as much as in the sessions, a happy hour at the end of day one, and, historically, karaoke.What's the vibe?
Are there scholarships available? Yes — for students and people currently in career transition. Applications are open on the DevRelCon site.
There's a ready-made "Convince Your Boss" script on the DevRelCon site.What if I need help getting my company to cover attendance?
With DEV now part of MLH, DevRelCon has a direct connection to one of the largest developer communities on the internet — more ways to connect with attendees before and after the event, and more infrastructure to make the community year-round.What's new this year?
