Most GovTech conferences lists are written for vendors counting booth leads. If your job is delivering software inside a government agency, that's the wrong filter. Your travel budget is limited and your calendar is packed. Your delivery schedule doesn't pause for a trip to a convention center. The size of the exhibit hall doesn't matter much. What matters is whether you go back to your team with something you can use.
We put this list together from both sides of the badge table. What follows is an honest read on the government tech events worth planning around in the back half of 2026, and where each one earns the trip.
The short version, in date order:
- DoDIIS Worldwide (Aug 9–12, Tampa, FL)
- TechNet Augusta (Aug 17–20, Augusta, GA)
- DAFITC (Aug 24–26, Montgomery, AL)
- Prodacity (Aug 25–27, Nashville, TN)
- Billington CyberSecurity Summit (Sep 8–10, Washington, DC)
- AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference (Sep 14–16, National Harbor, MD)
- Google Public Sector Summit (Oct 20, Washington, DC)
How to read this list
Two questions are worth asking before you register for anything. Will I leave with something I can apply? And is this event built for the exhibit hall or for the people doing the work?
Big service-wide gatherings are good for understanding where a service is heading, hearing senior leader intent firsthand, and meeting peers across organizations who are fighting the same fights. But these gatherings won't teach you a new way of working. Smaller, single-track or workshop-based events trade reach for depth. Both have a place. The trick is matching the event to your purpose.
One more practical note: many defense events are free for government and military attendees, changing the math on which trips are easy to justify.
Where the services set direction
DoDIIS Worldwide runs August 9–12 at the Tampa Convention Center. The Defense Intelligence Agency hosts it, and this year's theme is "DIA Next: Intelligence Technologies for Battlespace Lethality." If you work intelligence systems or sell into the IC, this is the room: senior intelligence and defense decision-makers, industry, academia, and Five Eyes partners. Go to understand IC priorities and see where mission-focused tech is heading.
TechNet Augusta runs August 17–20 in Augusta, Georgia. It's AFCEA's Army cyber event, run with the U.S. Army Cyber Center of Excellence. The programming centers on cyber electromagnetic activities, command and control, and the procurement realities the Army is working through under tight budgets. Worth the trip if your mission touches Army networks or cyber operations.
DAFITC, the Department of the Air Force's IT and Cyberpower Training and Education Event, runs August 24–26 in Montgomery, Alabama. This year's theme is "Accelerating the Digital Edge: From Enterprise to Orbit," with 140-plus breakouts and several thousand Air Force and Space Force IT and cyber professionals. It's the same week as Prodacity, which is worth a read below if you're an Air Force builder deciding between the two.
AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference runs September 14–16 at National Harbor, Maryland. The Air & Space Forces Association's flagship professional development event is where senior leaders lay out airpower and spacepower priorities for the year with keynotes, approximately 40 sessions, and close to 300 exhibits. This one skews executive. Go to understand direction and requirements, not to pick up hands-on practice.
When cyber or AI is the focus
Billington CyberSecurity Summit runs September 8–10 in Washington, DC. In its 17th year, the theme is "Reducing Risk in an Age of AI-Enabled Threats." It draws more than 3,000 attendees, a heavy roster of federal cyber leadership, and it's free for government and military. If cybersecurity policy and practice across government is your beat, this is the one to plan around.
Google Public Sector Summit runs October 20 in Washington, DC. It's a one-day, no-cost event for public sector leaders with a lot of the 2026 attention on applied AI and agents. If you're working out where cloud and AI fit in your agency's stack, it's a low-cost day to see what's shipping versus what's still a demo.
Where GovTech leaders get the playbook for shipping software
Prodacity is the one event on this list we run ourselves. It's a three-day training event in Nashville, August 25–27, for the people who ship mission-critical software into production. The draw is what you take home: tangible learnings you can put to work the week you're back, and the peer connections that tend to outlast the event. You spend three days with government decision-makers, practitioners, and the industry partners working the same problems, comparing notes on what actually gets software into production and into the hands of the people who depend on it.
It's single track, so you're not managing a schedule against yourself. The program is built around a delivery methodology: mapping the mission to what your team ships, building the path to production, and transforming culture to make it stick. AI as an accelerant to the work is part of every session. The 2026 stage is headlined by Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, Commander of U.S. Space Command, alongside Extreme Programming creator Kent Beck, former Federal CIO Suzette Kent, and former USDS Administrator Mina Hsiang.
Prodacity vs DAFITC
Choose Prodacity if you're a leader or practitioner who wants to change how your team delivers, not just hear where a Service is heading.
Choose DAFITC if you need the Air Force IT and cyber community specifically. DAFITC overlaps the same week in Montgomery, and for that audience it's the better call.
How to decide which GovTech conferences to attend
You probably can't attend all of these, and you shouldn't try. A rough way to choose: take one big Service gathering to understand direction and see peers (DoDIIS, TechNet Augusta, DAFITC, or AFA, based on your mission), add one topical event if cyber or AI is central to your year (Billington or Google Public Sector), and add one working event if you want actionable takeaways to change how your team ships (Prodacity). Register early for the paid events and move fast on the free government passes at the big shows because registration and hotel blocks sell out before you think they will.
The trip only matters if something changes once you're back with your team. An event can hand you senior intent and a few tested patterns to try. What it can't do is ship for you. That part is still on your team, on a clock, in production. Pick the events that make that job easier, and skip the ones that just fill a hall.
If the delivery side is where the pressure is landing this year, you're the reason we built Prodacity. You can see the full agenda and download a government justification letter at rise8.us/prodacity/about.
