PORTOAIWEEK
14 — 18 SEPTEMBER 2026 · PORTO · HAPPENING NOW
One week, one city, one calendar. Workshops, meetups and founder nights hosted all over Porto by the people actually building with AI — free to attend, open to everyone.
Five days of AI events across Porto — hosted by the people building it.
There is no main stage and no single venue. Porto AI Week is a shared calendar: independent hosts — studios, founders, communities and companies — each run their own gathering in their own space during the same week. You browse the program, pick what's useful, and register directly with the host.
If you're coming
Pick any gathering on the program and register on Luma. Most are free. Hands-on workshops, founder nights, coworking days and honest conversations — no keynote theatre, no badge queue.
See the programIf you want to host
Run your own workshop, dinner or meetup under the Porto AI Week umbrella. We help with a venue, promotion on the official program, and people in the room. You stay the organizer.
Host an eventIf you want to partner
Partners cover venues, food and free entry so the week stays open to everyone. You get your logo, your people and your space inside the rooms where the work actually happens.
Partner with us19 confirmed gatherings. More every week.
Every gathering is free unless the host says otherwise, and each one takes registrations on its own Luma page. Pick what's useful and show up.
Monday 14 September
4 gatherings- 10:00 – 12:30🤖 AI BuildersWorkshopSold out
Building AI Agents with Seth Ward (Squidgy.ai)
For anyone — no code needed, bring a laptop
A 2.5-hour hands-on workshop with Seth Ward, founder of Squidgy. Build your first AI agents for your own use case — no code required.
Vertical Coworking Dom Henrique · Bolhão - 14:00 – 15:00🚀 AI FoundersConversation
Building It Your Way: What Female Founders Actually Need
For female founders — and anyone building their own way
Ana Milhazes and Lígia Gomes (Nomads & Pirates) on the patterns they keep seeing coaching female founders — the perfectionism trap, pricing, playbooks that don't fit — and what actually shifts them.
Vertical Coworking Dom Henrique · Bolhão - 15:00 – 16:00🚀 AI FoundersConversation
Build Faster. Learn Sooner with Sónia Gomes
For founders and product people
AI makes it easier to ship, but not to know what's worth building. How founders can avoid piling up features and complexity before finding real value.
Vertical Coworking Dom Henrique · Bolhão - 17:30 – 20:00🤖 AI BuildersMeetup
CTO Night
For CTOs, tech leads and senior engineers
Technology leaders on where AI is taking products, teams and business. Short talks and a panel, with candid perspectives from people making big technical calls right now.
The Social Hub Porto · Baixa
Tuesday 15 September
5 gatherings- 10:00 – 12:30📈 AI GrowthWorkshop
Growth with AI Agents with Seth Ward (Squidgy AI)
For marketers, operators and founders — no code needed
You built the agent — now put it to work. Practical ways teams use AI agents to automate growth and take repetitive work off the plate.
- 14:00 – 19:30📈 AI GrowthMeetup
Growth Stories
For founders and growth leads
Founders, growth leads and ecosystem partners on what it actually takes to scale in Portugal. No generic fluff — real channels, real numbers, real stories.
Founders Founders · Bonfim - 17:30 – 19:00🤖 AI BuildersMeetup
Get to Know the Porto Databricks User Group
For data and AI engineers — in English
The first meetup of the Porto Databricks User Group: Rui Carvalho on going from data engineer to AI data engineer (document processing and RAG), and Claudia Sulsters on how Amsterdam's public transport operator built its data foundation for AI. Networking and refreshments after.
Pixelmatters · Aliados - 17:30 – 19:00🚀 AI FoundersMeetup
CPO Night
For CPOs and product leaders
Beyond the AI demo: three senior product leaders on what happens after the applause — turning AI prototypes into products people adopt, trust and keep using.
The Social Hub Porto · Baixa - 18:30 – 20:30🏛 AI SocietyConversation
Algoritmo Humano #5 — IA & Negócios
Em português — for anyone curious about AI and business
The fifth edition of NeoGeneralista's monthly conversation series on how AI is transforming society — this edition on AI & business, with guest Francisco Almada Lobo. Held in Portuguese; registration on the NeoGeneralista site.
Associação Nacional de Jovens Empresários · Foz do Douro
Wednesday 16 September
5 gatherings
09:00 – 21:00🤖 AI BuildersMeetupSold outAI Show & Tell #3 + Coworking Day
For builders — come for an hour or the whole day
The best way to learn to build AI-native products is by doing — and by talking to people actually shipping them. Pixelmatters, a founding partner, opens its doors for a full day of coworking plus the evening show & tell.
Pixelmatters · Aliados- 14:30 – 17:00🏛 AI SocietyConversation
Human x AI — Doomed or Thriving?
For everyone — an open debate, in a room, not a feed
Online this argument has two settings: we're all doomed, or we've never had it so good. Neither camp is listening. An evening about the question under every other session this week: what actually happens to us — to work, to meaning?
The Social Hub Porto · Baixa - 15:00 – 17:00🤖 AI BuildersMeetup
Open Source AI Models — How Can Portuguese Companies Use Them?
For Portuguese companies — and the builders inside them
Three Portuguese AI builders on using open-source models in production: organising company knowledge, running powerful models locally, and cutting costs while keeping your data yours. Three practical 30-minute talks.
Associação Nacional de Jovens Empresários · Foz do Douro - 17:30 – 20:00🚀 AI FoundersMeetupSold out
CEO Night
For CEOs and founders
CEO Night brings together the founders and chief executives building Porto's next generation of companies — and rewiring them for the AI era. Headlining this edition: André Jordão, Founder & CEO of Barkyn, the Porto-born brand that turned personalized pet care into a subscription business now scaling across Europe. André will share how a real consumer company puts AI to work — in growth, operations and building a brand people love — and the hard calls that come with scaling one out of Porto. Expect a candid fireside, short takes from other operators in the room, and the kind of networking that only happens when the people actually running the companies are all in one place. For CEOs, founders, and the operators closest to them.
The Social Hub Porto · Baixa - 18:30 – 20:30🏛 AI SocietyConversation
Sobremesa: Nothing Stays in the Lab
For everyone — an open debate on AI
AI left the lab and moved into your pocket — it drafts your emails and answers the 3am question you wouldn't ask a friend. The people building it debate what actually keeps them up at night.
Calico Porto · FozGet tickets→From €19
Thursday 17 September
5 gatherings
09:30 – 17:00🚀 AI FoundersMeetupSold outUpside Club • Founders Co-working Day
Invite-leaning — ambitious founders and CEOs
Upside Club is a private community of ambitious founders and CEOs in Portugal. A day of building together at the Pixelmatters office. Limited to 20 seats.
Pixelmatters · Aliados- 10:00 – 12:30📈 AI GrowthConversation
How AI Is Changing the Way Marketing Operates
For marketers, agencies and GTM teams
Three perspectives across the marketing value chain: how AI is reshaping team structures, go-to-market, agency delivery and the tech being built around new customer needs.
Sítio Gaia - Cowork · Vila Nova de Gaia - 14:00 – 16:30🎨 AI CreatorsWorkshop
Stop It with the Slop — Make Your AI Sound Like You
For writers, marketers and anyone publishing with AI
Chelsea Rustrum on programming Claude to write in your actual voice — your rhythm, your opinions, the way you get to a point. Not prompt tricks: a setup you build once.
- 17:30 – 20:00📈 AI GrowthMeetup
CMO Night
For CMOs, growth leads and marketers
The people shaping what marketing and growth actually look like right now. Sharp opinions and real examples from the front edge of brand, demand and scale.
Founders Founders · Bonfim - 17:30 – 20:00🚀 AI FoundersMeetup
From Idea to Impact by API Portugal
For operators and teams taking AI past the pilot
Most AI pilots stall between proof-of-concept and production. An evening on the gap — scoping, buy-in, and planning for when it works — with API Portugal.
LACS Porto · Boavista
The city is
awake.
New events drop weekly until September. Get each one before it fills — plus founder dinner invites. One email when it matters. No spam.
The week is built by the people who show up.
Host a gathering
Any format, any size. We help with venue, promotion and people.
Host an eventSpeak or run a workshop
Share what you actually built. Talks, panels, hands-on sessions.
Apply to speakPartner with us
Fund the venues, food and free entry that keep the week open.
Become a partnerOffer a venue
A studio, loft, rooftop or kitchen for a few hours in September.
Offer your spaceA city small enough to actually meet everyone.
Porto's AI scene already meets — at Show & Tell nights, CTO dinners, coworking days and studio demos. What it never had was a single week where all of it happens at once, in walking distance, on one calendar.
That's the whole idea. Everything below is real and confirmed today, and the numbers move every week as hosts add their gatherings.
Built with the studios, brands and labs shaping what comes next.
Porto AI Week partners with a small circle of category-defining companies. We curate hard, protect the experience, and trade scale for signal.
3 Founding Partner slots · 5 Track Partner slots — one per track · Venue partners: open.
Founding Partner
Title-level presence across the festival, hosted keynote and city activation.
Talk to Gonçalo →Track Partner
Back a strand of the programme end to end — content, brand and hosting.
Talk to Gonçalo →Lead Organizer
Gonçalo Hall
Gonçalo is the founder of NomadX — the leading media and events brand for the global builder and digital nomad economy — and the official lead organizer of Porto Digital Nomads, in partnership with Porto City Hall.
He has organized The Nomad World conference series across Europe and Latin America, consulted the governments of Portugal, Brazil and Rio de Janeiro on remote work policy, and spent five years building the rooms where the right people end up in the same city at the same time.
Porto AI Week is an extension of that practice — at city scale.
Anchor Event
The Nomad World Porto
September 10–13, 2026 · Porto
A 4-day builder conference for founders, creators and remote professionals — the flagship event that opens Porto AI Week.