More than 6,000 engineers, founders, executives, entrepreneurs and creators gathered in Atlanta last week for RenderATL 2026, reinforcing the city’s growing reputation as a destination for technology, innovation and culture.
As the anchor of Atlanta Tech Week, the two-day conference featured more than 150 speakers and 70 sponsors and partners, with programming focused on artificial intelligence, software engineering, open source, entrepreneurship, developer tools, cloud infrastructure and the future of work.
Speakers included Kelsey Hightower, Sarah Drasner, Angie Jones, Matt Biilmann, Robin Ginn, Matteo Collina and Paul Frazee. But technology was only part of the experience. A keynote conversation with Killer Mike, presented by New Relic, along with Render Haus programming featuring D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz.
For Render CEO Justin E. Samuels, that intersection was the reason RenderATL was created in the first place.
“I was going to a tech conference, and I looked around and realized something was missing, real representation,” Samuels said. He saw an opportunity to create an event rooted in Atlanta’s diversity and influence. “We’ve got the world’s busiest airport, we’re at the intersection of so many cultures, why not build something here that brings together tech and culture in a big way? That’s where the idea for RenderATL started.”
The conference has since grown into a major technology gathering, a trajectory Samuels attributes partly to timing and agility.
“COVID really shifted the entire event landscape,” he said. As larger conferences pulled back, RenderATL was able to move quickly. “We didn’t have to rely on big capital or loans—we bootstrapped it, and it worked,” Samuels said. “We were able to quickly capture market share because we were positioned to move when others couldn’t.”
