17 conferences for engineering managers, directors, VPs and CTOs, from October 2026 to September 2027. We checked the dates, the city and the cheapest standard ticket on each organiser's own website, and we link the page we read. One of them is ours, ELC Conference in Prague, listed with the same facts as the rest.
Updated . Prices move fast, early-bird ones the most. Use ours as a guide and confirm on the organiser's page.
ELC Conference 2026 in Prague. One of the conferences on this list, and the one we run.
At a glance
All 17 conferences at a glance
Sorted by date. Leadership event means the whole programme is for leaders. Leadership track means a developer or AI conference with a named track or day for leaders.
Ticket from: the cheapest standard ticket on the organiser's site, checked 2026-10. Student, startup and group tiers left out.
The yearly conference of SFELC, the San Francisco Engineering Leadership Community. Same three letters as us, different organisation. Two days built “exclusively for engineering leaders”, with 60+ speakers announced on the site. It starts on 13 October, and no 2027 date was on sfelc.com when we checked, so look there for the next one.
One day for “engineering leaders navigating AI adoption”. It runs next to React Advanced London, and a combo ticket for both costs £790. A good fit when your engineers are going to React Advanced anyway and you want a leadership day of your own. The £590 batch rises to £730.
The fintech edition of CTO Craft's conference, for “CTOs, VPs Engineering, and senior technology leaders responsible for building and operating technology”. Two days, with the regulated-industry problems a general leadership event skips. The £699 early-bird rate is down from £999.
LeadDev's continental European edition, two days in Berlin. The pitch on the site: “for engineering leaders when the job is changing faster than the playbook.” The price climbs in waves: €1,399 is wave 4, and wave 5 is €1,599. Groups of four or more pay €1,199 each.
InfoQ's three-day software conference for “technical leaders, senior engineers, and software architects”. Its Teams & Orgs tracks cover Staff+ engineering skills and engineering teams, so it suits tech leads and staff engineers more than people managers. Two optional training days follow on 19–20 November. Sales tax may apply on top of the ticket.
A small summit for “engineering management and technical leaders”: a full-day workshop, then two conference days at a beach resort. The site describes a limited attendance model and gives no headcount. $3,450 covers the conference and the workshop; a package with travel is $4,975.
One day for CIOs and the senior managers they work with, with 250+ attendees on the organiser's own count. In its words, a place for “people from IT to meet other senior managers” (our translation), so it sits closer to the CIO and business side than to engineering management. No price on the site yet.
The leadership conference that runs alongside DeveloperWeek, “investing in the development of leadership roles of technical managers & directors”. The $195 Open Pass covers keynotes, open sessions and the expo only. The full three-day Pro Pass was listed at $785 but marked as not on sale when we checked, so look at the register page before you budget.
AI engineering conference with a day of leadership programming
Ticket from
Not published on the site
Three days billed as “Europe's flagship technical AI conference”. Most of it is for engineers who build with AI, plus one day of dedicated leadership programming. Worth a look when your teams ship AI features and you want to hear what the builders are doing. Tickets were marked TBA when we checked.
CTO Craft's main conference. The site says “everyone attending is responsible for engineering strategy, people or delivery”, and counts just over 500 attendees. Three days: a half-day AI Leadership Lab, then the two-day conference. £549 + VAT is the pre-launch rate for the two-day pass.
Developer conference with Teams & Orgs tracks (managing teams)
Ticket from
£2,290 + VAT until 13 Oct, then £2,390 (ticket page)
InfoQ's London edition, where “senior engineers from innovator and early adopter companies tell the stories behind what's working in production”. For leaders, the Teams & Orgs tracks include “Managing Teams in an AI-Driven World”. An optional certification day follows on 16 April.
Our own conference, so read this entry with that in mind. One day in Prague for engineering leaders from Central Europe: main-stage talks, workshops and 1:1 mentoring. 400+ people came in 2026, and past speakers include people from Netflix and Stripe. Speakers get on stage through the call for speakers, and there are no paid slots on the main stage. Tickets for 2027 aren't on sale yet.
Two days “where AI meets Engineers, Data, Product and Leadership”. The Align & Lead track is for VPs, CTOs, engineering managers and directors. Passes cover the venue and online. €299 is the early-bird price until 1 January 2027; after that the regular pass is €699.
LeadDev London under its new name, “the festival for modern engineering leadership”, and now home to StaffPlus London too. Two days; the venue isn't on the site yet. Heads of, directors, VPs and CTOs can add a free DirectorPlus pass after an eligibility check.
The biggest event on this list: 15,000+ builders and 500+ speakers on the site's own numbers. For leaders there's a topic track, “Engineering leadership in a shifting stack”, and a separate Tech Leaders Summit that needs the VIP pass (€1,289, regular €2,499). The €349 Congress Pass is a time-limited price; the regular one is €799.
The New York edition of LDX3, which now includes StaffPlus New York. The 2026 edition already ran in September; for 2027 the site has the dates but no venue yet. The standard pre-sale ticket is $1,195, and group tickets for four or more are $995 each.
The North American edition, for developers, platform teams, security teams and engineering leaders, with 10,000+ builders on the site's own count. Same setup for leaders as in Berlin: a leadership topic track plus a Tech Leaders Summit on the VIP pass ($999). The $249 Congress Pass sits against a regular $1,399.
Leadership event or leadership track? At a leadership event like LeadDev, CTO Craft or ELC, most people you meet in the hallway do the same job as you. At a developer conference with a leadership track, such as QCon or WeAreDevelopers, you also get the technical talks, and the leaders are one room among many. Want peers? Pick the first kind. Want to keep up with the tech your teams use? The second.
Count the whole trip. The ticket is one line of the budget. For a team in Europe, a European conference saves the transatlantic flight, and the other way round for a team in the US.
Ask who is in the room. A good organiser knows the role mix of its attendees, so ask for it before you buy. We publish ours: at ELC Conference 2025, 43% of the room were engineering leaders and 22.6% senior engineers and tech leads.
Buy early. Most of these prices step up several times. LeadDev Berlin goes from €1,399 to €1,599 in its last wave, and QCon London goes up by £100 after 13 October.
Peers at one table between sessions, ELC Conference 2026.
How we picked
How we picked these conferences
The whole event is for engineering leaders, or it has a named leadership track or day.
The next edition has a date and a city on the organiser's own website. No date there, no place here, however good the event is.
It starts on or after 12 October 2026.
Every date, city and price was read on the organiser's site in October 2026, and each entry links the pages we used. We left out big tech events with no leadership track: Web Summit (Lisbon, 9–12 November 2026), Slush (Helsinki, 18–19 November 2026) and WebExpo (Prague, 26–28 May 2027). Craft Conference (Budapest, 3–4 June 2027) is out for now because no leadership track is announced for 2027 yet. CTO Craft's Toronto edition says only “May 2027” and Devoxx Poland has no 2027 date, so they wait for the next update.
Spotted a wrong date, or a conference we missed? Write to marian@engineeringleaders.io and we'll check it on the organiser's site.
FAQ
Questions people ask
What are the best engineering leadership conferences in 2026?
In Europe, the rest of 2026 has TechLead Conf (London, 23 October), CTO Craft Con: Fintech (London, 2–3 November) and LeadDev Berlin (9–10 November). In the US, ELC Annual runs in San Francisco on 13–14 October and TechLeader Summit in Clearwater, Florida, on 2–4 December. All five are built only for engineering leaders.
Which engineering leadership conferences are in Europe in 2027?
Eight conferences on this list run in Europe in 2027. Leadership-only: CIO Agenda (Prague, 9 February), CTO Craft Con London (15–17 March), ELC Conference (Prague, 22 April) and LDX3 London (28–29 June). With a leadership track or day: AI Engineer Europe (London, February), QCon London (April), DevWorld (Amsterdam, June) and WeAreDevelopers World Congress (Berlin, July).
How much does an engineering leadership conference cost?
Most leadership-only conferences on this list charge between £549 and €1,399 for a standard ticket, before travel. The cheapest full pass is CTO Craft Con London at £549 + VAT (pre-launch), the most expensive TechLeader Summit at $3,450 with a workshop day. Early-bird prices rise several times, so the date you buy changes the price.
Is there an engineering leadership conference in Central Europe?
Yes. ELC Conference runs in Prague on 22 April 2027, and it's the one we organise. It's a one-day conference for engineering leaders from Central Europe, and 400+ came in 2026. CIO Agenda in Prague (9 February 2027) covers the CIO side, and LeadDev Berlin (9–10 November 2026) is the closest leadership-only event outside Czechia.
When is ELC Conference 2027?
ELC Conference 2027 is on Thursday, 22 April 2027, in Prague. The venue will be announced later, and tickets are not on sale yet. You can sign up to hear when tickets open, apply to speak through the call for speakers, or look at the partner packages for companies.
ELC Conference 2027 · 22 April · Prague
Meet the engineering leaders of Central Europe in one room.
400+ engineering leaders came in 2026. Tickets for 2027 aren't on sale yet; the call for speakers is the way onto the stage.
2027
