The room where it gets built
An independent, single-track conference for people who actually ship. Twenty-four talks, no vendor booths, and a room small enough to find the person you came for.
- Northbeam
- Formwork
- Lattice Systems
- Runway Labs
- Cadence AI
- Foundry Cloud
Built to be worth your two days
One track
Every talk in the same room. No hallway FOMO, no schedule spreadsheet — just show up.
A room that stays small
Capped at 400 seats on purpose. Small enough that you actually meet the person you came for.
Zero vendor booths
No badge scans, no sales floor. Sponsors show up in the program, not in your path to the coffee.
Real Q&A, on stage
Ten minutes after every talk, live, unedited — the part most conferences cut first.
Two days. One room.
Twenty-four talks split across two days, every one of them in Main Hall. Pick a day below to see what's on.
Full schedule & session detail- Doors + coffeeMain Hall
- The cost of a good decisionAmara Okonkwo
- Designing systems people can argue withKenji Watanabe
- LunchMain Hall
- What we got wrong about platform teamsRuth Vandermeer
Plenary is the only conference I've been to where I actually remember who I sat next to. One track means you're never hiding in the hallway — you're in the room, every time.
Priya ChandrasekaranStaff Engineer, Mercator · attended 2024 & 2025
The Foundry, Chicago
A converted 1920s ironworks two blocks from the river — exposed steel, real acoustics, and a green room that used to be a boiler house. Fifteen minutes from O'Hare by train.
Venue & travelFrom the newsroom
All news
What your badge actually gets you this year
Not all Plenary badges are created equal. Here's a plain-English breakdown of what each ticket tier actually includes so you can buy with confidence.
Inside The Foundry, our venue for 2026
We're hosting Plenary 2026 at a converted 1920s ironworks in Chicago — here's why this building stopped us in our tracks and what you'll notice the moment you walk in.
How we book 24 speakers into one track
Plenary runs a single-track conference with no parallel sessions, which means every talk competes for the same finite stage time. Here is exactly how we choose who makes the cut.
Tickets, plainly
One price, everything included, no upgrade path hidden behind a bigger badge. Prices step up on the date shown, not when a countdown says so.
Get in the room
Early bird pricing steps up soon. Bring three colleagues and the fourth seat is on us.