Monday, the whole room met aboard the Queen Mary. Tuesday to Thursday, 3 single-track summits on working factory floors. Friday, the week closed over dinner.
Four days,three summits
The 2026 program as it ran in Long Beach, September 14–18. Every session was held under Chatham House Rule.
- About 150 per summit day
- About 200 at the opening reception
- 20 seats at each VIP dinner
Each summit day: corridor tours, one track, a synthesis, a reception and a 20-seat dinner.
Space Beach
Summit 001 · Tuesday, Sept 15. Hosted at JetZero, Long Beach · 9 AM–3:15 PM · cohort of 150.
The defense-exclusive day. Scaling American manufacturing on the SoCal model, concept to test to deployed, and where the defense industrial base's chokepoints actually sit.
- 9:00
Welcome and framing: “Scaling American Manufacturing: The SoCal Model”
Why Long Beach, why now, and what building deep tech looks like at scale here. (15 min)
- 9:15
Opening keynote fireside
A senior operator on what the Department needs industry to have solved, and how fast. The frame for the day. (45 min)
- 10:00
Panel: Go Faster, from concept to test to deployed in weeks, not years
What it takes to compress the build-test-field loop, and where SoCal lets founders move fast. (45 min)
- 10:45
Fireside: The New Acquisition Landscape
The systems integration lab, the trades, the supplier network and port access, and how they change the acquisition math. (45 min)
- 12:00
Working lunch and matchmaking
Structured introductions across the cohort. (60 min)
- 1:00
Panel: Space Beach, the Long Beach and SoCal model of innovation
State and local relationships, workforce development and the supplier ecosystem that make Space Beach work. (45 min)
- 2:00
Panel: Single Points of Opportunity
Where the defense industrial base is brittle, which chokepoints matter most, and who is building to fix them. (60 min)
- 3:00
Closing synthesis
What the room landed on and what the week tests next. (15 min)
- 7:30
VIP dinner
20 seats, partner-coordinated and co-hosted by SDTW.
Critical Infrastructure
Summit 002 · Wednesday, Sept 16. GrayMatter Robotics 9 AM–12 PM, then BlueCore Energy 2–4:30 PM · cohort of 150.
Commercial and defense. AI compute and the defense base load are the same equation: the megawatts each needs come from the same grid, the same reactors and the same permitting fight.
- 9:00
Welcome and matchmaking at GrayMatter Robotics
Coffee, badges and structured introductions to open the morning. (60 min)
- 10:00
Factory tour and floor walk
Small-group walk of the GrayMatter Robotics floor. (60 min)
- 11:00
Shipbuilding infrastructure and investment
Shipyards, dry docks, the supplier network, and the capital it takes to rebuild capacity at the pace the Pacific demands. (60 min)
- 12:00
Lunch, then transfer to BlueCore Energy
Working lunch at GrayMatter; transport provided to the afternoon venue. (2 hrs)
- 2:00
The energy renaissance: hyperscaler, utility, defense
SMRs, microreactors and fusion: what is deployable inside 5 years, who anchors the offtake, and where first-of-a-kind capital comes from. (45 min)
- 3:00
Critical infrastructure of the industrial base
AI demand is running ahead of interconnect timelines. Where new generation, storage and transmission get built, and how every load shares one grid. (60 min)
- 4:00
Closing synthesis
Where the energy and capital briefs converged, and what the cohort does next. (30 min)
- 4:30
Closing reception at BlueCore Energy
Energy founders, hyperscalers, utilities, capital and program offices in one room. (90 min)
- 7:30
VIP dinner
20 seats.
Industrial Resiliency
Summit 003 · Thursday, Sept 17. Hosted at GrayMatter Robotics, Long Beach · 12–4:45 PM · cohort of 150.
Commercial and defense. The arsenal of democracy and the next consumer-electronics supply chain run on the same factory floor.
- 12:00
Welcome lunch and matchmaking
Founders and OEM leaders paired with the program offices most active in dual-use manufacturing: DPA Title III, OSC, DIU, DARPA and Commerce. (60 min)
- 1:00
Opening remarks and day framing
Why this room and why now. (25 min)
- 1:25
Keynote fireside: The Factory Rebuilt
How many factories, workers, robots and allied partners industrial resiliency demands, on what timeline, for the commercial supply chain and the defense magazine. (35 min)
- 2:00
From demo to fleet
Prototype to sustained production: workforce gaps, supply-chain fragility and facility investment. (60 min)
- 3:15
The capital table
Funding and siting industrial capacity: the capital structures that clear the constraints, and the land, buildings and power that have to line up. (60 min)
- 4:15
Closing synthesis with C3
What the 3 summits landed on, and what the cohort commits to before the next convening. (30 min)
- 5:00
Closing reception
Industrial founders, primes, OEMs, capital and allied partners in one room. (90 min)
- 7:30
VIP dinner
20 seats.
The Industrial Base Challenge
Running alongside the summits on Thursday morning: maritime navigation and cyber resilience. Ships and naval operations share one satellite stack of GPS timing, links and AIS, and more than 170,000 vessels were jammed at least once worldwide in a single quarter.
Breakouts produced written requirements in the form SBIR topics and BAAs already use. It took a separate application from the summit cohort.
- When
- Thursday, Sept 17, 9:00–12:00
- Led by
- Drew “Murph” Busbee, Sparrow Point Foundation
- Powered by
- Marshall Industries
Sponsor a 2027 problem set
Port of Long Beach cranes: Regular Daddy, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Alongside the track
Corridor showcase tours. Cohort companies opened their floors for tours from 9 to 11 AM each summit day, by RSVP.
Capability demos. 15-minute sponsor briefings on a product or platform, in a separate room alongside the discussions.
OTA clinic. Small-group sessions with OSC, DIU and counsel for founders working through Other Transaction Authority and the fastest contracting vehicles. 1-hour slots, by appointment.
Commercial finance hours. Project finance, growth equity and venture-debt counsel for founders raising against hard assets and long build cycles. 1-hour slots, by appointment.
No recording. Nothing leaves the room. Every session, tour, reception and dinner ran under Chatham House Rule.
See you in 2027
The 2027 program will be in Southern California. Dates, applications and the slate are coming soon.
2027 coming soon