Program · 2026 Edition · Draft v4 · Tentative

Four days, three summits.

The 2026 programming slate. Three named domain summits — Space Beach, Critical Infrastructure, and Industrial Resiliency — opened by a Monday waterfront reception. Each summit day opens with morning corridor tours, runs a single 12–6 PM track, closes with a cohort reception, and ends with a single 20-seat VIP dinner. The entire week is conducted under Chatham House Rule.

Sept 14 – 18, 2026 Long Beach, California 3 summits · ~150 per summit day · ~200 opening reception
Cohort · 150 VIP Dinner · 20 Reception
§ At a Glance

The week, on one screen.

Five days: a Monday reception aboard the Queen Mary, three named summits Tuesday through Thursday each hosted at a partner venue, and a closing VIP dinner Friday at the Fairmont Breakers with Invest LB. Each summit day caps at 150, closes with a cohort reception, and ends with a 20-seat VIP dinner coordinated by partners and co-hosted by SDTW.
Day 01Mon
Sept 14
Reception
Opening Night
6–9 PMOpening Reception · Queen Mary · 200
Day 02Tue
Sept 15
Summit 001
Space Beach
VenueHosted at JetZero
9 AM–3:15 PMSummit Program · single track
AMFacility Tours
7:30 PMVIP Dinner · 20 seats
Day 03Wed
Sept 16
Summit 002
Critical Infrastructure
AMGrayMatter Robotics · 9 AM–12 PM
PMBlueCore Energy · 2–4:30 PM
4:30 PMClosing Reception
7:30 PMVIP Dinner · 20 seats
Day 04Thu
Sept 17
Summit 003
Industrial Resiliency
VenueHosted at GrayMatter Robotics
12–4:45 PMSummit Program · single track
5 PMClosing Reception
7:30 PMVIP Dinner · 20 seats
Day 05Fri
Sept 18
Closing
Closing VIP Dinner
7 PMFairmont Breakers · w/ Invest LB
Parallel Program · Powered by Marshall Industries

The Industrial Base Challenge

Maritime Navigation & Cyber Resilience. A recurring convening on one hard industrial-base problem. Naval operations and maritime commerce run on the same space-based stack of GPS timing, satellite links, and AIS — more than 170,000 vessels were jammed at least once worldwide in a single quarter this year. Ships navigate by satellite, so this is space resilience worked at the waterfront. Breakouts produce written requirements in the form SBIR topics and BAAs already use. Separate application from the summit cohort.

DateThu, Sept 17
Time0900 – 1200
FormatChallenge Definition Workshop
Led byDrew “Murph” Busbee · Sparrow Point
Parallel Offerings · Tue–Thu

Running Alongside the Track

Corridor Showcase Tours. Cohort companies host morning facility tours, 9–11 AM each summit day, by RSVP.
Capability Demos. 15-minute sponsor-led product or platform briefings in a separate room, parallel to discussions.
Commercial Finance Hours. Project finance, growth equity, and venture debt for industrial founders.

Reception~200 · Monday only
Cohort~150 per summit day
VIP~20 seats per dinner
■ Access tiers — Reception ~200 (Mon) · Cohort ~150 per summit · VIP ~20 per summit night Chatham House Rule all week · no recording
Scroll the calendar sideways to see all five days →
§ The Week

Day-by-day, hour-by-hour.

One reception, three summits, one closing dinner. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each carry a single domain summit at a partner venue — framing, a keynote fireside, panels and circular discussions, a closing synthesis, then a reception and a VIP dinner. Every session runs under Chatham House Rule. No recording.
01
Monday — Opening Reception
The whole room in one place before the work begins. No keynote, no agenda.
Sept 14, 2026
Aboard the Queen Mary · 200
18:00180 min
■ Opening Reception SponsorSDTW 2026 Opening Reception — Aboard the Queen Mary6–9 PM aboard the Queen Mary. ~200 attendees: the full cohort plus partners, primes, allied attachés, capital, and program offices. Chatham House Rule — nothing leaves the room.
Queen Mary · 200
Reception
02
Tuesday — Space Beach
Summit 001 · 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.
Sept 15, 2026
Hosted at JetZero · Long Beach
AM tours · 9 AM–3:15 PM · Cohort 150
Pillars · Sea to Space · Allied Base
09:0015 min
■ Presenting Sponsor · Venue HostWelcome & Framing — "Scaling American Manufacturing: The SoCal Model"Ties the day to SDTW's purpose: why Long Beach, why now, and what the SoCal model of building deep tech looks like at scale.
JetZero · 150
Cohort
09:1545 min
■ Keynote Sponsor · Intro by Presenting SponsorOpening Keynote FiresideA senior operator on what the Department needs industry to have solved, and how fast. The frame for the day.
Main stage
Cohort
10:0045 min
■ Session SponsorPanel — Go Faster: From Concept to Test to Deployed in Weeks, Not YearsWhat it actually takes to compress the build-test-field loop, and where the SoCal ecosystem lets founders move at speed. Format · panel · 4 panelists · facilitator.
Main stage
Cohort
10:4545 min
■ Session SponsorFireside / Q&A — The New Acquisition LandscapeWhy SoCal is the place to build: the systems integration lab, the trades, the supplier network, and port access — and how that changes the acquisition math.
Main stage
Cohort
11:3030 min
Coffee Break & Networking
Cohort
12:0060 min
■ Lunch SponsorLunch & NetworkingWorking lunch and structured matchmaking across the cohort.
Working lunch
Cohort
13:0045 min
■ Session SponsorPanel — Space Beach: The Long Beach & SoCal Model of InnovationState and local relationships, workforce development, and the supplier ecosystem that make Space Beach work. Format · panel · facilitator.
Main stage
Cohort
13:4515 min
Coffee Break
Cohort
14:0060 min
■ Session SponsorPanel — Single Points of Opportunity: Finding & Fixing the Defense Industrial Base's ChokepointsWhere the base is brittle, which chokepoints matter most, and who is building to fix them. Format · panel · 4 panelists · facilitator.
Main stage
Cohort
15:0015 min
Closing SynthesisDay-one synthesis. What the room landed on and what the week tests next.
Main stage
Cohort
19:30VIP Dinner
■ Partner-Coordinated · SDTW Co-HostedVIP Dinner20 seats. Chatham House Rule.
20 seats
VIP
03
Wednesday — Critical Infrastructure
Summit 002 · commercial + 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.
Sept 16, 2026
AM · GrayMatter Robotics 9 AM–12 PM
PM · BlueCore Energy 2–4:30 PM · Cohort 150
Pillars · Build It in Time · Capital Stack
09:0060 min
■ Hosted at GrayMatter RoboticsWelcome & NetworkingCohort arrival at GrayMatter Robotics. Coffee, badges, and structured matchmaking to open the morning.
GrayMatter · 150
Cohort
10:0060 min
■ Hosted at GrayMatter RoboticsFactory Tour & Floor WalkSmall-group walk of the GrayMatter Robotics floor, framed by welcome remarks from the host and presenting sponsor.
GrayMatter floor
Cohort
11:0060 min
■ Keynote Sponsor · Intro by Presenting SponsorCritical Infrastructure I — Shipbuilding Infrastructure & InvestmentsThe industrial base for maritime power: shipyards, dry docks, the supplier network, and the capital it takes to rebuild capacity at the pace the Pacific demands.
Main stage
Cohort
12:00120 min
■ Hosted at GrayMatter RoboticsLunch & Transition to BlueCore EnergyWorking lunch at GrayMatter, then the cohort transitions to BlueCore Energy for the afternoon program. Transportation provided.
Working lunch
Cohort
14:0045 min
■ Session Sponsor · Hosted at BlueCore EnergyCritical Infrastructure II — The Energy Renaissance: Hyperscaler, Utility, DefenseAfternoon reconvene at BlueCore Energy. SMRs, microreactors, fusion. What is actually deployable inside five years, who anchors the offtake (hyperscaler PPAs, utility ratebase, or DOD on-base reactors), and where first-of-a-kind capital comes from. Format · circular · 3–4 initial · 2–3 respondents · facilitator.
Circular · 150
Cohort
14:4515 min
Coffee Break & Matchmaking
Cohort
15:0060 min
■ Session SponsorDiscussion II — Critical Infrastructure of the Industrial BaseAI training and inference demand are running ahead of interconnect timelines. Where new generation, storage, and transmission actually get built, and how hyperscaler, industrial, and defense load all share the same grid without anyone getting starved. Format · circular · 3–4 initial · 2–3 respondents · facilitator.
Circular · 150
Cohort
16:0030 min
Closing Synthesis — How to Take This Work ForwardDay-two synthesis. Where the energy and capital briefs converged, what the room tests next, and how the cohort carries the work forward.
Main stage
Cohort
16:3090 min
■ Reception SponsorClosing Reception — Day TwoCohort reception at BlueCore Energy following the Critical Infrastructure program. Energy founders, hyperscalers, utilities, capital, and program offices in one room to close the day.
BlueCore · 150
Cohort
19:30VIP Dinner
■ Partner-Coordinated · SDTW Co-HostedVIP Dinner20 seats. Chatham House Rule.
20 seats
VIP
04
Thursday — Industrial Resiliency
Summit 003 · commercial + defense. The arsenal of democracy and the next consumer-electronics supply chain run on the same factory floor.
Sept 17, 2026
Hosted at GrayMatter Robotics · Long Beach
12 PM–4:45 PM · Cohort 150
Pillars · Build It in Time · Capital Stack · Allied Base
12:0060 min
■ Lunch SponsorWelcome Lunch & NetworkingCohort arrival at GrayMatter Robotics and structured matchmaking. Founders and OEM industrial leaders pair with program offices most active in commercial industrial strategy and dual-use manufacturing (DPA Title III, OSC, DIU, DARPA, DOC) over a working lunch.
Working lunch
Cohort
13:0025 min
■ Presenting SponsorOpening Remarks & Day FramingSets the context for the day: why this room, why now, and the principles guiding the discussions.
Main stage
Cohort
13:2535 min
■ Keynote Sponsor · Intro by Presenting SponsorKeynote Fireside — The Factory RebuiltA single conversation on what industrial resiliency actually demands across the dual-use base: how many factories, how many workers, how much robotics and automation, how many allied partners, on what timeline, for both the commercial supply chain and the defense magazine.
Main stage
Cohort
14:0060 min
■ Session SponsorDiscussion I — From Demo to FleetPrototype to sustained production. Workforce gaps, supply-chain fragility, facility investment, and what production at scale demands, from both commercial OEMs scaling consumer or industrial product and from primes filling defense magazines. Format · circular · 3–4 initial · 2–3 respondents · facilitator.
Circular · 150
Cohort
15:0015 min
Coffee Break
Cohort
15:1560 min
■ Session SponsorDiscussion II — The Capital TableWhat it actually takes to fund and site industrial capacity: the constraints founders and suppliers hit, the capital structures that clear them, and the land, buildings, and power that have to line up for anything to get built. Format · circular · 3–4 initial · 4 respondents · facilitator.
Circular · 150
Cohort
16:1530 min
Closing Synthesis with C3Week-end synthesis. What the three summits landed on, what the cohort commits to before the next convening, and how this work goes forward.
Main stage
Cohort
17:0090 min
■ Reception SponsorClosing Reception — Day ThreeFinal cohort reception of the week. Industrial founders, primes, OEMs, capital, and allied partners in one room before the VIP dinner.
Cohort · 150
Cohort
19:30VIP Dinner
■ Partner-Coordinated · SDTW Co-HostedVIP Dinner20 seats. Chatham House Rule.
20 seats
VIP
05
Friday — Closing VIP Dinner
The week closes over dinner. A partnership with Invest LB, hosting the cohort's senior-most guests for a final off-the-record conversation about what happens next.
Sept 18, 2026
Fairmont Breakers · Long Beach
19:00VIP Dinner
■ In Partnership with Invest LBVIP Closing Dinner — Fairmont BreakersInvite-only, by written confirmation. Requests and dietary needs to partnerships@socaldeeptech.com by Sept 4, 2026.
Fairmont Breakers
VIP
■ Draft v5 · Tentative — speakers, timing, and venues subject to change. Final lock: Labor Day 2026. Conducted under Chatham House Rule · no recording
§ Parallel Offerings

Office hours, alongside the agenda.

Corridor showcase tours now open each summit day inside the main agenda (9–11 AM). Alongside the 12–6 PM track, two by-appointment advisory offerings run for the cohort — reserved during registration.
By appointment

OTA Clinic

Small-group OTA strategy sessions with OSC, DIU, and counsel for founders navigating 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 industrial founders raising against hard assets and long build cycles.

1-hour slots
§ House Rule

No recording. Nothing leaves the room.

■ Chatham House
all week

Every plenary, fireside, discussion, breakout, tour, reception, and dinner is conducted under Chatham House Rule. No sessions are recorded — no podcasts, no transcripts, no clip reels tied to named speakers.

§ Get on the Program

Build with us.

Three ways onto the 2026 program: apply for the cohort, request the sponsor prospectus, or host a side event under the SDTW banner.
Apply to Attend → Request Sponsor Deck → Host a Side Event →