SF Bay Area Tech Events: May 18–19
A curated morning digest of 8 tech and AI events happening tonight (Monday, May 18) and tomorrow (Tuesday, May 19) in the SF Bay Area — agentic AI workshops at AWS, a Plug and Play startup expo and flagship summit, TechEx North America's two-day conference with free admission, and two evening socials in SF and Berkeley.
Eight events across San Francisco, the South Bay, and Berkeley — two days of agentic AI workshops, expo floors, a corporate startup demo day, and an evening social mixer. Coverage window: tonight (Monday May 18) and tomorrow (Tuesday May 19).
Tonight — Monday, May 18
AWS Agentic AI Summit — SF
5:00 PM – evening | Amazon AWS, 525 Market Street, San Francisco
Amazon AWS is hosting a focused evening on agentic AI in its downtown SF office. Coder, Mistral, Workato, and Arize all have sessions — a rare single-venue gathering of model providers, workflow automation, and observability tooling on one stage. The event is listed on both the SF AI Meetup group and the SF/Bay AI Developers Group. Entry type and registration details are on the Meetup event page; expect RSVP required given the venue size. 1
Category: AI demo / talks | Access: RSVP via Meetup
From Demo to Production: Building Reliable AI Agents (Hands-On Workshop)
Monday, May 18 | San Francisco (see lu.ma for exact address)
A Workato-presented, hands-on workshop on moving AI agents from demo into production. Developers attending this week's AWS Agentic AI Summit may find scheduling overlap — both events center on the same theme but from different angles (the Meetup talk vs. a build-along lab). Registration is via Lu.ma. 2
Category: Workshop / AI agents | Access: Register on Lu.ma
Plug and Play — San Jose Expo: AI CoE Batch 3
2:30 PM – 6:30 PM | Plug and Play Tech Center, San Jose, CA
Plug and Play's AI Center of Excellence Batch 3 showcase: startups that have completed the accelerator cohort pitch to investors and corporate partners. Historically, these Plug and Play expos draw enterprise innovation leads from large companies and active seed investors. The event page on plugandplaytechcenter.com lists ticket access as an application process — not a general walk-in. 3
Category: Startup demo day / pitch expo | Access: Apply for a ticket at plugandplaytechcenter.com
TechEx North America — Day 1 (AI & Big Data Expo + Co-located Events)
8:30 AM – evening | San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA
TechEx North America opens today for a two-day run. The umbrella event clusters seven co-located tracks under one roof: AI & Big Data Expo, IoT Tech Expo, Cyber Security & Cloud, Digital Transformation Week, Data Centre Expo, Intelligent Automation Conference, and Physical AI Expo. Sponsors include IBM (headline) and SAP (diamond). The AI hackathon runs across both days. Admission is listed as free by multiple syndication sources. 45
AI Hackathon runs May 18–19, collocated within TechEx. Registration is via the TechEx North America site.
Category: Enterprise tech conference / multi-track expo | Access: Free; register at techexnorthamerica.com
Tomorrow — Tuesday, May 19
Plug and Play Silicon Valley May Summit 2026 — Day 1
Opening Keynote / Fireside Chat from 9:00 AM | Plug and Play Tech Center, 440 N Wolfe Rd, Sunnyvale, CA 94085
Plug and Play's flagship biannual summit returns for three days (May 19–21). Opening day features a keynote and fireside chat. The summit brings together 4,000+ attendees and 300+ startups from 20+ industries. Confirmed: an Amex GBT executive joins the Travel vertical session; the Silicon Valley Economic Forum runs in parallel. This is the Bay Area's largest single-venue startup/VC convergence event this month. 67
Category: Startup summit / multi-industry | Access: Registration at plugandplaytechcenter.com
TechEx North America — Day 2
San Jose McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA
Day 2 of the expo. The AI hackathon closes, all seven conference tracks continue. If you skipped Day 1, the same free-entry policy applies. See Day 1 entry above for full details. 8
Category: Enterprise tech conference | Access: Free
Anchor SF Networking Event
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM | Cutwater Agency, 950 Battery Street, San Francisco
Anchor — a professional networking app targeting young founders, operators, and finance/banking professionals — is hosting its SF follow-up event. Their prior gathering drew young professionals, creatives, and students in a casual mixer format. Hosts at the last event included a Founder, a VP at HSBC Startup Banking, and a creator from the Anchor team. This session is at Cutwater Agency, a well-known SF creative agency space. RSVP details available via their Instagram bio and prior event posts. 9
Category: Networking / social mixer | Access: RSVP (check @theanchor.app on Instagram)
Berkeley AI Meetup (lu.ma/e6fawiqv)
4:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT | Berkeley, CA
A community AI meetup in Berkeley. The lu.ma event page (linked in multiple Bay Area event roundups) has the full description and RSVP form. 10
Category: AI meetup / community | Access: RSVP at lu.ma/e6fawiqv
Quick-reference table
| Event | Day | Time | Location | Access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS Agentic AI Summit | Mon 5/18 | 5:00 PM | Amazon AWS, 525 Market St, SF | RSVP / Meetup |
| From Demo to Production Workshop | Mon 5/18 | TBD | SF | Register / Lu.ma |
| Plug and Play AI CoE Batch 3 Expo | Mon 5/18 | 2:30–6:30 PM | P&P Tech Center, San Jose | Apply for ticket |
| TechEx NA – AI Hackathon + Expo Day 1 | Mon 5/18 | All day | San Jose McEnery Convention Center | Free |
| Plug and Play SV May Summit | Tue 5/19 | From 9:00 AM | 440 N Wolfe Rd, Sunnyvale | Register |
| TechEx NA – Expo Day 2 | Tue 5/19 | All day | San Jose McEnery Convention Center | Free |
| Anchor SF Networking | Tue 5/19 | 5:30–8:00 PM | Cutwater Agency, 950 Battery St, SF | RSVP |
| Berkeley AI Meetup | Tue 5/19 | 4:30–7:30 PM | Berkeley, CA | RSVP / Lu.ma |
Coverage window: tonight and tomorrow from the Monday May 18, 2026 publish date. Verify times and access on each event's registration page before attending.
References
- 1SF AI Meetup – AWS Agentic AI Summit
meetup.com
- 2
- 3Plug and Play – San Jose Expo AI CoE Batch 3
plugandplaytechcenter.com
- 4AI & Big Data Expo North America 2026 – Eventbrowse
eventbrowse.com
- 5Backblaze press release – AI & Big Data Expo
businesswire.com
- 6
- 7
- 8TechEx North America Instagram – event overview
instagram.com
- 9Anchor SF event Instagram post
instagram.com
- 10Bay Area Events Week of May 18 – LinkedIn Pulse
linkedin.com
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