Orkes Shift '26
San Francisco, CA
I produced the first user conference for Orkes, the company behind Netflix's open-source Conductor, which now orchestrates AI agents and workflows at enterprise scale. Work kicked off in June 2026 and I executed on October 15, 2026.
Orkes wanted to bring the engineers and architects building on its platform into one room for the first time, with a goal of about 60 people and a day of talks from teams running these systems in production. They had a goal and a target window. The venue, the date, and the program all had to be built from scratch, and turning that into an event people would actually show up for was on me.
How it started
I was hired in June and spent the summer building the foundations: the workback schedule, the venue search, catering, registration, and the speaker program. By late August the person who brought me in had left the company.
Over the final eight weeks, the project had three different owners. Six weeks before the event, two members of the Orkes sales team took it on and made it theirs. They picked up speaker outreach, the registration announcements, and all the details that fill the last month, and they were a pleasure to work with. The date, the venue, and the program stayed put, and the plan kept moving through every handoff.
What I did
Planning and venue: I built the workback schedule and sourced the venue from scratch. I researched seven San Francisco options, weighing capacity and AV alongside the happy hour question: which spaces could flip from conference to cocktails without moving the group, which needed a caterer brought in for the bar, and which meant a walk to the nearest one. I also studied the Bay Area conference calendar to help pick a date. Then I arranged site visits for a two-venue shortlist so the Orkes lead, who flew in from out of town, could compare spaces in person and decide, and I walked the chosen space myself afterwards. From there I coordinated the venue agreement, room layout, catering, and run of show around the venue's rules. I also arranged a photographer and a videographer, booked separately, to capture the day.
Registration and promotion: I set up registration on Luma with manual approval so the room stayed curated for engineers and engineering leaders, built an early-bird tier, and benchmarked ticket pricing against comparable Bay Area AI and developer events. I researched the local channels worth promoting through and secured paid placements in community newsletters and event calendars, while the Orkes team ran email and social.
Speaker program: I coordinated confirmed speakers from LinkedIn, Bumble, Twilio, and Google, managing logistics, bios, and final briefings, researching hotel options for speakers travelling in, and keeping the run of show current as the lineup shifted.
Day of: I ran production from setup through teardown: vendor coordination, caterer and bar, a hired reception host, the photographer and videographer, emcee prep, and the timeline for a day that ran from a 10am breakfast through a happy hour that closed at 6pm.
Handoffs: Every time ownership changed, I rebuilt the picture for the new team: what was locked, what was open, and what needed a decision by when. The sales team ran with it: they owned speaker outreach, the Luma announcements, and name tags, while I managed the shared decisions tracker that carried continuity across every owner. They were great partners, and a big part of why the final stretch came together.
The numbers
- 58 attendees against a goal of 60, on the final day of TechCrunch Disrupt
- 3 different project owners in the final 8 weeks
- 6 weeks between the final team taking ownership and the event
- 7 sessions: an opening keynote, five talks, and a fireside chat
- Speakers from LinkedIn, Bumble, Twilio, Google, and Orkes
- A full day in Union Square: 10am breakfast through a 6pm happy hour close
Why this one matters to me
A first-year conference with a steady client team is a normal challenge. This one had three different owners in eight weeks and still put 58 people in the room against a goal of 60. The speakers showed up, the day ran on time, and the Orkes sales team, who inherited the event six weeks out, ran it with real care. I'm proud of what they pulled off, and of holding the plan steady so they could. Continuity is a big part of what I sell, and this project tested it.