AI has changed what's possible. It hasn't changed what matters.
Great products still come from thoughtful decisions, deep customer understanding, strong teams, and sound judgment. As the tools evolve faster than ever, ProductFest brings together Richmond's product community to sharpen the craft that technology can't replace.
Conference Details -
About the Event
Join us in Richmond, Virginia, and let’s stray away from your average workday and dedicate some time towards you. Get ready for a day of innovative sessions focused on connecting with the Richmond product community and growing your career.
ProductFest RVA promises a full day of skill development, new ideas, and connections to supercharge your product career.
Date + Time
October 22, 2026 | 8:30 AM – 5 PM
Doors open at 8:00 AM
Venue
The Science Museum of Virginia – Dewey Gottwald Center
2500 W. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia
Need Approval to Attend ProductFest?
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If you’re excited about attending ProductFest but need buy-in from your manager, use our ready-to-go “Request to Attend” letter to help make the case. It outlines the value of the conference, the benefits to your team and organization, and why it’s a smart investment in your professional growth.
Download the letter, personalize it with a few quick details, and send it off. Easy.
Productfest Request To Attend (printable version)
Productfest Request To Attend (digital version)
Network with Intention
Every ProductFest registration includes complimentary access to Boardy, an AI-powered networking assistant designed to help you make the most of your conference experience. By learning about your interests and goals, Boardy recommends a small number of high-value connections to seek out, helping ensure the conversations that could have the biggest impact don’t get lost in a room of 500 attendees.
Be sure to opt-in at checkout.
Register for the Conference
Meet the Keynote Speakers
Every week brings a new model, a new demo, and a new LinkedIn prophet insisting your job is either dead or about to be automated into a prompt. Product managers, designers, engineers, leaders, nobody’s exempt from the memo. No wonder so many of us are quietly updating our resumes while pretending to be excited in the all-hands.
Here’s the calming truth: AI isn’t coming for the people who know what problem is worth solving and how to build the right thing well. It’s coming for the busywork, the beige, and the theater. The real panic isn’t the technology. It’s not knowing which of your skills just went worthless and which just became your leverage.
This talk sorts them, and answers the question under every title: how does this change how I get hired, fired, and promoted, and what do I do Monday? You’ll leave with less doom, fewer buzzwords, and a clear read on where craft, judgment, and knowing your customer still hold the cards.
The playbook for building products customers love hasn’t changed: deep customer understanding, fast iteration, and relentless focus on the customer’s problem. What’s changed so fast and continues to change so quickly is who can do what.
AI is altering the boundaries that have defined product teams for decades. Product managers are creating high fidelity prototypes and shipping code. UX teams are creating design templates that PM’s and devs can use without their intimate involvement, while also pushing code. Developers are using AI to multiply their output multi-fold and are able to spend more time on the problems that matter.
In this interactive panel session, we’ll explore what this shift means for how product teams organize, collaborate, and move faster, and how to harness these new capabilities without losing the craft and customer obsession that great product teams require. You’ll hopefully leave with some practical ways to rethink roles, workflows, and skills on your own team.
2026 Sponsors
Title Sponsor
ProductFest 2026 is proudly presented by Dominion Energy. We are grateful for their continued partnership and commitment to advancing product innovation and strengthening Virginia's technology community.
This Event Is Currently Accepting Sponsors
Ready to sponsor? Email our Membership & Sponsorship Manager, Vicki Daguerre-Bradford to connect.