beCamp 2026 is almost here, and we just hit 120 registrations! Are you signed up yet? If you’re interested in data, tech, product, design, or another creative field in the Charlottesville area, you probably should be. We’re going to cap registration soon, so if you’ve been thinking about it, go ahead and sign up now!
If you haven’t been before, beCamp is a conference planned by the people who show up. There are no pre-selected speakers or sessions. Participants collaboratively build the conference agenda together.
We’ll gather on the evening of Friday, October 2 to pitch sessions, vote for our favorites, and assemble the conference schedule. Then, on Saturday, October 3, we’ll reconvene and run the conference we just planned the day before!
beCamp is completely free to attend. There’s no better way to connect with the local tech community, share what you’re interested in, and learn something new!
The day before beCamp, AFCEA Central Virginia’s Data Centric Summit (DCS) will take over the CODE Building’s Irving Theater on Thursday, October 1. This year’s DCS will focus on the technologies, architectures, and operational practices shaping the next generation of data‑driven decision-making across defense, government, and industry.
Two of the speakers in the DCS 2026 program — Hunter Moore and Cory Everington — were featured panelists in Charlottesville Data Science’s Breaking Into Data Science and AI Engineering event last month!
Whether you work in cybersecurity, analytics, AI/ML, mission systems, infrastructure, or public-sector governance, the 2026 Summit offers a unique opportunity to connect with experts and peers who are redefining what it means to be data‑centric in complex operational environments.
More upcoming events around Charlottesville
Tuesday, September 29: Cville AI Explorers hosts an AI Design Bake-Off at Studio IX. The group will split into small teams, then spend 45 minutes redesigning the Cville AI Explorers website using a variety of AI front-end design tools. No previous design experience required.
Thursday, October 8: Charlottesville Data Science hosts our October event, Accuracy Isn’t Everything: Good Models are Lurking Everywhere, at the UVA School of Data Science. In this talk, Evzenie Coupkova, a mathematics PhD from Purdue, will explore the broad landscape of possible models, consider what it means for a machine learning model to be “good” for a given problem, and examine the trade-offs between predictive accuracy and other desirable characteristics, like generalization and interpretability.
Friday, October 9: The Brain Research Interest Group at the UVA School of Data Science hosts the Brain Imaging Analytics Symposium, a half-day event featuring a keynote from NIMH’s Peter Bandettini and research sessions on the intersection of neuroscience and data science.
Friday, October 23: The UVA Darden School of Business hosts the inaugural Innovate@Darden event. Innovate@Darden will bring together students and practitioners for a day of dialogue around emerging trends, career pathways, and real-world applications of tech and AI across industries.