TL;DR — Decision: There are no IT conferences or tech meetups within 30 km of Marcon scheduled for the remainder of 2026 (today: 28 May 2026). The only Ardèche AI event of the year — Routes vers l’IA – Ardèche at RCCM Saint-Clair, ~28 km from the restaurant — was on 28 April 2026 and is past [2][3]. Plan the weekend as off-grid; for a real conference, drive ~50–70 km to Saint-Étienne, Le Puy-en-Velay, or Valence, or stretch to Lyon for DevFest Lyon on 4 Dec 2026 [16].
Geography
Régis & Jacques Marcon sits in Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid, 43290 Haute-Loire [1], on the Haute-Loire / Ardèche border. Driving distances from the restaurant:
| Town | Dept | km (road) | Inside 30 km? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Sigolène | 43 | ~19–28 [9] | ✓ |
| Le Chambon-sur-Lignon | 43 | 20.4 [4] | ✓ |
| Saint-Agrève | 07 | 21.3 [6] | ✓ |
| Yssingeaux | 43 | 24 (crow flies) [7] | ✓ |
| Annonay | 07 | 27.9 [5] | ✓ |
| Saint-Clair (Annonay) | 07 | ~28–30 [10] | ✓ (edge) |
| Saint-Étienne | 42 | 52 [7] | ✗ |
| Tournon-sur-Rhône | 07 | 55.1 [8] | ✗ |
| Le Puy-en-Velay | 43 | 59 [7] | ✗ |
The plateau is rural. Annonay (28 km) is the closest town in the radius hosting a CCI delegation, coworking, and the only AI/SME conference of the year (already past — see below).
Within 30 km — what’s actually scheduled
The full inventory of IT-adjacent activity inside the radius for the rest of 2026:
- Routes vers l’IA – Ardèche — free morning conference on AI adoption for SMEs at RCCM, Saint-Clair, ~28 km away. ⚠ Already past (28 Apr 2026); the series visits each AURA department roughly once a year, so the next Ardèche edition lands around April 2027 [2][3].
- Festiconf’ – Annonay (14–16 Nov 2026). ⚠ Not tech — this is a festival des conférences gesticulées, a French theatrical-lecture form on social/political topics. Mentioned only because the name misleads anyone searching for “conferences in Annonay” [11].
- Imp’acteurs entrepreneur workshops – Annonay / Davézieux. Recurring 2026 series for entrepreneurs covering marketing, branding, automation, networking. No AI or advanced-tech focus, no fixed published calendar — check directly [12].
- Semaine de l’Industrie en Ardèche (mid-Nov 2026, CCI Ardèche). Coordinated open-factory visits across the department; the Annonay industrial basin participates each year. Industrial, not pure IT [13].
Permanent tech-adjacent infrastructure (inside 30 km)
Not events, but the only tech infrastructure in the radius worth knowing about:
- Coworking municipal du Chambon-sur-Lignon — free access, 70 Mbps, in the old mairie / Maison des Bretchs, 20 km from Marcon [14].
- Annonay Rhône Agglo Coworking, 698 rue de Vidalon, Davézieux — Mon–Fri 08:30–17:30, day rate from €5, hosts occasional France Num training and themed entrepreneurship workshops [15].
Nearest real IT events — 50 km and beyond
If the trip can stretch or you don’t mind a drive:
| Event | When | Where (km from Marcon) | What |
|---|---|---|---|
| DevFest Lyon 2026 [16] | 4 Dec 2026 | Palais de la Bourse, Lyon (~140) | GDG Lyon dev conference, one-day |
| FIP – France Innovation Plasturgie [17] | 16–19 Jun 2026 | Eurexpo Lyon (~140) | Industry 4.0 / bioplastics — locally relevant: the Sainte-Sigolène plateau, 20 km from Marcon, has shipped ⅓ of French plastic-extrusion volume since the 1990s [23] |
| Routes vers l’IA – Drôme [18] | (past Jan 2026; recurring) | Drôme CCI, Valence (~70) | Same SME/AI format as Ardèche stop |
| Lab’ du Pensio FabLab [20] | year-round | IUT, Le Puy-en-Velay (~59) | University digital fabrication + VR |
| French Tech Saint-Étienne Lyon [19] | rolling | Saint-Étienne (~52) | Startup-ecosystem meetups, sporadic |
Past 2026 events, listed only to inform planning next year’s trip: MiXiT Lyon (16–17 Apr 2026, Villeurbanne) [21]; Tech Job Connect Valence (26 Jan 2026) [22]; Routes vers l’IA – Ardèche (28 Apr 2026, the closest IT-conf to Marcon of the year) [2]. ENE’s June–July 2026 Routes calendar visits Belley (Ain), Grenoble (Isère), and Charbonnières-les-Bains (Rhône) — all well outside the 30 km Marcon radius [24].
Recommendation
Treat the Marcon weekend as off-grid — the plateau doesn’t sustain a tech-event ecosystem. If a conference hook genuinely matters, two windows put a real event within a day’s drive of Saint-Bonnet-le-Froid:
- Late April: Routes vers l’IA – Ardèche (next stop in the AURA cycle, ~28 km, free, SME-focused) plus MiXiT in Lyon a week or two earlier [2][21].
- Early December: DevFest Lyon (140 km, dev-focused, one-day) [16].
For the rest of 2026, anchor on the food.