TL;DR / pair-with-the-trip picks. If the weekend is flexible, the pairings worth chasing — in date order from today (2026-05-28) — are EuskalHack Security Congress IX, 19-20 June, Olarain [2] for cybersecurity (€85-€190, ~200 attendees [3]); Zinemaldia & Technology, 18-26 September, during the 74th Film Festival [15][17] for AI/audiovisual; and the Donostia Week-INN + Berrilan Basque Tech Summit stack in mid-to-late November [8][7]. The first half of 2026 (MUBIL, Debug’Em All, ApplAI) has already passed.
2026 IT/tech calendar at a glance
| Event | Dates 2026 | Venue | Focus | Scale / cost | Status (vs 2026-05-28) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MUBIL Mobility Expo 5 | Mar 25-26 | Ficoba (Irun, metro area) | Sustainable mobility + AI + data | 110 exhibitors, trade show | past |
| Debug’Em All Meetup — Cider House | Apr 11 | CEMEI - Donostia Sustapena | Web/marketing analytics | Free meetup + €50 dinner | past |
| ApplAI 2026 | May 13 | Kursaal | Applied AI for Basque industry | 34 sponsors, free, full-day | past |
| ISC’2026 (24th) | May 27-29 | UPV/EHU, Escuela de Ingeniería de Gipuzkoa | Industrial simulation + AI agents | ~150 academic attendees | happening now |
| EuskalHack Security Congress IX | Jun 19-20 | Colegio Mayor Olarain | Offensive sec, reverse eng, AI-sec | ~200 attendees, €85-€190 | upcoming (3 wks) |
| Zinemaldia & Technology | Sep 18-26 | Kursaal + festival venues | AI / blockchain / VFX in audiovisual | Industry track, juried startups | upcoming |
| Donostia Week-INN | mid-Nov (TBC) | Kursaal, Anoeta, EKINN, María Cristina | AI, cybersec, quantum, talent | 20+ events, free, city-wide | upcoming |
| Berrilan Basque Tech Summit IV | Nov 19-21 TBC | Anoeta | BIM, GIS digital twins, smart cities | Industry summit, ~30 speakers | upcoming |
The Convention Bureau’s public agenda independently confirms the ISC, EuskalHack, and most other 2026 dates listed above [18].
Happening this week (May 27-29)
ISC’2026 — 24th Industrial Simulation Conference is on the UPV/EHU engineering campus right now [5]. EUROSIS bills it as Europe’s premier annual industrial-simulation conference, with this edition emphasising the integration of AI and agent-based modelling into industrial decision-support [6]. ~150 attendees — academic in flavour, not a casual drop-in. If the trip is already booked for this weekend, the Friday closing day is the realistic window to attend.
The four events worth planning around
EuskalHack Security Congress IX — Jun 19-20
Ninth edition of the Basque ethical-hacking association’s flagship con [2]. Two days at Colegio Mayor Olarain (a residence-hall venue on Paseo de Ondarreta, walkable from Ondarreta beach). Programme spans reverse engineering, vulnerability development, mobile attacks, APTs, and AI-in-cybersecurity, with an open-space block on Friday evening running into Saturday morning [3]. Tickets €85 early-bird (now closed), €125 standard, €190 late (Jun 1-15), reduced rates for under-25 and unemployed [2]. Capacity ~200 — small enough that buying late means risking sold-out. This is the highest-signal event to pair with a Michelin dinner: the cybersec crowd in Euskadi is dense, the venue is in the heart of the bay, and it’s the next thing happening.
Zinemaldia & Technology — Sep 18-26 (during the Film Festival)
Industry track of the 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival (18-26 September 2026) [17], positioning the festival as a reference space for tech-in-audiovisual [15]. Co-organised with Tecnalia, Vicomtech (the local visual-computing + AI applied-research centre) and ALÍA (Audiovisual Industrial Alliance) [16]. The centrepiece is the Zinemaldia Startup Challenge — €10,000 each for the winning Spanish and European audiovisual-tech startups (AI, blockchain, streaming, VFX/SFX) [16]. Caveat: the festival drives hotel prices up sharply and books out months ahead — plan the Michelin reservation around the festival, not vice versa.
Donostia Week-INN — November (city-wide)
Annual innovation week run by Fomento de San Sebastián (the city’s economic-development agency); 2025 ran Nov 15-20 across Kursaal, Anoeta, EKINN and Hotel María Cristina, with AI, cybersecurity, quantum and talent as the core threads [8]. DIPC and other Basque research centres participate [9]. Format is 20+ smaller sessions rather than one big floor — good for sampling, less good for a single deep dive. Most events are free; 2026 dates not yet published as of late May 2026.
Berrilan Basque Tech Summit IV — late November (TBC)
Fourth edition at Anoeta (Real Sociedad’s stadium complex) with co-organisers Berrilan, Real Sociedad and BUTIC [7]. Verticals are construction-tech and smart-city: BIM, GIS + digital twins, industrialised construction, asset management, sustainable urbanism. Gold sponsors include Hexagon Voyansi, Saltoki, Allplan; silver: ACCA, MagiCAD, Dalux [7]. Niche unless built environment is the angle — but it’s the largest pure-industry tech summit on the Donostia calendar, and it often overlaps Week-INN.
What you already missed (Jan-May 2026)
- ApplAI 2026 — 13 May at Kursaal, the year’s biggest applied-AI day for Basque industry: Pilar Manchón (Google Research), Anna Schlegel, Javier Del Ser (Tecnalia/EHU), Nerea Aranguren (Mondragon Corp), 34 sponsoring entities [1]. Free, full-day, business-implementation angle (not research/theory). Worth tracking for 2027.
- MUBIL Mobility Expo 2026 — 25-26 March at Ficoba, Southern Europe’s lead sustainable-mobility expo: 110 exhibitors, France as strategic partner, autonomous-vehicle and electric-bus demos, data/AI/digital-platform programme threads [4]. Note: Ficoba is in Irun (~20 km east), not Donostia proper.
- Debug’Em All Meetup — Cider House Ed. — 11 April, niche analytics-engineering meetup, free entry with optional €50 cider-house dinner [10]. Travelling community con, returns to a different city each year.
Ongoing local scene (between conferences)
| Group / programme | Cadence | Venue | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech Connect Donostia | ~monthly, evenings | Drop, Larramendi Kalea 3 | 487 members, English, talks + Q&A [12] |
| Saturdays.AI Donostia | Saturdays, 9am-2pm | Impact Hub Donostia (Tabakalera) | ML/DL course cycles, 7-14 sessions, €179-€249, Demo Day [13] |
| EuskalHack association | year-round community | Online + Olarain (annual con) | First Basque ethical-hacking non-profit, runs the IX congress |
| Impact Hub Donostia | daily coworking | Tabakalera, 3rd floor | Hosts most non-affiliated community tech events [19] |
Tech Connect Donostia is the easiest weekend-of drop-in: relaxed format, English by default, organiser Luis S. + co-organiser, 4.8/5 across 40 prior events [11][12]. AI Saturdays Euskadi is recognised by the World Economic Forum as a Global Shapers project [14] — useful context if writing about the regional AI ecosystem rather than attending casually.
Venues to recognise
- Kursaal Congress Centre — Rafael Moneo’s two cubic glass “stranded rocks” at the Urumea river mouth; 20,000 m², 1,806-seat auditorium, hosts 300+ events / 600,000 visitors a year [20]. Default venue for the biggest events (ApplAI, Week-INN headline sessions, Zinemaldia industry programme).
- Colegio Mayor Olarain — university residence on Paseo de Ondarreta, intimate venue, EuskalHack home.
- Palacio Miramar — Queen María Cristina’s former summer palace overlooking La Concha; runs the more academic conferences (statistical learning, materials science) per the Convention Bureau agenda [18].
- Ficoba (Irun) — large exhibition halls, MUBIL home, requires a transfer.
- UPV/EHU Escuela de Ingeniería de Gipuzkoa — engineering school campus, hosts ISC’2026 and other academic-industrial events.
- Anoeta — Real Sociedad’s stadium complex with conference facilities, hosts Berrilan Summit.
- Impact Hub Donostia (Tabakalera) — community-event base; the old tobacco factory turned culture centre is itself worth visiting.
What is NOT happening in Donostia (common misses)
- Codemotion, DevOps Spain, JSConf, etc. — these cluster in Madrid and Barcelona, not Donostia.
- Cyber Intelligence Europe 2026 — Brussels, not San Sebastián, despite Basque speaker representation.
- Donostia Tech Week — historic city-led brand (2017-2019 era); the donostiatechweek.eus site is unreachable as of this run, and its programming appears to have been folded into Donostia Week-INN.
- Bilbao events (BIG Conference, Euskal Encounter, DOK) are an hour away by car/bus — pairable, but not in Donostia.