TL;DR Taichung’s dev scene is lean but active. GDG Taichung anchors it with free monthly Build with AI workshops and an annual DevFest (~250 attendees, November, Feng Chia University) [1][2]. Enterprise / industry events are growing fast around the TICEC convention center that opened March 2026 [6]. National marquee events — COMPUTEX, COSCUP — stay in Taipei (50 min by HSR).
GDG Taichung — the anchor developer community
GDG Taichung (Google Developer Group) has 969 members and is Taichung’s most consistent developer community [1]. Since early 2026 they run a monthly Build with AI series at Feng Chia University’s AI Foundry lab (資電大樓 B1, B29) — covering Gemini, Vertex AI, Firebase, and ADK [3]. Sessions are free and technical: April 2026 featured “Agentic Fine-Tuning on TPU” and Google’s MedGemma 1.5 multimodal medical AI [3]. Next event: June 6, 2026 — frontend toolchain anatomy (tree-shaking, Vite plugins, SSR) [1]. Organizers: Ahdaa Yeh and ATai Lin, partnered with FCU’s AI Research Center (FCUAI).
Primary venue: 逢甲大學 資電大樓 B1, B29 AI Foundry — 407台中市西屯區文華路100號
DevFest Taichung — annual flagship
DevFest is GDG’s worldwide annual conference series; the Taichung edition runs each November [14]. DevFest Taichung 2025 (November 8, Feng Chia University 人言大樓) drew 236 RSVPs, free admission [2]. Topics: AI × Cloud × Security × Scalability — ADK/A2A/MCP multi-agent architecture, LangGraph agent deployment, Gemini CLI, Flutter + Firebase, client-side AI [2]. DevFest Taichung 2026 is not yet announced; expect October–November based on the annual pattern [14].
Industry forums (2026 highlights)
| Event | Date | Venue | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| D Forum Smart Factory [4] | Mar 17, 2026 | Yuyuan Garden Hotel, Xitun District | Flexible mfg, robotics, AI on-cloud, ISO 11161 safety |
| AI Academy Central TW Forum [5] | Apr 15, 2026 | FCU Gongshan Hall (共善樓大講堂) | AI transformation for central Taiwan SMEs, free |
The D Forum (Digitimes) brought 13 speakers from Flexiv, OMRON, VIVOTEK, STMicro, and Eaton — robotics, automation, and smart-factory AI [4]. The AI Academy forum keynoted by former Google Taiwan GM Jian Li-feng, plus four central Taiwan manufacturers (aerospace, environmental systems, robotics) sharing AI ROI case studies [5]. ⚠ Both events are past for 2026; watch organiser sites for 2027 editions.
TICEC & trade shows
The Taichung International Convention and Exhibition Center (TICEC) opened March 23, 2026 — Taiwan’s newest and largest convention venue outside Taipei [6]. It spans 132,000 m², holds 2,360 exhibition booths, 5,000 conference seats, and up to 12,600 attendees [7]. In its opening year, 50+ exhibitions and 300+ conferences are already booked across smart technology, green energy, and precision machinery [6]. Location: Shuinan Economic and Trade Park, Xitun District (near FCU).
TMTS 2026 — Taiwan International Machine Tool Show (March 25–28, TICEC) was TICEC’s first major tech event: 400 companies, 1,800 booths, theme “AI-Powered Sustainable Manufacturing” [8][9]. TMTS is biennial — next edition 2028.
Adjacent programs
Taiwan AI Academy Taichung (台中技術領袖班) runs a multi-cohort Technical Leaders professional program at Tunghai and Feng Chia campuses [13]. It’s a multi-week upskilling course (not a single-day conference) backed by Academia Sinica. Contact: tc@aiacademy.tw, (04) 2301-5116.
What’s not in Taichung
Major Taiwanese IT conferences are Taipei-centric. All are reachable from Taichung: Taichung HSR ↔ Taipei Nangang ~50 min, ~NT$375.
| Conference | Location | 2026 Date | Focus | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| COMPUTEX [10] | Taipei TICC + Nangang | Jun 2–5 | AIoT, semiconductors, global expo | Paid |
| COSCUP [11] | Taipei (NTUST) | Aug 8–9 | Open source | Free |
| SITCON [15] | Taipei (Academia Sinica) | Mar 28 | Student IT conference | Free |
| MOPCON [12] | Kaohsiung (south Taiwan) | Nov (annual) | Mobile & platform dev | Paid |
2026 event calendar
| Month | Event | Type | Venue | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 17 | D Forum Smart Factory Taichung | Forum | Yuyuan Hotel | ✓ |
| Mar 25–28 | TMTS 2026 | Trade show | TICEC | ✗ |
| Apr 15 | AI Academy Central TW Forum | Forum | FCU Gongshan Hall | ✓ |
| Monthly | Build with AI (GDG Taichung) | Workshop | FCU AI Foundry | ✓ |
| Jun 6 | GDG frontend toolchain workshop | Workshop | FCU AI Foundry | ✓ |
| Oct–Nov | DevFest Taichung 2026 (est.) | Conference | FCU | ✓ |
Venue cluster: Nearly all developer events congregate in Xitun District — FCU (逢甲大學), TICEC (Shuinan park), and the Yuyuan Hotel are all within 5 minutes of each other. If visiting for a weekend trip, June 6 is the next free developer event; DevFest in autumn is the headline annual event.