Scrum Fest Osaka 2026
Overview
The Kansai region's largest Agile and Scrum conference, running since 2019. During the pandemic in 2020 it pioneered an online format where Scrum communities across Japan gathered as individual tracks, becoming a hub connecting regional communities. The 2026 edition is a hybrid event at Umeda Crystal Hall, with a keynote by Ryutaro Yoshiba (Attractor).
Foundation
- Founded
- 2019
- Founder
- Scrum Fest Osaka Committee (led by Toshiharu Akimoto)
Launched in 2019 by Kansai's Agile community. Its 2020 pivot to an online format, where Scrum communities nationwide joined as individual tracks, helped seed the spread of regional Scrum Fests across Japan (Niigata, Mikawa, Sendai and others).
Transition
- 2019 First edition held in Osaka
- 2020 Shifted online during the pandemic, creating a format where Scrum communities nationwide gathered as individual tracks
- 2025 James Coplien gave the keynote (held July 18-19)
- 2026 Hybrid edition at Umeda Crystal Hall on July 31 and August 1, with a keynote by Ryutaro Yoshiba
Voices
A Timee member's report reflecting on being moved by speakers' passion and the insights carried back to their own team (from the Timee tech blog's 2025 report, in Japanese)
Money Forward's developer blog report with takeaways from members across multiple roles (from the 2025 report, in Japanese)
A report by SHIFT Group's Agile promotion team on what they saw and learned on site (from the 2025 report, in Japanese)
AI Expo Summer 2026
The summer edition of the AI-focused exhibition hosted by AIsmiley, operator of Japan's AI portal media. Over 100 companies present 200+ AI solutions alongside 40+ conference sessions. Following the Spring 2026 edition at Tokyo International Forum, it moves to Sankaku Hiroba at the Shinjuku Sumitomo Building. Free to attend, it serves companies comparing generative AI and AI agent products.
Innovation Japan 2026 (University Trade Fair)
Japan's largest university-industry matching event, hosted by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Patented technology seeds from universities nationwide are exhibited for matching with corporate R&D and new business teams. The 2025 edition drew about 14,000 visitors to 291 exhibited seeds. Less a startup conference and more a trade fair that seeds technology transfer and joint research.
Open Developers Conference 2026
A developer-focused open source conference run by the OSPN community behind the Open Source Conference (OSC) series. Billed as an "open source culture festival," it packs seminars, hands-on sessions, and community booths on DevOps, dev tools, and cloud into a single free day. Modest in size at 100-plus attendees, its strength since 2018 has been direct access to the developers behind OSS projects.