GTC 2026 Strategic Plan¶
Dates: March 16-19, 2026 (Monday-Thursday) Venue: San Jose McEnery Convention Center Your pass: Exhibits Only (floor pass) Goal: Validate startup ideas, build relationships, scout competitors, identify potential customers and acquirers
What Your Floor Pass Gets You¶
| Included | NOT Included |
|---|---|
| Full expo floor (all 4 days) | Sessions/talks (1,000+ technical presentations) |
| Connect With the Experts (small-table Q&A with NVIDIA engineers) | In-person keynote seat at SAP Center |
| Keynote Watch Party (streamed inside convention center) | Hands-on training labs |
| Evening Exhibit Hall Receptions (5-7pm Mon-Wed) | Attendee lunches |
| GTC Park + Night Market | Gift bag |
| Braindates lounge (The Tech Interactive) | |
| Physical AI Developer Meetup (Wed evening, badge required) | |
| Inception Startup Pavilion |
Pre-Conference Actions (Do This Week)¶
Immediate (Before Friday March 13)¶
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Post in Jetson AI Lab Discord asking who's attending GTC. Propose a meetup at the Physical AI Developer Meetup (Wed 7:30pm, Guildhouse).
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RSVP to these events on Luma (limited capacity, fill fast):
- [ ] Inception After-Party (Sun March 15, 10pm, Still O.G.)
- [ ] Physical AI Night (Mon March 16, 7-11pm, Lightwheel)
- [ ] G-Research Networking Drinks (Tue March 17, 6-8pm, Alma Tequileria)
- [ ] Full Stack AI Dev Meetup (Tue March 17, 7:30pm, CoreWeave/W&B/Anyscale)
- [ ] Infrastructure Security Lounge (Wed March 18, 10am-4pm, Continental Bar)
- [ ] AI Executive Salon (Wed March 18, 7-10pm, Loft Bar) -- email Mirantis for invite
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[ ] Physical AI Developer Meetup (Wed March 18, 7:30pm, Guildhouse) -- requires badge
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LinkedIn outreach -- message these people/companies to schedule 20-min meetings at GTC:
- ZEDEDA team (confirmed attending, no booth -- need to arrange meetup)
- Fortanix team (booth 3117 -- sovereign/confidential AI)
- Mistral AI team (Kiosk 5 -- enterprise open models)
- Latent AI team (check if attending -- agentic edge AI)
- NVIDIA Inception team (ask about NVentures intro)
- Booz Allen Hamilton team (booth 3318 -- defense AI buyer persona)
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Infosys team (compliance AI demo -- potential customer insight)
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Log into GTC session portal and:
- Book Connect With the Experts slots (Physical AI, Jetson, Fleet Command). These fill in 24-48 hours.
- Search exhibitor catalog for: ZEDEDA, Spectro Cloud, Latent AI, Tabnine, Balena, Zylon
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Download expo floor map, note booth numbers
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Check if you qualify for NVIDIA Inception. Code GTC26INCP gives 25% off pass upgrades. More importantly, Inception membership gives you access to NVentures (NVIDIA's VC arm) and the Inception Pavilion community.
Day-by-Day Plan¶
Sunday March 15 -- Pre-Conference¶
| Time | Activity | Location | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5-7pm | Welcome Reception | Convention Center Street Level | Badge pickup. First casual networking. Sponsored by Oracle. |
| 10pm-1am | Inception After-Party | Still O.G. / Alter Ego, 66 S 1st St | Jetson/startup community. NVIDIA Brev + Shadeform hosted. |
Prep: Watch nothing. Save energy. The real conference starts Monday.
Monday March 16 -- Keynote Day¶
| Time | Activity | Location | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8-11am | Watch keynote pregame livestream | Hotel / coffee shop (free stream at nvidia.com) | Mistral CEO Arthur Mensch, LangChain CEO Harrison Chase, Cursor on panel. Learn what NVIDIA announces before you hit the floor. |
| 11am-1pm | Watch Jensen keynote livestream | Hotel or convention center watch party | Expected: Vera Rubin, Feynman architecture reveal, NemoClaw (open-source enterprise AI agent platform). Every exhibitor will be talking about this all week. |
| 1-2pm | Lunch + process keynote | Nearby restaurant | Write down the 3 most relevant announcements for your ideas |
| 2-5pm | Expo floor: Jetson ecosystem sweep | Main Hall | Hit Connect Tech (#1641), Lanner (#132), AAEON (#149), e-con (#3119). See Jetson Thor demos. Ask: "What's the biggest pain point your customers have deploying ML models at scale on these devices?" |
| 5-7pm | Exhibit Hall Reception | Main Hall | Relaxed networking with exhibitors you met during the day |
| 7-11pm | Physical AI Night | Lightwheel venue | Robotics + physical AI startup crowd. Lightwheel is a VC -- potential investor connections. |
Monday goals: - Understand what NVIDIA announced (especially NemoClaw -- if it's an open-source agent platform, it changes the sovereign AI platform opportunity) - Talk to 4+ Jetson hardware ecosystem companies about edge MLOps pain points - Attend Physical AI Night for robotics/edge community
Tuesday March 17 -- Expo Deep Dive + VC Day¶
| Time | Activity | Location | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9-10am | Fortanix | Booth #3117 | Confidential/sovereign AI platform. Direct competitor intelligence for sovereign AI play. Ask about regulated industry demand signals. |
| 10-11am | SUSE | Booth #3304 | Sovereign AI infrastructure. Open-source Linux/K8s for enterprise AI. Potential partner or customer insight. |
| 11am-12pm | Financial Services Pavilion | Capgemini (#171) + others | Customer discovery for compliance AI. Ask: "What compliance workflows are your fintech clients struggling to automate?" Infosys has a live compliance language review demo -- find their booth. |
| 12-1pm | Lunch | ||
| 1-3pm | Inception Startup Pavilion | Main Hall | 55+ startups. Spend 90 min here. Look for: edge AI, compliance, sovereign AI startups. Note who's building what, where the gaps are. |
| 2-3pm | VC Reverse Pitch (if accessible) | Grand Ballroom Theater | 8 VCs pitch their investment thesis. Even if you can't attend (check floor pass access), hang around the entrance and network with people coming out. |
| 3-5pm | Mistral AI Kiosk | Kiosk #5 | Enterprise open models session. Ask about air-gapped deployment demand, Mistral Code enterprise traction, defense/ITAR interest. |
| 5-7pm | Exhibit Hall Reception | Main Hall | Follow up with everyone from the day |
| 6-8pm | G-Research Networking Drinks | Alma Tequileria, 100 N Almaden | Quantitative finance AI firm. Direct access to financial services buyers. Ask about compliance tooling pain. |
| 7:30pm+ | Full Stack AI Dev Meetup OR Low Latency High Spirits | 50 W San Fernando / Loft Bar | Choose one: Dev meetup (CoreWeave, W&B, Anyscale -- MLOps crowd) OR Low Latency (NVIDIA co-hosted -- closer to NVIDIA relationships). |
Tuesday goals: - Sovereign AI competitive intelligence (Fortanix, SUSE, Mirantis) - Compliance AI customer discovery (Financial Services Pavilion) - VC exposure (Reverse Pitch, Inception pitches) - Mistral intelligence (air-gapped enterprise demand) - Financial services networking (G-Research drinks)
Wednesday March 18 -- Deep Conversations + Community¶
| Time | Activity | Location | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9-10am | Booz Allen Hamilton | Booth #3318 | Defense AI buyer persona. They're showing quadruped robots with edge AI + port security simulation. Ask about their edge MLOps pain, ITAR-compliant AI tooling needs, and how they evaluate startups. |
| 10am-12pm | Infrastructure Security Lounge | Continental Bar, 349 S 1st St | Tailscale, Edera, Heavybit. All-day open format. Edge security + infrastructure crowd. Directly relevant to sovereign AI and ITAR compliance conversations. |
| 12-1pm | Lunch | ||
| 1-3pm | Follow-up conversations | Expo floor | Revisit the 3-5 most promising contacts from Mon/Tue. Go deeper. This is where you move from "nice to meet you" to "let's schedule a call next week." |
| 3-4pm | Rafay Systems | Booth #136 | Governed multi-tenant AI platforms. Intersection of edge orchestration and compliance. Potential partner or competitor for sovereign AI play. |
| 4-5pm | NVIDIA main booth | Booth #345 | Ask about Fleet Command roadmap, Inception program benefits, NVentures. If you've identified a gap this week, test your thesis with the NVIDIA team. |
| 5-7pm | Exhibit Hall Reception | Main Hall | Last evening reception. Close loops. |
| 7-10pm | AI Executive Salon (Mirantis) | Loft Bar, 90 S 2nd St | Sovereign AI + infrastructure executives. This is the highest-signal evening event for your specific interests. Mirantis is the first NVIDIA BlueField DPU design partner. |
| 7:30-9:30pm | Physical AI Developer Meetup | Guildhouse, 420 1st St | Official NVIDIA community event. Jetson crowd. If Mirantis salon conflicts, choose based on which idea you're leaning toward: compliance/sovereign (Mirantis) or edge/Jetson (Meetup). |
Wednesday goals: - Defense buyer persona research (Booz Allen) - Security/compliance infrastructure community (Infra Security Lounge) - Close the loop with NVIDIA (Fleet Command, Inception, NVentures) - High-signal evening networking (Mirantis OR Physical AI Meetup)
Thursday March 19 -- Focused Closes¶
| Time | Activity | Location | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9am-12pm | Targeted revisits | Expo floor | The floor is noticeably quieter Thursday. Exhibitors have time for real conversations. Revisit your top 3 contacts. Exchange specific next steps (intros, calls, pilot discussions). |
| 12-1pm | Debrief yourself | Coffee shop | Write down: What I learned, who I met, what to follow up on, which ideas got stronger/weaker. Do this while it's fresh. |
Conversation Playbook by Idea¶
For Compliance AI Agent (#1 ranked)¶
Who to talk to: Capgemini (booth 171), Infosys (compliance demo), G-Research (Tue drinks), any fintech/banking reps in Financial Services Pavilion
Questions to ask (Mom Test style -- past behavior, not opinions): - "Walk me through what happens in your compliance team when a new OFAC sanctions list drops." - "How long does it take to update your screening rules after a regulatory change?" - "What's the most painful manual process in your compliance workflow right now?" - "Have you evaluated any AI tools for compliance? What happened?" - "What would need to be true for you to trust an AI system with compliance decisions?" - "Is data residency a factor in your compliance tooling decisions?"
Listen for: Specific time/cost numbers, named tools they use (ComplyAdvantage, Unit21, Alloy), frustration with manual processes, data sovereignty concerns.
For Sovereign AI Platform (#2 ranked)¶
Who to talk to: Fortanix (3117), SUSE (3304), Mirantis (evening events), Mistral (Kiosk 5), OpenNebula, Rafay (136)
Questions to ask: - "What are you hearing from regulated enterprise customers about on-prem AI deployment?" - "What's the biggest gap between what customers want for self-hosted AI and what's available today?" - "Are you seeing demand for AI agents (not just RAG/chat) in on-prem deployments?" - "What compliance certifications do your customers require before they'll evaluate?" - "How are your customers handling the model lifecycle -- versioning, updates, monitoring?"
Listen for: Whether demand is real or aspirational, what compliance certs are table stakes (SOC 2, FedRAMP, ISO 27001), whether "agents" resonates or just "RAG."
For Edge MLOps Platform (#4 ranked)¶
Who to talk to: Connect Tech (1641), Lanner (132), AAEON (149), e-con (3119), ZEDEDA (walking floor), NVIDIA Fleet Command team (main booth)
Questions to ask: - "When your customers deploy Jetson at scale (50+ devices), what's the hardest part?" - "How are they managing model updates across their device fleet today?" - "Do they have visibility into model accuracy degradation in production?" - "What tools are they using? Fleet Command? Custom scripts? Nothing?" - "If you could wave a magic wand and give your customers one tool they're missing, what would it be?"
Listen for: Pain intensity (are they building custom scripts?), Fleet Command adoption vs complaints, whether model lifecycle is even on their radar yet or still basic device management.
For Privacy-First Dev Copilot (#6 ranked)¶
Who to talk to: Booz Allen (3318), Mistral (Kiosk 5), check Dell booth for Tabnine presence
Questions to ask: - "How are your developers using AI coding tools today? What's allowed and what's not?" - "What's the gap between what non-ITAR developers get (Cursor/Copilot) and what your team can use?" - "Have you evaluated Tabnine or Mistral Code for air-gapped environments?" - "What compliance documentation did you need before you could deploy any AI tool internally?" - "Is CMMC compliance documentation a blocker or just paperwork?"
Listen for: Whether they've already solved this (Tabnine deployed), active pain (developers frustrated), or not a priority yet.
Braindates Strategy¶
The Braindate lounge at The Tech Interactive is dramatically underused and high-value. Post these topics:
- "Deploying AI agents on-premise for regulated industries -- what's working and what's not"
- "Edge AI model lifecycle management beyond NVIDIA Fleet Command"
- "Building compliance AI for fintech -- customer discovery"
These attract exactly the people you want to meet. 45-minute curated conversations. Available Tue-Wed 9am-5pm, Thu 9am-1pm.
People to Identify and Meet¶
These people are likely at GTC but finding them requires being proactive:
| Person/Role | Why | How to Find |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA Inception program manager | NVentures intro, startup resources | Inception Info Desk on expo floor |
| NVIDIA Fleet Command PM | Understand their roadmap, validate edge MLOps gaps | Main NVIDIA booth, ask specifically |
| Jetson product marketing | Edge AI market intelligence | Ask at NVIDIA booth or Connect With Experts |
| Fortanix enterprise sales | Sovereign AI demand signals | Booth 3117, schedule via LinkedIn |
| Booz Allen defense AI lead | Defense buyer persona, ITAR constraints | Booth 3318, they have 2 sessions |
| Mirantis sovereign AI team | Sovereign AI market intelligence | AI Executive Salon (Wed 7-10pm) |
| Any fintech compliance officer | Customer discovery for compliance AI | Financial Services Pavilion, G-Research drinks |
What to Watch For at the Keynote¶
Even watching the livestream, pay attention to these specific announcements that directly affect your opportunities:
| Announcement | Impact on Your Ideas |
|---|---|
| NemoClaw (open-source enterprise AI agent platform) | If comprehensive, it could commoditize the agent platform layer. If narrow (just NeMo + NIM), your compliance-specific agent still differentiates. |
| Fleet Command updates | Any model lifecycle features would validate the edge MLOps opportunity AND increase competition. |
| Jetson Thor production timeline | Affects edge AI market timing. Sooner = bigger addressable market for edge MLOps. |
| Sovereign AI announcements | NVIDIA has a dedicated sovereign AI track. Any new sovereign AI partnerships or tools affect the market landscape. |
| NVIDIA AI Enterprise pricing changes | Affects the cost structure of self-hosted AI deployments. Lower prices = bigger market, more competition. |
Evening Priority Stack¶
You can't attend everything. Here's the priority order based on your startup ideas:
| Priority | Event | Date | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI Executive Salon (Mirantis) | Wed 7-10pm | Sovereign AI executives. Highest-signal for compliance + sovereign positioning. |
| 2 | G-Research Networking Drinks | Tue 6-8pm | Financial services. Direct compliance AI customer discovery. |
| 3 | Physical AI Developer Meetup | Wed 7:30pm | Jetson community. Edge MLOps validation. (Conflicts with Mirantis -- choose based on which idea is stronger after 2 days.) |
| 4 | Physical AI Night | Mon 7-11pm | Edge/robotics VC + startup community. |
| 5 | Full Stack AI Dev Meetup | Tue 7:30pm | MLOps developer crowd. Edge MLOps + dev copilot validation. |
| 6 | Inception After-Party | Sun 10pm | Startup community warm-up. |
| 7 | Infra Security Lounge | Wed 10am-4pm | Daytime drop-in. Edge security + compliance infra. |
Post-GTC Actions (Week of March 23)¶
- Follow up within 48 hours with every meaningful contact. LinkedIn connection + specific reference to your conversation.
- Score your conversations using the Mom Test framework: commitments (intros, data sharing, pilot interest) vs compliments ("that's cool!"). Only commitments count.
- Update FINAL-SYNTHESIS.md with what you learned. Which ideas got stronger? Which got weaker? Did a new idea emerge?
- Decision gate: Based on GTC conversations + the validation roadmap, pick your path (A/B/C) and start building.
- Apply to NVIDIA Inception if you haven't already. The relationships you build at GTC are the warm intro.
Logistics¶
- Parking: Underground garage at convention center (Market St or S Almaden entrances). Almaden/Woz lot (1 block away) is cheaper.
- Keynote venue (SAP Center): 0.4 miles from convention center, walkable. You'll watch the livestream, not attend in person.
- Charging: Sparse in convention center. Bring a battery pack.
- Food: GTC Park has food trucks. No attendee lunch included with floor pass. Budget for eating out.
- Weather: San Jose mid-March: 55-68F, possible rain. Layer up for walking between venues.
Quick Reference: Booth Map¶
| Booth | Company | Relevance |
|---|---|---|
| #132 | Lanner Electronics | Jetson Thor robotic arm demo (edge AI showcase) |
| #136 | Rafay Systems | Governed multi-tenant AI platforms |
| #149 | AAEON | Jetson Orin + Thor hardware ecosystem |
| #169 | Texas Instruments | Physical AI at edge (new NVIDIA partnership) |
| #171 | Capgemini | Financial Services Pavilion (compliance AI customers) |
| #345 | NVIDIA | Main booth (Fleet Command, Inception, NVentures) |
| #1641 | Connect Tech | Jetson carrier boards + rugged edge solutions |
| #1737 | AVerMedia | Jetson Thor 3D perception demo |
| #1941 | Tulip | Industrial AI Pavilion |
| #3117 | Fortanix | Confidential/sovereign AI platform |
| #3119 | e-con Systems | Jetson Thor multi-camera vision |
| #3304 | SUSE | Sovereign AI infrastructure |
| #3318 | Booz Allen Hamilton | Defense AI (edge + security) |
| Kiosk 5 | Mistral AI | Enterprise open models (3-5pm slot) |
| Inception Pavilion | 55+ startups | Discovery sweep |