April 25, 2026 · Frontier Tower, San Francisco
SF AI & Democracy Unconference
We the people, take action
What would your dream community, country, and democracy be like?
What if that wasn’t so far off?
Our democracy in the US is far from perfect, and at the same time it has provided us with so so much. While there’s plenty of talk about how it’s broken, there’s less talk about what we can do about it, and what we actually want it to become.
No matter what you care about, affordability, climate and regeneration, housing, jobs, peace and justice, healthcare, education, individual rights and freedom, or otherwise, all of that and more flows through us protecting, strengthening, and revitalizing our democracy.
So we gathered at Frontier Tower in San Francisco, a 16-story “vertical village”, innovation hub, and “community democracy in formation” that once served as the Burning Man headquarters, for community building, good food, and designing the future that we’re going to co-create through our collective action.
We are the city council members we’ve been waiting for.
What’s an unconference, and why this format?
An unconference is a gathering where the participants co-create the agenda at the start of the event, with an emphasis on participatory discussions more than presentations or panels. It makes much better use of the capabilities, intellect, and creativity of the people in the room than traditional conference formats.
Sessions were action and solution oriented, with a notetaker in each to share findings for collective harvesting, plus a few framing lightning talks to help us learn, reflect, and envision the next phase of our democracy.
The day was designed to help us:
- Connect with each other, and strengthen our communities of shared interests.
- Make sense of the fuzzy situation we’re in, what’s going on, and what we can do about it.
- Identify pathways for action, things we can do that can have an impact.
The day
- 9:00 amCoffee, snacks and connection time. Getting settled, grabbing a coffee, meeting some people.
- 10:00 amKickoff, opening circle and lightning talks. Rapid-fire framing talks from speakers across SF City Government, UC Berkeley, One Fair Wage, Indivisible, StopAI, Hope for Democracy, Bloom Project / Engaged California, Frontier Tower, and more.
- 11am – 4pmUnconference rounds and lunch. Participant-led sessions, co-created at the start of the day. Action oriented, with a notetaker in each session and findings harvested together.
- 4:00 pmHarvest, closing circle and announcements. What did we learn? What are we committing to? What’s next?
- 5 – 8pm“Joy as Resistance” happy hour dance party. Because democracy should be both serious, and seriously fun.
Lightning talks
Speakers from across the Bay Area and beyond, each bringing a different angle on the AI and democracy moment we’re in, and what we can do about it.
SF City Government
Local democracy & civic leadership
UC Berkeley
Research & academia
One Fair Wage
Economic justice & worker power
Indivisible
Grassroots organizing
StopAI
AI accountability & risk
Hope for Democracy
Democracy startup
Bloom Project / Engaged California
Civic engagement
Frontier Tower
Community & innovation hub
Why people came
“Whatever you care about most – climate, housing, healthcare, education, economic justice – there’s one thing all of those have in common. Every single one of them requires us to work together. And right now, that’s exactly what’s at risk. Democracy is the solution, and we need to build and sustain that, together.”
Principal, Collaboration Arts · Partner, Community Dialogue Partners · Founding Member, East Bay Civic Hub
“There are hundreds of amazing civic initiatives around the country. People want a thriving society with high levels of trust locally and nationally. Join us at Build our Next Democracy, and let’s figure out how to do this at scale.”
Co-founder, MoveOn.org, LivingRoomConversations.org, and MomsRising.org
“This isn’t a time for shouting from the sidelines. There’s no time for that. If you care about the future of humanity, get involved in building it. Join us at Next Democracy and at Frontier Tower, and let’s build that human-centered future together.”
AI for Human Progress
“We as citizens have so much more ability to influence our shared destiny than most of us appreciate. We need to remind ourselves that we are the overseers of our democracy, that we need to reassert ourselves in that role. Join us at the Next Democracy Unconference as we connect, learn, set plans to do that.”
Co-founder, Democracy Week and Bloom.pm
Our partners
Thank you to the partners who helped make the day happen.
The Democracy Unconference is cyclical, and coming to a town near you
There’s no time to waste, we have important work to do, and one-off events (or annual events) won’t get it done.
We’re planning more unconferences, hackathons, accelerators and more, in the SF Bay Area, online, and with partners elsewhere in the US, as part of Democracy Week. We’re still compiling notes and key takeaways from April 25, and will share more here soon.
Interested in joining or collaborating? Please reach out at partner@democracyweek.net, or sign up for the newsletter.