TO26 Festival
Five days and 19 festival events across Melbourne CBD.
A week of meetups, open houses, coffee mornings, socials and one big conference day, built for founders, operators and the people who back them.
Meetups
Communities of practice gathering to compare notes over drinks, pizza, and post-its.
Open houses
Studios, agencies and ventures throw their doors open for a short window each.
Coffee mornings
Join revellers for conversation over coffee at one of our free coffee hubs across the city.
Social
Evening sessions: launches, long table dinners, the closing party.
Introducing Festival plus.
High-quality, curated events that are each incredible in their own right. A layer of headline talks, breakfasts and intimate sessions for people who want the very best of the week.
A Festival plus pass gets you unlimited access to all Festival plus events.
- Everything in free access
- Access to 19 premium sessions
- Exclusive workshops and panels
- Priority registration for limited sessions
Six festival events you shouldn’t miss.
From the festival curator: a small handful of sessions worth shifting your week around.
Debate: Co-worker, calculator, or chaos— What is AI's real role?
The robots are suddenly sitting in on our stand-ups. So, how are we supposed to treat them? Are they our new creative partner, our new master or just a chaotic, hallucinating copycat engine?In this fun debate, our speakers argue over how to treat AI in this ever-changing world. Expect bold statements, a few laughs at our own expense, and one big question: If AI is your favourite colleague, who is really running the show?Apply to participate
The Outlook Pub quiz
The Outlook Pub quiz is a loud, slightly unhinged trivia night for product people, designers, and leaders who want to argue about something that actually matters to them: roadmaps, redesigns, and ridiculous stakeholder decisions.Across fast‑paced rounds you will battle it out on everything from legendary launches and infamous UX crimes to “who said that?” leadership quotes, memeable product moments, and real‑world scenario questions pulled from the trenches. Winners walk away with Outlook conference tickets and bragging rights; everyone else gets a good story and maybe a deeply unserious consolation prize.Rounds spanning product lore, design delights/disasters, and leadership or bullshit.Music, meme, and mini‑challenge rounds to keep the chaos high and the energy up.Conference tickets, bar tabs, and “most chaotic team” nods to reward both brains and bravado.This is not a quiet quiz in the corner; it is a proper festival moment where the room gets loud, people yell at the screen, and teams bond over the strange shared language of shipping things with other humans. Come with a team, a terrible pun for a name, and a willingness to be both very right and very wrong in public.
Coffee morning - Monday
The Outlook Pitch night
A night for founders, builders, and the people shaping what’s next.As part of The Outlook conference, we’re creating space for early-stage and scaling teams to be seen, backed, and celebrated, with a $10,000 in cash prizes up for grabs. The Outlook Pitch night brings together startups, product leaders, investors, and operators for an evening of short, sharp pitches — and real conversations afterwards.You’ll hear from 8 standout startups, each pitching live on stage and taking questions from a panel of experienced judges.What to expect on the nightNetworking to start the evening (and again after the pitches).8 live pitches from startup/scale-up teams.Judges Q&A following each pitch.Audience voting for a People’s choice award.Winners announced + wrap-up, followed by drinks and conversation.Prize poolWe’re putting real fuel behind the winners:$10,000 total prize pool$8,000 Judges’ choice.$2,000 People’s choice.Pitch format 3 minutes to pitch.5 minutes judges Q&A.Four-judge panel.Strict timing on the night.Who it’s forFounders building products with a clear point of view.Investors and operators looking for the next wave of teams.Product, design, and leadership folks who want to meet builders in the ecosystem.How selection worksApplications are open for startup/scale-up teams. We’ll select a final lineup based on:Readiness to pitch live.A compelling story and product clarity.A diverse, high-quality mix of teams and perspectives.Apply to pitch
Come design with me
Come design with me is a live design critique show where four designers receive the exact same brief a few days before the festival, then step onto the stage to defend their response in front of a panel, an audience, and absolutely no hiding place.Inspired by the chaos of Come dine with me and remixed for product and design, each round begins with a designer walking through their thinking, trade-offs, and solution. Then the headphones go on.While the designer sits in silence, the panel dissects the work live on stage: what’s working, what feels unresolved, what they would push further, and where they completely disagree. Once the headphones come off, the designer gets their right of reply, defending decisions, clarifying intent, and revealing what they would change tomorrow.Four designers. One brief. Entirely different ways of thinking.Watch instincts clash with craft obsession, feasibility arguments collide with originality, and strong opinions emerge in real time. The audience scores alongside the panel, helping crown a winner while sharpening their own eye for critique, storytelling, and design decision-making.This is not a portfolio roast or a public takedown. It is a fast, high-energy look inside how modern teams critique work, navigate constraints, and talk through design under pressure.Expect strong opinions, bold choices, live tension, noise-cancelling headphones, and at least one designer quietly regretting every decision they made three days earlier.Think you can defend your design decisions live?Applications now open