Rome tech events this week: a gasworks, the Senate and the Ara Pacis (23-29 October 2026)
Rome tech events 23-29 Oct: Maker Faire fills the Gazometro, the Senate hosts an AI conference, and our Maker Faire listing has two faults we can't fix.
A 1930s gasworks, the Senate, the Italian Banking Association's palazzo and the museum built around Augustus's altar. That's where the tech events in Rome are happening between Friday 23 and Thursday 29 October — thirteen of them, against the eight on this page last Friday. Rome is the youngest city on our site, so this is a hand-picked week rather than a complete one. It is also the week that makes the case for Rome: research institutes, regional funds and public institutions, all three in rooms you can walk into.
The big one: Maker Faire takes the Gazometro
Maker Faire Rome 2026 — The European Edition runs Friday to Sunday at the Gazometro Ostiense, its 14th edition: robotics and AI, AR/VR, IoT, digital fabrication, space, foodtech and circular economy across exhibitions, talks and workshops, with Eni as main partner and STMicroelectronics, Arduino and DigiKey among the gold partners.
<img src="https://joezfbehxxpcrpliygvo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/hero-images/event-rome-maker-faire-rome-2026-the-european-edition-1023.png" alt="Maker Faire Rome 2026 at the Gazometro Ostiense" class="w-full rounded-lg my-6" loading="lazy" />
Two things about our listing you should know before you go. Our page says 09:00. The official ticket page says 10:00 to 19:00, and a 13 euro face price. Our row shows "paid" with no figure and a start time we can't edit — the time field has no write path. And the English version of the listing is gone: both language twins were archived on 15 October without a reason recorded, and only the Italian one came back. So if you searched Maker Faire in English on our site and found nothing, that's the bug, not the city.
Inside the same gates, I-RIM 3D 2026 runs its eighth edition — the Italian Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines' annual conference, which this year adds a peer-reviewed paper track published in Springer's Proceedings in Advanced Robotics alongside the demos and the exhibition. Three days, paid, no figure on our row.
The week ahead, by the building it's in
The Gazometro, Friday. Besides Maker Faire and I-RIM, Building Companies from Research — the Technology Transfer Lazio Programme takes one hour in Aula 22 of the ISA pavilion at 14:30. It marks the opening of the programme's second call for proposals, with Regione Lazio vice president Roberta Angelilli presenting. If you run a spinout, this is the hour that pays for your weekend.
Tor Vergata, Saturday. Linux Day 2026 — Rome, 10:00 to 19:00 on the engineering campus, run by Roma2LUG. Demos, workshops and talks, pitched at beginners as much as veterans. No track list published yet.
The Ara Pacis, twice. Monday 26 at 14:00, Outpost Rome: Frontier Defence and Dual-Use Innovation Summit — a half-day from Ulixes Capital Partners with NATAM, which manages the NVM Venture Lazio Fund, part-funded by Regione Lazio. Massimo Artini, vice president of NATO's DIANA accelerator, is confirmed. Then Thursday 29 at 10:00, People, Ideas and Companies in the Age of Artificial Intelligence — two days of TED-format talks from The Next Agency, under the patronage of the Comune di Roma, and explicitly not a conference about the technology.
Palazzo Altieri and Binario F, Tuesday. Intelligenz-e: Being Human in the Age of AI at 17:00, two hours of public dialogue convened by the Fondazione Cortile dei Gentili and hosted by the Italian Banking Association, with the foundation's founder Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi on a panel mixed across finance, ethics, law, psychology and art. Ninety minutes later, SheTech Connections Rome at 18:30 by Termini: no panel, a Career Cocktail Canvas exercise led by Giulia Lotti.
Wednesday is the institutional day. Artificial Intelligence in the Service of Institutions and the Country, 09:00 in the Sala Caduti di Nassirya at Palazzo Madama, promoted by Senator Adriano Paroli: four talks on AI and the machinery of the state.
<img src="https://joezfbehxxpcrpliygvo.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/hero-images/event-rome-artificial-intelligence-in-the-service-of-institutions-and-the-country-1028.png" alt="Artificial Intelligence in the Service of Institutions and the Country at Palazzo Madama" class="w-full rounded-lg my-6" loading="lazy" />
At the same hour, I3 Instrument in the Sala Tirreno at Regione Lazio, where Lazio Innova and EISMEA go through who has actually won EU interregional innovation money and where Italian participation is thin — institutional greetings at 09:30. And Green Building Forum Italia 2026 at the Auditorium Parco della Musica on certification, digital twins and retrofit. The evening is Pitch, Investors & Spotlights at the Zest hub, 18:30: four startups, five minutes each, judged by Paolo Angelucci of AFP Capital, Luca Barboni, Pablo Docimo of 20V and Gianluca Comandini.
Talent Garden Ostiense, Thursday. Kaleidoscope AI #6, 18:30, sixth stop of Opening Future's national series: who owns an AI-generated image, and who owns model-written code.
Who should go where
Founders first this week. Friday afternoon at the Gazometro for the Technology Transfer Lazio call, then Wednesday evening at Zest. Two hours that put you in front of regional money and private money in the same week — Rome doesn't always offer that.
Investors. Outpost Rome on Monday. Dual-use is where Rome has a structural advantage over Milan, and the room is small and half institutional.
Builders. Linux Day at Tor Vergata on Saturday if you want hands on a keyboard, Kaleidoscope AI on Thursday if you want the IP question answered before your legal team asks it. Skip the AI-and-society panels this week unless the specific names draw you — there are three of them and they overlap.
First time in an institutional Rome room?
Palazzo Madama is a working parliament building; Palazzo Altieri is a bank's headquarters. Register in advance under the name on your ID, bring that ID, and arrive before the institutional greetings rather than during them — the saluti run first and the room settles after. Dress as you would for a client meeting.
Worth knowing
SiGMA World, 2 November, is off this page. We had it listed and spotlighted. The organiser's own notice restricts eligibility to licensed gambling operators and rejects non-operator applications, so there was nothing here for most readers to attend.
Eleven of this week's thirteen show no price, and the two marked paid show no figure either. Our intake stores a missing price as "free", so a free label on an institutional convegno means "nothing published", not "walk in". Registration still closes.
Lazio Innova, the single most reliable source of Rome events we have, publishes nothing after 28 October. So early November looks thinner than it is. The one we can already name: Criminal Law and Cybersecurity at Luiss on 5 November, which puts Leonardo's CEO, the National Cybersecurity Agency's deputy director general and the national anti-mafia prosecutor on one public panel. Registration is a public form; no price is published.
Across the network
Rome's Wednesday is institutional. Milan's is technical: Codemotion Conference Milan 2026, 28 and 29 October at Superstudio Più, 199 euro, Italy's largest developer conference. Full listings at anopenroom.com/milan.
One ask
Rome's calendar is the one we most want help with. Specifically: university seminars that never leave a department mailing list, Lazio Innova sessions announced less than a week out, and developer meetups that post only in a Telegram group. If you run or attend one, send it over and it goes on the Rome page. Thirteen this week, eight last week. The number moves when people tell us what we've missed.