On September 19, 235 people came to Hunter College with no set agenda and built one together: 40 sessions on everything from AI accountability to the ants in the city’s smallest parks.

CityCamp 2026 arrived at a distinctive moment for the city. The room held two generations of civic technologists: people who grew up on command lines and email discussion lists, and people who entered the workforce after COVID without the meetups and mailing lists that once gave newcomers a way in. New York now has open government laws and practices, plus an unprecedented set of tools for building technology.

The work ahead is building community and shared practices that bridge those generations, carrying the habits of good-government elders into the technology of the future.