Looking Back on Midtown Day 2026
Tech Square helped close out Atlanta Tech Week this year with Midtown Day, a full slate of programming run through TSQ, the Biltmore Innovation Center, Studio B, ATDC, Georgia Tech, and other teams across the district, from Centergy and the Clubhouse to CODA and beyond.
The Tech Square Tech Hop, led by Kayli Harlan and the team at Georgia Tech's Office of Commercialization, kept Fifth Street busy as vendors, startups, research groups, and programs showcased their work. One theme kept surfacing: moving Atlanta companies through the pipeline from idea to market. Workshops and talks dug into how to get there, including ATDC's Track 5, "Signal to Spec: Turning Ideas into Build-Ready Products," a session on technical versus nontechnical founders, and events focused on building together and closing gaps for early-stage companies.
Below, you'll see some of the action our team captured.
Founder + Funder Jog
We started the day off bright and early just like last year with the Founder + Funder Jog at the Biltmore Innovation Center. Sponsored by local sports gear startup Bluubird & community group TrackCred, the jog brought everyone from the ecosystem together for a casual jog around the city just before the day’s events.
Building the Future Together: Partnerships Key to Success
At the Clubhouse, a panel discussion brought two familiar Tech Square presences to the panel table, Southwire's Kiran Manchiraju & Michael Powell and Quadrant-I's Richard Gruber, for a conversation on how strategic partnerships are reshaping the energy industry. The two dug into collaboration models, lessons from the field, and why joining forces across technology, academia, and startups has become essential to the next wave of energy innovation.
Tech Square Tech Hop
The second annual Tech Square Tech Hop turned five stops along Fifth Street into a free innovation block party, with live demos, startup exhibits, food samples from local entrepreneurs, and interactive experiences filling the corridor from research hubs to startup incubators. Attendees explored at their own pace, collected swag, and chased prizes for making it to every stop.
Built Different: Women Shaping Tech Now
At the Biltmore Innovation Center, another panel brought together four women founding, scaling, and leading across the industry, Neelima Ramaraju of OpenHI, Ember Fellowship's Eileen Lee, Auxilius president and COO Erin Warner Guill, and CREATE-X's Margaret Weniger, for a candid conversation on why this moment belongs to women in tech. They got real about the work it takes, from deals that fell through to the money talks that intimidate to the new skills an AI-forward industry demands.
Closing the gap: how startups get in, and what’s going on once they’re in
Later, Akshita Iyer and Hari Gopal took two vantage points on the same enterprise story. Iyer, a founder now sourcing startups for Fortune 500s at Tech Square Ventures, opened with what it actually takes for a startup and an enterprise to work together, while Gopal picked up from inside those companies, tracking how the line between customer and employee experience is disappearing and where AI, data, and workflow tools fit in.
Cox-Engage Founders & Investors Gelato Social
The Cox Enterprises and Engage ice cream social closed out the Centergy courtyard the way it should end, with no speakers, no agenda, just Atlanta's builders and investors gathering over gelato in the Tech Square Courtyard. It was a fitting cap for a jam packed day in the summer heat.
Standups & Startups
Much like last year, the day ended at the Clubhouse with Standups & Startups. Local comics took the stage, and the night wrapped with Pitches Get Stitches, where a volunteer takes a randomly generated business, think AI-powered origami, and turns it into a real company while the room plays judge.
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Photos & video courtesy of Jeremiah Rafferty and Trent Tomlinson