AnitaB.org has cancelled the 2026 Grace Hopper Celebration, pulling the conference off the calendar just weeks before it was due to run Oct. 27-30 in Anaheim, California. For people who had already planned travel, rooms and schedules around the event, the notice turned a long-awaited conference into an urgent scramble for answers.
Cathy Hackl, who was set to MC the event, said she was stunned by how quickly it happened. “I’m in shock. The notice just came in,” she said, capturing the scramble that followed a decision announced close enough to the start date that attendees, speakers and corporate partners were left wondering what happens next.
The Grace Hopper Celebration has long been described as one of the biggest gatherings for women in tech, and this year it was also planned to supplement AI Training. That made the cancellation more than a calendar change. It cut short months of preparation tied to a conference many participants expected to use for networking, recruiting and visibility around AI.
What AnitaB.org did not explain is why the event was cancelled so late. That missing detail matters because the cancellation came just weeks before the conference was supposed to open, leaving practical questions hanging in the air. People who had booked travel now need to know about refunds, hotel arrangements and whether any virtual programming will replace the live event.
For now, the only clear answer is that the 2026 Grace Hopper Celebration will not happen in Anaheim as planned. The next thing readers need to know is whether AnitaB.org will spell out the reason for the cancellation and whether it will offer a replacement for the conference that so many had already built their October plans around.
