/ About this event
##Securing the Agentic Era
A Conversation on AI Capabilities, Real-Time Search, and Software Security
📅 October 9, 2026 🕠 5:30–8:30 PM · Pacific Time 📍 San Francisco
Presented by Querit. Hosted by PopPopTech.
A compelling AI demo wins attention. A dependable AI product earns customers.
What bridges the gap?
Join founders, engineers, researchers, security professionals and investors for an evening of keynotes, panel discussions and networking exploring what it takes to build AI people can rely on.
We’ll connect three essential questions: What can AI do? Where does it get its information? And how do we secure the software built around it?
Whether you’re building a coding agent, a research assistant or an enterprise AI application, come explore the decisions that turn model capabilities into useful, trustworthy products.
💡 Inside the Conversation
🧠 AI Capabilities Understanding what models can do, where they fall short and how to evaluate their performance on real tasks.
🔎 Real-Time Search Connecting AI to current external information—and examining the relevance, sources and limitations of what it finds. This is where Querit fits into the conversation.
🛡️ Software Security Identifying and managing risks in AI-generated code, third-party dependencies and the tools agents can access.
🚀 From Prototype to Customer Adoption What founders need to demonstrate before users—and enterprise customers—trust AI with meaningful work.
🎤 Keynotes Querit Keynote: Beyond Model Knowledge—Connecting AI to the Live Web
What should an AI product do when the answer depends on something that changed this morning?
Querit will explore how real-time web search brings current external information into LLM and agent workflows, with examples relevant to research, developer tools and AI-native applications.
Guest Keynote: From Model Capability to Product Reliability
A practical look at the gap between what AI can demonstrate and what users can consistently depend on.
Guest speaker and final session details to be announced.
💬 Two Featured Panels Panel 1 — Before an Agent Acts: Context, Verification & Security
When AI can search, generate code and use tools, how do we decide when to trust its next step?
The discussion connects model capabilities, real-time search and software security:
When should an agent search rather than rely on model knowledge? How should it handle outdated, conflicting or untrusted information? How should teams check generated code and dependencies? Which actions require restricted permissions or human approval? Panel 2 — From Impressive Demo to Paying Customers: What Makes AI Worth Adopting?
For founders, reliability is also a business question. What makes customers move from experimenting with an AI product to relying on it?
Discussion topics include:
What evidence earns customer confidence? How should startups balance speed, cost and reliability? Where can founders build differentiation beyond the model? What makes an AI product ready for enterprise adoption? How do investors assess defensibility and lasting customer value?
Speakers and investors will be announced as participation is confirmed.
🗓️ Agenda
All times are Pacific Time.
5:30–6:00 PM — Registration & Welcome Networking Check in and meet fellow founders, engineers and investors.
6:00–6:05 PM — Welcome by PopPopTech Introducing the evening’s themes and speakers.
6:05–6:20 PM — Keynote 1 · Querit Beyond Model Knowledge: Connecting AI to the Live Web.
6:20–6:35 PM — Keynote 2 · Guest Speaker From Model Capability to Product Reliability.
6:35–6:40 PM — Panel Transition
6:40–7:10 PM — Panel 1 + Audience Q&A Before an Agent Acts: Context, Verification & Security.
7:10–7:15 PM — Short Break
7:15–7:45 PM — Panel 2 + Audience Q&A From Impressive Demo to Paying Customers: What Makes AI Worth Adopting?
7:45–8:30 PM — Social & Founder Networking Continue the conversation with speakers, founders, builders and investors.
🤝 Who You’ll Meet AI-native startup founders Coding-agent, AI IDE and developer-tool teams AI engineers and researchers Search, retrieval and agent-infrastructure teams Application-security and enterprise engineering professionals Venture investors exploring AI products and infrastructure 🎟️ Registration
Registration is subject to approval. Please include your company, role and LinkedIn profile.
Bring a question about the AI product you’re building. Leave with fresh perspectives and people to keep the conversation going.
About Querit Querit is a real-time web search API built for LLMs and AI agents, helping applications access fresh external information.
Presented by Querit. Hosted by PopPopTech.
**This event is a part of #SFTechWeek—a week of events hosted by VCs and startups to bring together the tech ecosystem. Learn more at [www.tech-week.com](http://www.tech-week.com)**
