Why I'm Skipping GHC 2026

Every year, tens of thousands of women in tech descend on one city for a few days, and for a few days, the world feels a little different. The energy is electric. The conversations are real. You walk into a room and look around and think: finally, a room that looks like me. I've been hooked on that feeling since the first time I attended Grace Hopper Celebration, and every time I've gone back, it's delivered.

This year, I won't be there.

Let me start with the part that doesn't change: I am absolutely, completely, unreservedly obsessed with GHC. I love everything about it. The sessions, the career fair chaos, the hallway conversations that turn into genuine friendships, the keynotes that make you feel like you can do anything. When the announcement came out that GHC 2026 would be in Anaheim, I screamed a little. A little. Okay, maybe more than a little.

And for years now, I've had a dream sitting quietly in the back of my head: speaking at GHC. I've been rejected twice. I'm still going for it. That dream hasn't gone anywhere.

So no, the reason I'm skipping GHC 2026 isn't burnout. It isn't budget. It isn't a scheduling conflict.

I'm having a baby.

Specifically, I'm having a girl, and her due date is October 2nd.

GHC is at the end of October. You can do the math. There is absolutely no version of reality in which I am packing a conference bag three to four weeks postpartum and flying to Anaheim. I've done a lot of ambitious things in my life, but I do have some limits.

A Moment of Honesty

I'll be real with you, because I'm always real with you: I'm a little sad about it.

In the five times I've attended GHC, it has consistently been one of those experiences that recharges me in a way that almost nothing else does. It's the one place I feel the collective weight of being a woman in tech lift, even temporarily. It's a reminder that we are not isolated. We are a community, a loud and brilliant and tenacious one. Missing that is genuinely hard to sit with.

I also think about everything I won't get to do this year. The sessions I won't attend. The speakers I won't hear live. The people I would have met who might have changed the direction of something in my career. You never quite know what you're missing until you've already missed it, and with GHC, the missing always feels significant.

But I also know, with absolute certainty, that I'll be doing something more important to me.

What I Will Be Doing for GHC

Just because I can't be in Anaheim doesn't mean I'm completely disappearing before October. I'll be answering questions, sharing advice, and putting out content in the lead-up to the conference for anyone who's attending, especially if it's your first time.

I've been to GHC enough times to have real opinions about things like how to actually use the career fair strategically (hint: it's not about collecting as many business cards as you can), how to pick sessions without overwhelming yourself, and how to make the most of the networking opportunities that happen outside the scheduled programming.

If you have questions, ask them. Seriously. Drop them in the comments, send them on Instagram, message me on LinkedIn. I'll answer what I can while I can.

Because come October, I will be thoroughly, completely, joyfully offline.

See You at GHC 2027

There's something kind of poetic about skipping the year GHC is in Anaheim, close enough to feel personally offensive, but I genuinely cannot wait to bring that dream back around next year. And who knows, maybe by then I'll finally get a speaking slot. My daughter is going to grow up hearing that her mom keeps trying, keeps getting rejected, and keeps submitting anyway. Might as well start modeling that early.

To everyone heading to Anaheim this fall: go big. Have the conversations that feel scary. Introduce yourself to the panelist you're nervous to talk to. Sit next to a stranger at lunch. Collect one meaningful connection over a hundred surface-level ones.

I'll be cheering you on from the considerably less glamorous but significantly more life-changing location of my own home, with a brand new tiny human who apparently has terrible timing and absolutely no respect for conference season.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Questions about GHC? Drop them below or find me on LinkedIn and @code_with_kate. I'll be around and answering until October does its thing.