Club Cedro, the Lebanese AI calendar

01 · What this is

Built in the order that actually works

There are Lebanese people building AI in Beirut, Dubai, Riyadh, Paris, London, Montreal and the Bay, and almost none of them know each other. You cannot introduce people you cannot find, so the first thing to build is the record, not the club.

01 · Now

The directory

Events first, because events are the part that is missing, dated, and easy to check. This page is that directory and it is the working half of the product today.

02 · Now, opening

The builders page

What Lebanese founders and teams have actually shipped, each with a link you can open. It opens with the honest number rather than a padded one.

03 · Later

Rooms, and the people in them

Once the list is worth checking weekly, it earns the right to put people in the same room. Meetups come from traffic, not from an announcement.

02 · The directory

The Lebanese AI calendar

Ten entries. Every one was opened and read by hand, not scraped and not taken from an aggregator. Where a date is not published, the entry says so rather than guessing one.

Confirmed Dates and venue published

Listed only where the organiser has put dates and a venue in public.

26 September 2026

Confirmed

AWS Community Day Lebanon 2026

A full day of AWS and cloud sessions run by the local user group rather than by a vendor, 9am to 4pm, described on the listing as a complimentary and inclusive event with a stated focus on startups. This is the strongest grassroots technical day currently on the Beirut calendar.

BDD 1280, Beirut Digital District
Bchara El Khoury, Beirut
In person
Free
Organiser: AWS User Group Lebanon

Source meetup.com/aws-ug-lb · checked 15 Sep 2026

8 to 10 October 2026

Confirmed

Experia, Interactive Innovation Expo

Published as Lebanon's first interactive innovation expo: startups, live demos, workshops, speakers and competitions under one roof. The Ministry of Technology and AI is named on the page under "With the Support of".

Forum de Beyrouth, Beirut
In person
Organiser: Promofair
Supported by the Ministry of Technology and AI

Source experiaexpo.com · checked 15 Sep 2026

14 to 16 October 2026

Confirmed

Bread and Net 2026

SMEX's annual digital rights gathering for West Asia and North Africa, run as an unconference: technologists, journalists, researchers and policymakers in the same room on how technology actually lands on people. The nearest thing Beirut has to a serious conversation about what gets built and who it costs. Dates and city are published, registration is not open yet.

Beirut
Venue not published
Organiser: SMEX
Registration not open

Source smex.org · checked 15 Sep 2026

On the radar Real, but no date in public yet

Live organisations and recurring formats we are watching. They move up the day dates go public. We would rather show an empty date than invent one.

No date published

Watching

GDG North Lebanon, Online Community Check-In

A free monthly online session co-hosted with GDG Coast Lebanon, and the most reliable recurring cadence we found anywhere in Lebanese tech. The last four ran in May on Supabase, June on backend and data, July on computer vision and August on AI operational efficiency. The page shows no September edition yet, so this is a cadence to watch rather than a date you can book today.

Online
Free
Monthly cadence
With GDG Coast Lebanon

Source gdg.community.dev · checked 15 Sep 2026 · last edition 22 Aug 2026, next unannounced

No date published

Watching

Startup Weekend Beirut, Artificial Intelligence Edition

The standard Startup Weekend shape, run locally: Friday night pitches, a weekend of building and testing, Sunday night demos to a panel. The listing is up and names a contact, part of the Global Startup Weekend AI run of cities. No dates are on the listing.

Beirut
Three day build
beirut@startupweekend.org

Source ihjoz.com · checked 15 Sep 2026 · no dates listed

No 2026 date published

Watching

LTAI, the Lebanon Technology and AI Summit

The government's own summit, run by the Office of the Minister of State for Technology and AI under the patronage of the President of the Council of Ministers. The 2025 edition ran on 7 November at AVA Venue in Achrafieh and was by invitation only, which is worth knowing before anyone plans a trip around it. The site still shows only that edition.

Beirut
By invitation only
Organiser: Office of the Minister of State for Technology and AI
2025 edition ran 7 November

Source aitechsummit.gov.lb · checked 15 Sep 2026 · 2025 edition only, no 2026 date

No 2026 date published

Watching

AI in Lebanon Conference

A five city format, Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, Zahle and Aley, run under the patronage of the Minister of State for Technology and AI and organised by Future 10X with The Eventalist and Loud Creations. The 2025 edition ran 21 to 26 July, with the Beirut leg at the MEA Training and Conferences Center. The site still shows the 2025 dates and its registration link is still live, so anything it says about dates is last year's.

Beirut, Tripoli, Sidon, Zahle, Aley
Five cities
Organisers: Future 10X, The Eventalist, Loud Creations

Source ailebanonconference.com · checked 15 Sep 2026 · site still shows 2025 dates

Already ran Kept, not deleted

A calendar that only shows the future tells you nothing about whether it has been maintained. These stay up.

28 to 30 August 2026

Done

LEBTECH 2026

Three days across AI, cybersecurity, fintech, digital transformation, blockchain, edtech and e-governance, published under the line "Shaping the Future of Tech in Lebanon and Beyond". Tickets are free, with hotel valet parking the only cost the organiser names.

Le Royal Hotel, Dbayeh
In person
Free entry
Organiser: Strawberry Agency

Source leb-tech.com · checked 15 Sep 2026 · a 2027 edition is teased on the site with no dates

30 June 2026

Cohort running

LAU Engine, the LAUNCH programme

Fifteen teams in the opening cohort of a sixteen week course run in four phases, on the Beirut campus, ending in an Invest Day and a three week residency in New York. Not an event you turn up to, but the intake is worth knowing about if you are building something and want a room around you.

LAU Beirut campus
Fifteen teams
Sixteen weeks, four phases
Invest Day plus a New York residency

Source news.lau.edu.lb · checked 15 Sep 2026

2026, date not published

Done

Lebanon's AI Agents Hackathon 2026

Published as the first nationwide hackathon where developers built AI agents against real Lebanese problems: environment, job hunting, crisis management, healthcare. Thirteen teams competed. Four of the entrants were seventeen years old, which is the part worth remembering.

Thirteen teams
Supportful with Develeb
Google for Developers, Build with AI

Source supportful.world · checked 11 Sep 2026

Open from Lebanon

International hackathons you can actually enter and get paid for

There are around a hundred and seventy open hackathons on Devpost at any moment. Almost none of them say whether somebody sitting in Beirut can take part, and none of them say whether the prize could ever reach a Lebanese bank account. We read the rules page and record both answers, and we sweep the list every week so what is here is open now. A large cash prize you cannot collect is worth less than a small one in credits. Entries tagged beginner friendly are the ones the organiser opens to first timers.

Deadline 30 September 2026

Confirmed Online

RevenueCat Shipaton 2026

The largest cash pool open on Devpost right now by a wide margin. You ship a real mobile app to the App Store, Google Play or the Samsung store with the RevenueCat SDK wired into purchases or ads, then submit it. Not a weekend project, and the store account and the SDK work are the real cost of entry, not the code.

Entry open to Lebanon Cash prize, needs a bank transfer $740,000 cash prize pool

The exclusion list names Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran and North Korea plus anywhere designated by the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Lebanon is not on it. Every prize here is cash, and the rules say a monetary prize is "mailed to the winning Entrant's address" or "sent electronically to the Entrant's bank account", so a seven hundred and forty thousand dollar pool is only worth whatever your banking arrangement can actually receive. Settle that question before you spend two months on it. You also need a published app on a store and the RevenueCat SDK inside it, which rules out anyone without a developer account.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Deadline 1 October 2026

Confirmed Online Beginner friendly

Global Innovation Build Challenge V2

A student build challenge open worldwide from middle school through university, minimum age thirteen. Individuals only, companies cannot enter as an entity. The largest prize pool currently open that a Lebanese entrant could realistically collect.

Entry open to Lebanon Prize is non cash, no bank needed $156,525+ (non cash, page figure 11 Sep 2026) prize pool

The rules say open to all countries except those excluded under Devpost's standard terms and sanctions law. Lebanon is not named anywhere in the exclusions. Every prize is non cash, made up of compute credits, course coupons, memberships and domains, so nothing has to pass through a Lebanese bank account. That is what makes this one unusually collectable from here.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Deadline 1 October 2026

Confirmed Online Beginner friendly

GatewayHacks 2026

A beginner friendly online hackathon open worldwide from high school students to professionals. Devpost shows a headline pool above a million dollars. The rules page shows eight thousand in cash and the rest is credits and domains, which is a better deal from Lebanon than it sounds, because credits do not need a bank.

Entry open to Lebanon Payout unclear $8,185 cash plus credits prize pool

The page says open to developers, designers and innovators worldwide, with no exclusion list and no age limit. Four cash awards of about two thousand dollars each, with no payment method stated. Every participant gets a hundred dollars of Momen credits, and the first hundred get a free domain and two hundred and ninety nine dollars of Tin Computer credits, none of which needs a bank account. A GitHub repository is optional, a five minute demo or pitch is required.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Deadline 5 October 2026

Confirmed Online

ML Empowerment Build Challenge 3.0

An online machine learning build challenge from the ML Empowerment Foundation, with a top ten and a participation tier that pays everybody who finishes. Small next to the headline hackathons, and a good deal easier to actually collect from Lebanon.

Entry open to Lebanon Prize is non cash, no bank needed $22,320 plus credits prize pool

The rules say "Participants from any location are welcome" and name no excluded country, so Lebanon is in. The part you can count on is non cash. Everyone who finishes gets roughly a hundred and eighty dollars in Momen, Featherless AI, Mobbin Pro and Blackbox credits, and the organiser states plainly that this package "cannot be exchanged or redeemed for cash", which is also why no bank account is needed to collect it. The top ten do get cash, but the rules never say how that cash is paid, so treat the credits as the real prize and the cash as unconfirmed.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Deadline 23 October 2026

Confirmed Online

Build, Ship, Shape: Amazon Developer Hackathon

Amazon's developer hackathon for AI and productivity apps, with a hundred and thirty eight thousand dollar pool across tracks and mini challenges. Individuals, teams and organisations can all enter, which is rare, so a small Lebanese studio can submit under its own name.

Entry open to Lebanon Cash prize, needs a bank transfer $138,000 prize pool

The exclusion list names Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran and North Korea plus any country under comprehensive US sanctions. Lebanon is not on it. Entrants must be of age where they live. Cash prizes are mailed or sent electronically to a bank account after the winner paperwork, so the money has to land somewhere that can receive a US transfer. You need a public GitHub repository with an open source licence and a demo video under three minutes.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Deadline 26 October 2026

Confirmed Online

OpenCV AI Competition 2026

The computer vision competition run by OpenCV itself. Twelve thousand dollars in cash across three overall places and two special awards, one for agentic vision. Open from age thirteen with a guardian, and the published rules name no excluded country at all.

Entry open to Lebanon Payout unclear $12,000 cash prize pool

No country exclusions appear in the rules and Lebanon is not mentioned. The rules say OpenCV sends prizes within thirty days of judging once eligibility and tax paperwork is complete, but do not say by what method, so ask them before you count on it. Submissions are a proposal, a report, a presentation or a video.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Deadline 30 October 2026

Confirmed Online Beginner friendly

Nebius x NVIDIA Global AI Hackathon

An online AI hackathon with seventy two thousand dollars in cash plus four NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano kits, tagged beginner friendly by the organiser. Twenty city awards of five hundred dollars sit under the main prizes, and one entrant may submit more than one substantially different project.

Entry open to Lebanon Cash prize, needs a bank transfer $72,600 plus hardware prize pool

Same exclusion wording as the Amazon hackathon: Brazil, Quebec, Russia, Crimea, Cuba, Iran, North Korea and comprehensively sanctioned countries. Lebanon is not named. Prizes are mailed or sent to a bank account. The repository must be public under Apache 2.0, MIT or MPL 2.0, with a README, a demo link and a video under three minutes on YouTube.

Rules read at the organiser's page · checked 15 Sep 2026

Verdicts are our reading of the published rules on the date shown, not legal advice. Rules change and sponsors add restrictions. Open the rules page yourself before you spend a weekend on it.

03 · Writing

What we think is actually going on

The calendar says when. These say why it matters. Same rule as everything else here: if a claim cannot be sourced, it does not get made.

Analysis · 11 Sep 2026

Follow the paperwork on Lebanese AI and it leads out of Lebanon

The register needed three tiers because one would have been a lie. Trace the registrations behind the Lebanese AI companies everyone cites and you arrive in Abu Dhabi, Vienna, Sharjah, Tokyo, New York, and a fund domiciled in Luxembourg.

4 min read The calendar · 11 Sep 2026

Lebanon's AI calendar has two dates you can actually book

Fourteen entries on the calendar today. Four have already happened, two carry no date at all, one is not open yet, and six are global hackathons that have nothing to do with being in Beirut.

4 min read Investigation · 6 Sep 2026

The nine times error

Every list of Lebanese AI startups in circulation names the same ten companies, and they all cite the same source. That source is a coding bootcamp's marketing blog, and its funding figures are wrong by a factor of nine.

5 min read Argument · 30 Aug 2026

What a united Lebanese collective is actually worth

Five point eight billion dollars reached Lebanon last year and almost none of it arrived as investment. The Irish and the Indians solved a version of this problem. Here is what it took, and what it would take here.

5 min read

What changed

Every edit, in the open

A calendar you cannot audit is just a claim. This is the recent history of the list, so you can judge for yourself whether anybody is still maintaining it.

15 Sep 2026 added RevenueCat Shipaton 2026. Rules read. Lebanon is not excluded, but every prize is paid by bank transfer and you need a published app with the RevenueCat SDK in it. Entries close 30 September.

15 Sep 2026 added ML Empowerment Build Challenge 3.0. Rules read. Open from any location, and the prize everyone gets is credits rather than cash, so no bank account is needed to collect it. Entries close 5 October.

15 Sep 2026 removed Agents for Humans Hackathon. The submission deadline passed on 14 September, so it has come off the international list.

15 Sep 2026 checked The whole calendar. Every Lebanese entry and all five remaining international rules pages reopened and read. No dates moved and no verdict changed. LEBTECH is now teasing a 2027 edition with no dates attached.

6 Sep 2026 added Three companies added to the record. Shelvz and Mouwaten on the Lebanon tier, Integral AI on the diaspora tier. Oreyeon opened and left off, and the reason published.

03 · The builders page

Events tell you when. Builders tell you what.

A calendar is only half the record. The other half is what Lebanese founders and teams have actually shipped, each entry with a link you can open and check yourself. Same rule as the calendar: if we cannot open it, it does not go up.

Open the builders page

04 · What we leave out

The rule this whole site stands on

Half the AI conferences you will find listed in Beirut are not real.

Search for AI conferences in Lebanon and you get pages of them, with names, dates and registration fees. A large share come from a handful of aggregator sites that publish the same generic event in a hundred cities, take a fee, and have no venue, no speakers and no organiser you can reach. Anyone who republishes them looks well stocked and is wasting your flight.

The rule here is simple. An entry needs a named organiser, a venue or a stated online format, and a page we can open and read. If those three are not there, it does not go up, however much better the calendar would look with it in. The same test decides what goes on the builders page.

A short true list beats a long false one. That is the whole reason this site exists, and it is the one thing that cannot be repaired if we get it wrong.

Ma btetla3 3a l list illa iza fina nfout 3ala l page w ne2raa.

05 · Submit

Send us an event we missed

Running something, or you turned up to something we missed. Missing an event is the only real way a calendar fails. Send it with a link and it goes up once we have opened the page ourselves.

Built something instead of running something. The builders page has its own form.

06 · Follow

Follow it, or be counted

Nothing to buy, nothing to sign up for, no membership. Two things are useful right now.

Follow the calendar

New entries and corrections go out on Instagram as they land. That is where the calendar moves between updates to this page.

@clubcedro.ai

Say where you are

If you are Lebanese and working in AI anywhere in the world, tell us the city. No pitch and no list to join yet. We want to see the shape of it before we start naming people.

Use the form above

Every AI room in Lebanon, and when it opens.

Built in the order that actually works

The directory

The builders page

Rooms, and the people in them

The Lebanese AI calendar

International hackathons you can actually enter and get paid for

What we think is actually going on

Follow the paperwork on Lebanese AI and it leads out of Lebanon

Lebanon's AI calendar has two dates you can actually book

The nine times error

What a united Lebanese collective is actually worth

Every edit, in the open

Events tell you when. Builders tell you what.

The rule this whole site stands on

Half the AI conferences you will find listed in Beirut are not real.

Send us an event we missed

Follow it, or be counted

Follow the calendar

Say where you are