The Nonprofit Technology Conference returns to Portland, Oregon, March 23–26, 2027, with a virtual program running alongside it. Every year the NTC changes based on what this community tells us, and this year several of those changes are substantial enough that we wanted to share them properly before registration reopens in October.
Here's what's different, and what's staying exactly where you left it.
An expanded virtual program
Since 2021, we've committed to an NTC you can join from anywhere, and this year, we are expanding the virtual NTC experience significantly.
We heard consistently that spreading virtual sessions across the same four days as the in-person conference made them hard to attend. So we've condensed the virtual educational program into a single day: Tuesday, March 23.
That day will carry a full slate of virtual sessions and, for the first time, a dedicated virtual keynote with its own speaker. Until now, virtual attendees have received a version of the in-person mainstage. Starting in 2027, the virtual program gets a mainstage of its own. In-person attendees will be able to access that keynote as well.
Virtual sponsored sessions are also changing. Rather than occupying agenda slots, they'll be available as on-demand content you can watch whenever it suits you. Virtual attendees will also be able to engage with each other through bespoke virtual engagement opportunities, as well as interact with in-person attendees through common discussion boards and interaction features on our conference platform.
The intent is a virtual NTC that is accessible and focused for people who want to join a virtual experience. Virtual registration remains priced well below in-person registration and we will continue to offer scholarships.
Session materials, available to everyone
Notes and recordings from both the in-person and virtual programs will be available to all attendees after the conference. Collaborative session notes have long outlived the conference itself — people return to them for years — and this extends to session recordings from both in-person and virtual experiences.
Accessibility shapes how we plan the NTC, online and in Portland alike. Expanded access to recordings is one result of that, and the more compact venue layout described below is another.
In Portland, everything on one floor
We're glad to be back in Portland, where we've had good experiences working with local vendors and the Oregon Convention Center.
To expand we've reorganized how we use the space so that everything sits on a single floor at one end of the building. No more crossing the venue between sessions. It's a small change that makes a real difference to the parts of the NTC that matter most: moving easily from session to session, finding a lounge when you need quiet, running into someone you've been meaning to talk to.
Tuesday, March 23 is a full day in Portland too. Pre-conference sessions run during the day, offering in-depth content from our partners. Badge pickup opens, and the evening brings our welcome reception, with programming on the mainstage, food, and a chance to meet with sponsors and tech vendors before the conference proper begins on Wednesday.
A new approach to presenter materials
We're piloting a presentation management platform for sessions.
Presenters will upload their session materials to a central hub ahead of time, and those materials will be loaded and waiting on the computer in their session room. Last-minute changes on-site are supported. No dongles, no laptop swaps, no hunting for the right adapter while a room full of people watches.
This is also what makes audio recordings of in-person sessions possible, capturing session audio synced to slides so we can add those recordings to the platform afterward.
We're building our own conference platform
Returning attendees know that we've used external event platforms for our conference, resulting in retrofitting our offerings to platform features. So this year we're building it ourselves, designed around how this conference actually works.
You'll get an agenda you can filter and search, a personal schedule that follows you from your laptop to your phone without vanishing when you log out, attendee profiles you can search, and granular privacy controls.
For 27NTC, it will be a mobile-responsive website you can save to your phone's home screen, rather than a native app. We're building it through summer and fall, and we’ll leave room for feedback so you can help us build on it each year.
What isn't changing
The core of the NTC is the same. The educational sessions are still the heart of the program. They're proposed by this community and selected by this community, and they're taught by people doing the same work you do, under the same budgets and constraints. That's why the advice tends to be usable.
Sponsor tables, Connect hubs, and User feedback rooms are where many attendees find the tools and services they end up adopting. You can ask the people who build nonprofit software or work with organizations just like yours direct questions and get advice right in the moment.
Then there's everything around the sessions, which is what most people name first when they explain why they come back: Birds of a Feather tables at lunch, dine-arounds at Portland restaurants, affinity lounges and quiet rooms, attendee-led events, and the hallway conversations with people who understand your job without needing it explained.
What to do now
Session proposals open September 1, 2026. You'll be able to propose for either the in-person or the virtual program. If you've been thinking about teaching something, that's your date. Sign up for the information session on September 1.
Registration reopens on October 13, 2026. Subscribe to NTEN's emails and we'll make sure you hear about it, along with deadlines and announcements as they land.
We can't wait to see you in March.
Admin NTEN
NTEN
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