Submitted by
Event
Location
Date
Attendees
Event Network used for
PopUp WiFi Solution
Slipstream + 5 x Workhorse
Event Overview
When The Midway’s house network couldn’t support a 500-person tech conference, Frontier Media brought in PopUp WiFi’s plug’n’play multi-carrier bonded cellular network to power guest access, exhibitor demos, and production for AUTONOMOUS 2026 — a one-day robotics and physical AI conference in San Francisco.
Background:
AUTONOMOUS: The Future of Robotics & Physical AI exists to bring the physical AI industry into one room for a single day. Robotics is having its breakout moment, but the people building it are scattered across warehouse automation, autonomous trucking, humanoids, agtech, and defense, and they rarely get in front of each other. Our mission was to create the one event where founders, operators, investors, and engineers across all of those verticals could compare notes, close deals, and pressure test where the field is actually headed rather than where the hype says it is.
AUTONOMOUS is a one-day conference at The Midway in San Francisco. We ran a full day of keynotes, fireside chats, and panels with 50+ speakers from companies like Skild AI, Field AI, Wayve, Symbotic, Dexterity, Sanctuary AI, Kodiak, Torc Robotics, and Serve Robotics. Around it, we ran an expo floor with live robot demos, structured networking throughout the day, and a closing happy hour.
The Midway is a great space but venue connectivity was not going to carry a 500 person tech conference, so we brought in PopUp WiFi as the primary network for the day. It covered attendee access across the main stage, expo floor, and networking areas, and it backed everything operationally critical: sponsor and exhibitor demos, our AV and production team, and attendee use
We assembled 50+ operator speakers, most of them founders and C-level, in about three months, prioritizing people actually shipping hardware over commentators discussing the space. Most robotics content lives inside academic conferences or giant trade shows where you lose a day walking a floor. We compressed it into one day, one venue, one room, so the hallway conversations are as valuable as the stage.
Producer’s Comments
“The Midway’s house network wasn’t built for a 500 person tech conference, so we needed to bring in our own. PopUp WiFi came up in our search for event connectivity vendors in the Bay Area and the quote and turnaround worked for our timeline. They’re a good option if you need to bring your own connectivity into a venue. Get clear upfront on expected concurrent device load and what coverage looks like across the full footprint, and make sure that’s specced against your actual headcount and movement through the venue.
If the internet didn’t work at our event, check in would have slowed, exhibitor demos that rely on a connection would have been limited, and attendees would have fallen back to cell service in a building where it isn’t reliable. It would have made the day rougher.
PopUp WiFi gave us a network on site that wasn’t dependent on the venue. Attendees, exhibitors, and our production team had a connection for the day, which is table stakes for an event where people are demoing hardware and posting from the floor.”
Rohan Salva | Owner | Frontier Media
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