Lewis CaliburnThe Z-Wave Alliance, the standards development organisation dedicated to advancing the smart home and Z-Wave technology, has announced the schedule of events for the Z-Wave Spring Summit 2026.
Taking place May 27-29, 2026, in Vienna, Austria, this event brings together leaders from across the entire Z-Wave ecosystem for three days of collaboration, discussion, planning, testing, networking and education.
The upcoming Z-Wave Spring Summit will feature a comprehensive schedule including a dedicated Unplug Fest, fireside chat sessions, marketing and technical working tracks, interactive panels and a range of social and networking opportunities designed to unify the Z-Wave community.
The Z-Wave Spring Summit kicks off with Unplug Fest, the Alliance’s hands-on interoperability testing ground, refined for 2026 to focus on real-world deployment scenarios and large-scale network performance.
This year’s event centres on the simultaneous operation of Z-Wave mesh and Z-Wave Long Range (ZWLR) networks within a live environment, demonstrating how diverse device types and network topologies can seamlessly coexist. Participants will test new and recently certified devices in dynamic conditions, reinforcing Z-Wave’s reliability at scale.
Live demonstrations will highlight key capabilities, including simultaneous mesh and ZWLR operation on a single network, multiple networks operating in parallel in dense environments,
SmartStart commissioning for rapid, QR-based device onboarding, Dynamic routing and Explorer Frames for automatic optimisation and Multicast control for synchronised low-latency device response.
While interoperability testing remains exclusive to members, select demonstrations during the Unplug Fest portion of the Spring Summit will be open to installers and non-members, offering a first-hand look at Z-Wave’s performance, scalability and ease of deployment.
Following Unplug Fest, the Summit opens with a full day of joint sessions designed to explore key industry trends and showcase the strength of the Z-Wave ecosystem. This portion of the event is open to Z-Wave Alliance members, as well as installers, developers and non-members interested in working with Z-Wave.
The first day of sessions begins with a welcome address from Chairman Avi Rosenthal outlining the Alliance’s direction and key opportunities ahead, followed immediately by a member-driven fireside chat discussing the evolution of Z-Wave and the role of collaboration in driving the ecosystem forward. The day one agenda will also include sessions that address the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), cover emerging innovations such as the Z-Wave Wake on Event End Node (WOEEN) role type, discuss the intersection between AI and the future of the intelligent home and reveal key market trends and insights.
The Summit concludes with a full day of member-exclusive working sessions across technical and marketing tracks, focused on advancing the Z-Wave ecosystem from both a product and market perspective.
The full agenda, including sessions start times, titles, and proposed speakers is available on the Z-Wave Alliance website.
Z-Wave Alliance members can take advantage of early bird registration for $399 USD through April 30, 2026. Beginning May 1, standard registration for the Spring Summit and Unplug Fest will be $599 USD. Installers, integrators and non-member companies interested in developing with Z-Wave can register for $99 USD, which includes access to select Unplug Fest demonstrations showcasing Z-Wave in action on May 27th and the joint sessions on May 28th. Reference the posted agenda to see which sessions are available to non-member attendees.
Registration for the Z-Wave Spring Summit & Unplug Fest is available via this direct link.
The Z-Wave Alliance’s Spring Summit sponsors are MK Logic (Gold), Silicon Labs (Gold), Trident IoT (Gold), Vision (Gold), Zooz (Gold), Aeotec (Unplug Fest Sponsor) and BlueConnect Partners (Break Sponsor).