Top 5 Reasons Infrastructure Leaders Can't Afford to Miss the Bentley Tech Summit 2027

By Tomas Kellner

Key takeaways:

• AI is quickly reshaping how engineers work, and the Bentley Tech Summit is where the industry takes stock of what’s changing and where it could go next.
• Over 3,000 engineers, infrastructure owners, and software developers from across the world will be in Toronto to consider problems no single firm, or country, can solve alone.
• Bentley will launch new products, and users will be among the first to use them alongside Bentley experts—with the most valuable sessions focused on real projects.

The Bentley Tech Summit is launching in Toronto this April, and it will be the first user-focused conference from the company whose software helps engineers design, build, and operate much of the world’s infrastructure.

Bentley Systems has held the event internally since 2024, first for its own engineers, then with a handful of users invited to show Bentley staff how they use the software. Now the company is opening the doors to its entire user base. More than 3,000 people are expected to attend the conference, known as BTS, including executives and engineers from transportation, water, energy, cities and facilities, and ground-informed design.

The summit couldn’t come at a better time. Demand for resilient infrastructure has never been higher, and there aren’t enough engineers to meet that demand. As in other industries, AI is changing how the work gets done, and engineers are learning how to use it to work faster, operate more efficiently, and clear staffing and project bottlenecks.

Starting this spring, BTS will put users, partners, and Bentley product teams in one room, once a year, to compare notes and set direction. “This is something our users have asked for, for a long time: a dedicated event focused on the technology, on the product capabilities, on innovation,” said Nicholas Cumins, Bentley’s chief executive. “The pace of innovation is accelerating. It’s very important that we take the time, at least once a year, as an ecosystem to regroup.”

Here are the Top 5 reasons why infrastructure leaders can’t afford to miss the event:

1. Roadmap sessions bring together users and designers of Bentley software.

Engineering tools are changing fast, and it’s hard for users to keep up. That’s why BTS compresses a year of updates into three days, starting with roadmap sessions where Bentley teams lay out where their software is headed. The engineers who build the tools will be in these sessions alongside users, listening for problems and giving users a hand in shaping the software. “This is the conference where we’re going to lay out our plans for technology going forward,” Cumins said. “It’s important that there’s a very close feedback loop between our users, our partners, and our colleagues. That’s the ambition for the Tech Summit.” The whole industry stands to gain when the engineers who use the tools have a hand in shaping them. Susanne Trierscheid, Bentley’s vice president for modeling and facilities engineering, said the goal for her product teams is to put the tools in front of users and learn from them what happens: “Co-create, validate, and see them in action.”

2. BTS is the infrastructure sector’s largest hackathon.

When 3,000 people gather in one place, someone in the room has or will figure out a solution to a problem holding back your team—or maybe your entire firm. “There’s only so much one individual can know,” Trierscheid said. “Having people in one room, it’s more than just a meeting. There’s so much happening because you have discussions that you can never touch on in a planned meeting.”

3. The best lessons come from user stories.

The beating heart of BTS is powered by the conversations among attendees about how they got a difficult job done. During the event, software users will lead breakout sessions to explain their projects, focusing on both wins and misses. “You’re learning from people who have been there, done that, learned what worked and what hasn’t worked,” Cumins said. That was the idea from the beginning, said Andy Rahden, Bentley’s chief revenue officer. “How do we build a community of knowledgeable people who get together to discuss the challenges they’re having, and how they solve those challenges with Bentley technology,” he said. “That was the thought process.”

4. Technical sessions and workshops show how AI works in a real project.

The sessions go deep into how Bentley software works, how firms are putting it to use, and how AI runs through all of it. Hands-on workshops led by Bentley experts let practitioners work through real problems, not just watch a demo. “People have asked us so many times, ‘Can you do more hands-on training?’ So we’re going to provide a lot of that,” said Francois Valois, Bentley’s senior vice president for open applications and AI. “AI is going to be a big theme in 2027. This will be the prime event to learn more about it and see how we can all improve together.”

5. Attendees can try the latest software before it’s released.

Bentley Labs and the Experience Center will have the latest tools and features set up for testing during the summit. Bentley plans to announce new products at the event, and attendees will be among the first to work with the tools and explore how to use them in their own projects. “We have so many new things I’m so excited to announce next year,” Valois said. Rahden added that the software runs so deep that users need time away from the desk to explore it. “There’s so much value to learn about it and how it works and how it can be applied,” he said. “You really need the ability to sit down and focus and learn.”

The Bentley Tech Summit runs April 13-15, 2027, in Toronto. Space is limited, so sign up now to get notified when registration opens.