IT, Digital, Marketing and PR Events in Central Asia and the Caucasus: November 2026

November brings six industry events to five cities in five countries: Yerevan (Armenia, two events), Almaty (Kazakhstan), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Dushanbe (Tajikistan) and Baku (Azerbaijan).

Between them they cover most of the market: microelectronics and engineering, advertising and marketing, fintech and the digital economy, artificial intelligence, public-sector digitalisation and startup investment. Scale varies just as much, from an industry forum of 500+ participants in Almaty to a Yerevan conference that drew more than 30,000 visitors in 2025.

Here are all six in one place.

Event	City	Date	Who it is for
Silicon Mountains 2026	Yerevan	3–4 November	Microelectronics, engineering, startups and investors
RAF-2026	Almaty	11 November	Advertising agencies, marketing directors, media sellers
Tashkent Fintech International Forum	Tashkent	12–14 November	Banks, fintech companies, regulators
DigiTec 2026	Yerevan	20–22 November	AI companies, technology corporations, startups
International PLUS-Forum Digital Tajikistan	Dushanbe	26 November	Banks, retail, IT and telecom in Tajikistan
INMerge Innovation Summit 2026	Baku	30 November – 1 December	Corporations, investors and startups from the region

Silicon Mountains 2026

Armenia's technology summit and exhibition for investment, semiconductors and engineering. This year's theme is «Invest in Innovation». The organiser is the Union of Employers in the ICT Sector.

The format pairs a summit with an expo: more than 25 exhibition pavilions, 12 free startup spaces, a masterclass zone and three B2B meeting rooms. The International Microelectronics Forum and the final of the Microelectronics Olympiad run alongside. The organisers list 100+ international speakers and expect more than 1,000 summit participants and over 3,000 expo visitors.

Day one covers the opening, eight presentations, the Olympiad and networking. Day two is given over to the forum, again with eight presentations.

PR opportunities. The event has media partners (HI-JOB and job.am) and a digital marketing partner (GRANAT), and the website takes applications for media partnership. Journalist accreditation is not described on the page, so check with the organisers. For a company taking part, the obvious formats are an announcement of participation, a comment from the floor and a post-event release on the talk or the meetings held in the B2B rooms.

Date: 3–4 November, Yerevan, Dvin Music Hall
Link: https://silicon-mountains.org/

RAF-2026

The seventh annual forum of Central Asia's advertising, media and marketing industry, run by the Central Asian Advertising Association (CAAA). The organisers call it the industry's main event of the year: a place to discuss strategy, market forecasts and the agenda of the region's communications leaders.

It is a one-day event with plenary sessions, panels and workshops in two parallel tracks, 500+ participants and 40+ speakers. The audience is agency owners and senior managers, brand marketing directors, media sellers and regulators.

The programme includes the annual assessment of Kazakhstan's advertising market, an industry leaders' panel on company strategy, a GR session with government representatives, workshops on AdTech, data and measurement, and a networking session for association members.

PR opportunities. The forum page says nothing about media accreditation or a press centre; questions go to the organisers at [email protected]. With agency owners, brand marketing directors and regulators in the room, expert comment on the market assessment and post-panel interviews work well, and a PR agency in Kazakhstan can place them with the right local outlets. The GR session with government bodies is an opening for companies that need a dialogue with institutions. We prepare clients for such meetings and build their relationships with regulators under our «GR and institutional relations» service.

Date: 11 November, Almaty
Link: https://aaca.com.kz/events/raf-2026

Tashkent Fintech International Forum

Uzbekistan's international forum on fintech and the digital economy. The organisers describe it as Central Asia's leading international fintech event and expect more than 3,000 participants from 30+ countries. The exhibition covers 4,000 m² with 20+ exhibitors and 40+ sessions. It is organised by SAYS and MAXIFORUM.

The programme runs on six tracks: AI and emerging technologies, cybersecurity and digital trust, investment and innovation, financial technology, digital transformation of business, and industry and digital infrastructure. It brings together regulators, banks, fintech companies, technology corporations and investors, along with people from manufacturing, energy, telecom, retail, construction and healthcare.

Confirmed speakers include VTB Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova and UzPromStroiBank AI Director Sergey Kozlov. Entry to the exhibition is free; the business programme is paid.

PR opportunities. The forum website has a Press Centre section and a list of media partners, among them BSM and ICTONLINE. Those outlets are where a company can place speaker comments and a post-event release. Working with Uzbek business and trade media takes local PR experience; see our PR agency in Uzbekistan page for how we do it.

Date: 12–14 November, Tashkent, CAEx (Central Asian Expo)
Link: https://fintechforum.uz/

DigiTec 2026

A three-day artificial intelligence conference and expo billed as the «World's New AI Hub», spanning four regions: Europe, the Gulf, Central Asia and the United States. The organiser is the Union of Advanced Technology Enterprises of Armenia (UATE), founded in 2000 and representing more than 300 companies in the sector.

The 2026 concept puts five layers of AI in one hall: energy, chips and compute, infrastructure and data, models and training, applications and tools. The event grew out of a 2005 exhibition and was held together with the World Congress on IT (WCIT) in 2019 and 2024.

For scale, the organisers cite 2025 figures: more than 30,000 visitors, 200+ exhibitors, 100+ speakers, 84 companies in Startup Alley and participants from 30+ countries. The event page lists speakers from NVIDIA, Mozilla, Align Technology, OpenAI, UC Berkeley and Microchip. The exhibition is free for visitors; the conference and B2B meetings are paid.

PR opportunities. The DigiTec website has a «Join as Press» option: journalists are offered venue access, briefings and interviews with speakers and founders, with accreditation requested through an online form. For a company, that means a chance to set up an on-site interview or comment and follow with a post-event release. With speakers from NVIDIA, OpenAI and other technology companies on the bill, a stage like this does real work for an executive's personal brand: the CEO's name sits in the programme, announcements and coverage next to well-known companies, and the quotes and interviews feed later publications. We run this systematically under our «Executive personal branding» service.

Date: 20–22 November, Yerevan
Link: https://digitec.am/en-US/

International PLUS-Forum Digital Tajikistan

A forum on the digitalisation of Tajikistan's economy: government, finance and retail, IT and telecom. It is held with the support of the Government of Tajikistan, the Agency for Innovation and Digital Technologies, the Communications Service and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Alexander Grizov chairs the organising committee.

In 2025 the forum gathered more than 1,000 key participants, 250+ senior managers and 200+ sponsors and partners. Fees depend on the category: free for qualified bank and retail staff, EUR 350 for regional vendors, EUR 790 for participants from Russia and Belarus, and EUR 95 for online attendance. It is the main meeting point for companies entering the Tajik market or selling to its banks, retailers and telecom operators. If your company has no presence in Tajikistan yet, our Market Entry: entering the markets of Central Asia and the Caucasus service covers the preparation.

PR opportunities. Government officials and media attend in person free of charge, the website lists [email protected] for media partnership enquiries, and the rules for journalists are published in the Rules for Mass Media section. For companies entering Tajikistan, the forum is a natural occasion to introduce themselves to local business media.

Date: 26 November, Dushanbe, National Library of Tajikistan
Link: https://dt.plus-forum.com/en

INMerge Innovation Summit 2026

An innovation summit that positions Baku as a regional hub linking Azerbaijan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, MENA and Europe. Its motto is «One Platform. Every Voice. Infinite Possibilities».

The summit rests on three pillars: a regional innovation hub, a meeting point for corporations, investors, startups and government bodies, and support for the startup ecosystem. More than 1,000 companies are expected.

Speakers named on the website include Apple, Netflix and YouTube co-founders Steve Wozniak, Marc Randolph and Steve Chen, Nobel laureate Joel Mokyr, and representatives of Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe and TikTok. Sponsors include PASHA Bank, SOCAR, Trendyol, Binance, VISA and KPMG.

PR opportunities. The summit website carries no information on media accreditation or a press centre, so both need to be requested from the organisers. A line-up of Steve Wozniak, Marc Randolph, Steve Chen and Nobel laureate Joel Mokyr makes the summit a strong news hook in its own right. A slot in that programme strengthens an executive's personal brand, particularly when paired with our «Executive personal branding» service.

Date: 30 November – 1 December, Baku, Baku Convention Center
Link: https://inmerge.az/

How to turn event participation into PR

An event pays off in PR when the publications, the speaker and the newsroom outreach are prepared in advance.

Which Central Asia and Caucasus forums should you pick to launch a product?

It depends on the market, the audience and the goal. For Kazakhstan's advertising and media market, RAF-2026 in Almaty is the fit. For banks and fintech in Uzbekistan, it is the Tashkent Fintech International Forum. For banks, retail and telecom in Tajikistan, PLUS-Forum Digital Tajikistan in Dushanbe. AI companies should look at DigiTec in Yerevan, microelectronics companies at Silicon Mountains, and anyone looking for investors and partners across the Caucasus, Central Asia and MENA at INMerge in Baku. We start from the goal and the target audience, pick one or two events, and build the PR work around them before, during and after. For a market launch from scratch, that plan is part of Market Entry: entering the markets of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

How much does PR support for a conference cost?

It depends on the brief: how many events and markets, whether the speaker and media materials need preparing, how we work with editorial teams and how much post-event monitoring is needed. We price a project once we have discussed the purpose of taking part and the format of the company's presence. For a quote, describe the event and the task in our contact form.

What PR results does a conference deliver?

Editorial teams typically use several formats: expert comment on panel findings and research, speaker interviews, on-site reports, op-eds and post-event releases. The number of publications depends on the news hook, the speaker's standing and how well materials were prepared beforehand, so results are best judged on a set of metrics: number and quality of publications, reach, sentiment, share of voice and enquiries after the event. Examples of our PR campaigns are in the «Case studies» section.

How do you get coverage from an event?

The work starts several weeks out. Announcing your participation or talk in the media and on social networks ahead of time gets both the audience and journalists paying attention. During the event, comments given to journalists on the spot put the company into reports and round-ups. Afterwards, a post-event release goes out with the results: agreements, figures, conclusions. We prepare these materials and media activities under our «Press events» service.

How do you prepare a speaker for a talk and interviews?

A speaker needs key messages, answers to the questions journalists are likely to ask and a rehearsed talk. That lowers the risk of saying too much and raises the odds of being quoted. This is what our Media training is for.

How do you work with newsrooms in Yerevan, Tashkent or Dushanbe without a local office?

For a company with no office in the region, the hard part is contacts in local newsrooms and a feel for the audience's language and context. An «Outsourced press office» solves that: a news calendar, press releases and comments in response to journalists' requests. If the company is only now entering the market, the full communications package comes under Market Entry: entering the markets of Central Asia and the Caucasus.

How do you package event results so that ChatGPT and Perplexity cite them?

Post-event releases, speaker interviews and op-eds in the region's indexed business media can become sources for AI search. For your results to show up in AI-generated answers, the text should name the company, the speaker, the event, the market and the main points of the talk outright, and the publications should run in outlets that search engines trust. We handle this under our «PR for AI search (GEO)» service.

How to prepare for a forum: a timeline checklist

The basic sequence for a company planning to speak at or attend one of the November events.

4 weeks before: set the goal and the target audience, read the accreditation and media partnership terms on the organiser's website, and agree the topic of the talk and the key messages.

2 weeks before: prepare the speaker for the talk and interviews, and assemble the press kit: speaker biography, company description, key points and quotes.

1 week before: publish the announcement in the media and on social networks, arrange meetings and interviews with journalists, and prepare answers to the questions they are likely to ask.

On the day: record the talk in photos and video, give comments to journalists on the spot and post updates on social networks as the programme runs.

Within 1–2 days after: issue a post-event release with the results, meaning agreements, figures and conclusions, and send it to journalists.

Within 2 weeks after: write an op-ed or case study based on the event, check media mentions and follow up on the contacts you collected. We prepare the post-event report on reach, sentiment and share of voice under our «Monitoring and analytics» service.

Conclusions

PR in IT, and in B2B especially, runs on articles, work with bloggers and social networks, and engagement with the professional community. Conferences and forums are where that engagement happens: an industry forum brings contacts and a reason to publish, whether announcements, comments or results. To get the most from it, plan the PR work before, during and after the event, and choose the event to match your target market and audience. RAF in Almaty and the Tashkent forum fall on consecutive days, 11 and 12 November, so they fit into a single trip. Programmes, prices and participation terms are published on the official websites and may change.

Building a relevant event calendar and securing speaking slots is part of what we do for clients. To discuss your company's participation in the region's forums, get in touch.

Translated with an AI translator