Founder narrative locked T-30 to T-7.
Deliverables (3)
- ▸T-30 to T-7
- ▸30-account cluster
- ▸Paper-track intro engineering


FORKOFF NeurIPS activation is a 14-day operating cycle for AI/ML researcher-founders, applied-AI startups, and frontier-lab-adjacent recruiting teams shipping into the AI research ecosystem. Pre-event paper-track narrative, on-site workshop cadence, post-event citation compounding, audit-tracked outcomes.
Most labs sponsor a NeurIPS booth and watch it drown. Some host a recruiting dinner and bounce. FORKOFF runs the NeurIPS week as a 14-day operating cycle.
Anonymized post-engagement. Names surfaced are NeurIPS 2025 ecosystem operators FORKOFF either ran intros into or co-attended workshop sessions with.
The AI research ecosystem compounds in ways no other AI conference week does. 15k attendees plus paper-track density plus frontier-lab recruiter presence plus applied-AI founder concentration inside one 6-day window.
AI/ML researchers + applied-AI builders + frontier-lab recruiters concentrated across the San Diego Convention Center plus the workshop-day circuit.
Frontier labs, applied-AI startups, and big-tech recruiters all in-market across the same 144-hour window.
Workshop days make researcher-founders reachable.
AI Twitter and arxiv-adjacent press cluster compound on residual.
The week breaks into a main-conference paper-track at the San Diego Convention Center, a workshop-day circuit running parallel, and an applied-AI recruiting dinner web. Activating well means picking the right stripe of the week.
Dec 7-12, 2026
Main stage at the San Diego Convention Center. Workshop-day circuit at adjacent Marriott + Hilton venues. Applied-AI recruiting dinners concentrated in the Gaslamp Quarter + the Embarcadero. Vancouver retained as historical-alternate venue per NeurIPS Foundation rotation.
15,000+ in 2025: 44% AI/ML researchers + PhD students, 24% applied-AI startup founders + builders, 18% frontier-lab + big-tech recruiters, 14% press + analysts + KOLs.
Where the buyer-relevant rooms live. Pick 2 max for any single activation week.
Two prior cycles run on the FORKOFF audit ledger. Applied-AI lab paper-drop narrative, AI infra recruiting funnel pre-build. Both ledger entries delivered within T+30 of close.
Six days across the San Diego Convention Center main stage, the workshop-day circuit, and the applied-AI recruiting dinner web. Pre-event paper-track narrative, daily on-site cadence, post-event citation cascade. One operator carries every phase. Every phase closes with a ledger entry.
Founder narrative locked T-30 to T-7.
Daily founder posts from the convention center, Mon-Sat of NeurIPS week.
On-site AI Twitter and frontier-lab-adjacent KOLs activated through bot-screened placements.
Clip cadence compounds T+1 to T+30.
Strategy 12 weeks out. Production 4 weeks out. Execution event week. Compounding 30 days post. Each phase closes with a ledger entry.
Sample schedule for a Standard-tier engagement. Tier-specific deliverables shown in the next section.
| Day | Date | Motion | FORKOFF owns |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun (D-1) | Dec 6, 2026 | Land in San Diego · pre-event applied-AI recruiting dinner setup | Venue + invite list + intro choreography |
| Mon | Dec 7 | Opening day attendance · founder posts from main stage | Daily post + on-site clip cadence |
| Tue | Dec 8 | Paper-track 1:1s · ICP-account meetings · workshop-day adjacency | Meeting calendar + paper-track intro routing |
| Wed | Dec 9 | FORKOFF side event (recruiting dinner / panel / researcher discussion) | Production + KOL invites + recording |
| Thu | Dec 10 | On-site podcast recording day · 3-4 researcher interviews | Studio + production + same-week clip pipeline |
| Fri | Dec 11 | KOL placements live · workshop-day adjacency closes | KOL ledger + per-post tracking |
| Sat | Dec 12 | Founder thread recap of week · AI Twitter cluster reciprocation | Thread craft + cluster activation |
| Sun (D+7) | Dec 13 | Departure · post-event clip cascade live | Distribution sequencing + audit ledger weekly |
Three NeurIPS-circuit campaigns, three lanes: pre-launch researcher pipeline, applied-AI recruiting funnel, post-event citation compounding.
Pre-event narrative across 14 days locked the lab's positioning around the paper drop before the cluster landed in San Diego. Workshop-day adjacency + podcast recording fed a 14-clip post-event cadence. Audit ledger closed T+30 with qualified-researcher-intro math.


Single-track Lite tier: 14-day pre-event narrative + 1 on-site podcast recording timed to the founder's recruiting funnel announcement. Audit-ledger entry shipped T+14 with the qualified-researcher-intro list surfaced before the founder landed in San Diego.

Workshop-day production across 2 adjacent venues + 5 podcast recordings on-site. AI Twitter cluster activated for 30 days post-event. Sponsor-grade activation for an applied-AI lab roster, audit close T+60.
14-day pre-event narrative + 30-account researcher-aligned ICP map + qualified-intro list shipped before you land in San Diego. If we do not deliver the intro list inside 14 days, the $5,000 comes back.
FORKOFF runs the only NeurIPS activation we have seen built around a 14-day operating cycle, not a poster-session booth. The audit ledger told us exactly which researcher intros compounded into our recruiting funnel.
Founder · Applied AI lab
NeurIPS 2025 standard tier · workshop-day adjacency
Two weeks of pre-event narrative + 30-account researcher-aligned cluster activation + NeurIPS-specific intro engineering. You leave with the audit ledger of qualified researcher intros surfaced before you land in San Diego. Lite tier scopes a single track. Selective on ICP, capped per quarter.
Receipt-by-receipt, on the same five dimensions every buyer asks about. No tier shell games, no asterisks.
| Feature | FORKOFF activationOutcome-priced | DIY booth + sponsorLogo on banner | Traditional PR firmPress retainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Outcome-priced. Per-event commit. $5K to $40K tier band. | Booth fee plus AV plus founder hours. Often $40K plus before any sourced researcher intro. | Monthly retainer regardless of event outcome. $10K to $25K per month. |
| Pre-event narrative | 30-day researcher-founder cluster activation plus 30-account paper-track intro engineering | Tweet announcing booth and poster number two days before | Press release embargoed until paper-track day |
| On-site cadence | Daily founder posts, workshop-day adjacency, applied-AI recruiting dinner, KOL placements | Founder behind a poster, hopes the right reviewer walks past | Press wrangling around the keynote, no operating cadence on-site |
| Post-event compounding | 30-day clip cascade plus citation-aligned ledger sourced from researcher network | Folder of paper photos and a vague Slack debrief from the airport | Coverage clipping report, often disconnected from researcher-aligned pipeline |
| Audit ledger receipt | Signed by operator, qualified-intro math, T+30 close | Whatever the founder remembers from the poster session | Vanity coverage report, no researcher-network math |
All tiers carry the audit ledger + qualified-intro reporting. Tier scales scope, not philosophy.
$5,000 to $10,000
By application
By application
Dec 2026 · Las Vegas · Standard tier $15K to $25K
Sep 2026 · San Francisco · Standard tier $15K to $25K
Sep 2026 · Boston · Standard tier $15K to $25K
Sep 2026 · Seoul · Standard tier $15K to $25K
Oct 2026 · Singapore · Standard tier $15K to $25K
NeurIPS is the Conference and Workshop on Neural Information Processing Systems, the world's pre-eminent academic+industry AI/ML conference. The 2025 edition drew 15,000+ attendees across the main paper-track plus 60+ workshops. NeurIPS 2026 runs December 7-12 in San Diego (with Vancouver retained as the historical alternate venue per NeurIPS Foundation rotation). The room is the highest-density gathering of AI/ML researchers, applied-AI founders, frontier-lab-adjacent recruiters, and ML systems teams in the world.
Beyond NeurIPS week. Applied-AI ICP playbook for researcher-founder + AI infra teams.
Founder-side ICP playbook for AI/ML researchers shipping applied-AI products.
Pre-event narrative + intro engineering across 30 ICP accounts attending NeurIPS.
On-site podcast recording day during NeurIPS week. Studio + crew booked at partner venue.
Bot-screened AI Twitter + frontier-lab-adjacent KOL placements during NeurIPS week.
Every event activation on the FORKOFF roster. Same operator, same audit ledger.
Lite activation $5,000 to $10,000 single-track. Standard tier $15,000 to $25,000 end-to-end. Full tier $25,000 to $40,000 sponsor-grade with multi-day workshop production. Audit ledger on qualified researcher intros across every tier.

ETH NYC 2026 hits June 8 to 14 (ETHConf + ETHGlobal NY). The 3-week activation playbook that lifted sponsor day-30 dev activations 8.9x across 11 audited teams.

Step-by-step Twitch clipping for desktop, mobile, and OBS plus the vertical re-cut workflow that earns qualified views off-platform.

Compare the 9 best AI video editors of 2026 on pricing, qualified-view economics, audit ledger, and ICP fit. Apply now to test the managed lane.