America Innovates

America Innovates: a free, public, family-friendly expo showcasing innovation past, present, and future.

May 16–18, 2026, in San Francisco, CA — America250 and Forbes are co-hosting America Innovates and hope you will join us. The event is a free, open-to-the-public, family-friendly, three-day experience featuring an immersive walk-through exhibit at Fort Mason: Gateway Pavilion. Come experience innovations of the past, present and future, along with livestreamed on-stage conversations with business leaders in every industry--from transportation and finance, to retail and consumer technology, and much more. Programming will include demonstrations and discussions with honorees of the Forbes Innovator 250 list of the greatest living American innovators--who are advancing the American Dream in bringing their breakthroughs to market, transforming entire industries and creating new ones. May marks National Inventors Month, an observance established in 1998 to commemorate George Washington’s founding of the U.S. patent office.