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# How to Turn Community Events Into a Powerful AI GTM Engine: The Daytona Playbook

**By:** [Daniel Cranney](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@daniel-cranney)

**Published:** May 5, 2026

When you first meet Marijan Cipcic, you might not expect a PhD historian to be helping build one of the fastest-growing AI developer communities in the world. But that unconventional background is exactly what makes his approach different.

Before joining Daytona, Marijan was at Infobip, where his Africa-focused initiatives earned industry recognition and inspired the Al Jazeera documentary _[New Horizons: Developing African Tech Ecosystem(s)](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DaNspu2mnnEw%26t%3D8s&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1777973223772073&usg=AOvVaw0SXydHJtfFaGGg5vBOz6Zx)_.

At Daytona, he scaled that community-first mindset globally. In just over a year, Marijan led more than 150 events across four continents, engaging over 10,000 developers. His mission is simple: bring together people actively building AI, not just talking about it.

In this interview, Marijan shares insights into how these events evolved into one of Daytona’s core go-to-market pillars.

* * *

## How did in-person events become such a powerful GTM tool for Daytona?

I learned the power of in-person tech events nearly 15 years ago when I joined **Ivan Burazin** , Daytona’s co-founder and CEO, at the beginnings of the Shift Conference.

Later at Infobip, I organized community events globally—including a partnership with WeAreDevelopers for local meetups and the **WeAreDevelopers World Congress** in Berlin—and saw firsthand how impactful in-person gatherings can be.

![1](https://wearedevelopers.imgix.net//magazine/articles/732/images/content/GeeOtuc54XD21GSfaqyP-1777968676.png?w=984&auto=compress,format)

_Ivan Burazin, Co-Founder & CEO at Daytona, taking Main Stage at WeAreDevelopers World Congress Europe in Berlin_

When I joined Daytona, we started building events worldwide, helping position Daytona as a leading open-source cloud development environment. After our pivot toward AI infrastructure in early 2025, AI agents became our focus, and from a GTM perspective that meant investing heavily in San Francisco and the Bay Area.

We actively organized and sponsored events in the region, and within a year built a highly engaged community. That visibility translated into strong recognition across the Bay Area AI ecosystem.

* * *

## What types of events have you organized in the Bay Area?

We developed four main event formats. **AI Builders** became our core meetup series for people actively building AI agents, regularly attracting more than 100 attendees per event. **HackSprints** introduced a faster-paced format where teams turn ideas into working products in a single day, while **DevTool Gathering** focused on more relaxed networking and meaningful conversations within the developer ecosystem. We also expanded into universities through **AI Research Meetups** at Stanford and UC Berkeley, connecting directly with researchers using Daytona for reinforcement learning workflows.

![2 (2)](https://wearedevelopers.imgix.net//magazine/articles/732/images/content/EECZJVCaioIDWuEy6IiW-1777968759.png?w=984&auto=compress,format)  
_Daytona HackSprint at Sentry Office in San Francisco_

A major highlight was **Daytona Compute** , our first large conference at the Chase Center in San Francisco, held on March 8–9, 2026, which brought together more than 1,000 attendees. Speakers included AI industry leaders such as Aaron Levie (Box), Parag Agrawal (Parallel), Lin Qiao (Fireworks AI), and Harrison Chase (LangChain), among many others.

Each format serves a different purpose, but all share the same goal: supporting the people shaping the future of AI.

![3](https://wearedevelopers.imgix.net//magazine/articles/732/images/content/VezhnTjCKDy2M4UwB6Pg-1777968759.png?w=984&auto=compress,format)  
_Daytona AI Builders Meetup at AWS Builder Loft in San Francisco_

* * *

## What benefits have these events brought?

Events created value across multiple dimensions. First, they helped us establish a strong presence in the San Francisco AI community before our official product launch. Many startups and builders first discovered Daytona through our events and later became users. We also landed our first major customer, SambaNova, through an event. What started as a meetup speaking opportunity quickly turned into a partnership. Beyond customers, events opened doors to partnerships with Anthropic, AWS, Datadog, Databricks, ElevenLabs, Sentry, GitHub, Brex, WorkOS, and many others.

From a GTM perspective, events create a full funnel. Pre-event promotion builds awareness, the events themselves drive engagement and trust, while post-event content and follow-ups extend reach and conversion. They are not just brand-building activities, they directly drive growth, partnerships, and revenue.

* * *

## Tell us more about your “Compute” conference at the Chase Center.

Right after the conference, **Matt Turck** , VC from FirstMark, who led our Series A, tweeted that it was “ridiculous” that a Series A company managed to host an event of that scale at the Chase Center for more than 1,000 people.

We actually started planning the conference a year earlier while still seed-stage, around the launch of the new Daytona. Hosting a conference in a venue associated with companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, or Databricks was intentional. With a lineup of founders from billion-dollar tech companies, we wanted to send a clear message: Daytona is here to compete at the highest level. Based on the feedback we received, I believe we achieved exactly that.

![5](https://wearedevelopers.imgix.net//magazine/articles/732/images/content/m8g43mh0KbPaIBC9CUfQ-1777968759.png?w=984&auto=compress,format)  
_Daytona Compute, Chase Center, San Francisco, California_  
 ![4](https://wearedevelopers.imgix.net//magazine/articles/732/images/content/CZIK6wl36GtR88hBp4sr-1777968759.png?w=984&auto=compress,format)  
_Daytona Compute, Chase Center, San Francisco, California_

* * *

## What’s next?

More events, more cities, and even deeper engagement. We’re continuing to scale in the Bay Area while expanding into other major tech hubs globally. Alongside San Francisco, we’ve already organized AI events in New York, Paris, London, Dublin, and Berlin, with Singapore and Tokyo next.

At the same time, we’re doubling down on quality to ensure every event delivers real value to builders, researchers, and partners. Our goal remains the same: bring together the people actively building the future of AI, and support them with both community and infrastructure.

![6](https://wearedevelopers.imgix.net//magazine/articles/732/images/content/7ewtrDhOgTYTUM2WRbR1-1777968759.png?w=984&auto=compress,format)  
_Daytona CEO Ivan Burazin takes center stage before 15,000 attendees at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress Europe in Berlin_

* * *

## Meet the Daytona team in person

Join [WeAreDevelopers World Congress North America](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/world-congress-north-america), taking place September 23-25, 2026, at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. It’s also a prime opportunity to hear Ivan speak and connect with Marijan and team Daytona alongside 10,000+ AI builders and tech leaders in the heart of Silicon Valley. Don’t miss out!



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