RoboBusiness just wrapped its 20th conference here in Santa Clara (October 20–21), and it was great to see so much of the robotics community in one place. RoboBusiness 2026, presented by Arrowfly, felt like a real milestone. Twenty years in, this event has played a big part in how so many robotics companies have grown, found partners and brought their products to market. 

MassRobotics was proud to be the strategic partner. Our team hosted the annual two-part Robotics Startup Bootcamp focused on the challenges that most often make or break early-stage robotics companies, and we brought the community together at the Women in Robotics Luncheon. Colleen Anderson led Part 1 on the fundamentals, while Joyce Sidopoulos led Part 2 on working with corporate partners and hosted the luncheon.

Bootcamp Part 1: The Basics and Best Practices

Starting a robotics company is hard, and growing and scaling one brings a whole new set of challenges. Part 1 of the bootcamp gave early-stage founders a practical foundation, with experts walking through the common issues that can make or break a company:

  • Intellectual property and trademark considerations
  • How to fund your startup
  • Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) agreements and how to structure contracts

Colleen Anderson, Director of Community and Events at MassRobotics, led the conversation alongside three partners from Foley Hoag: John Lanza, Jennifer Audeh and Brooke Fritz, Tech Transaction Partner. Their combined legal and transactional experience gave attendees clear, actionable guidance on decisions that are much easier to get right early than to fix later.

Bootcamp Part 2: Working with Corporate Partners

Partnering with a large corporation can accelerate a startup’s growth, but these relationships come with their own challenges. Part 2 delivered strategies for making those partnerships work, with a startup founder and an industry leader sharing both sides of the table:

  • The startup perspective: securing, structuring and executing successful pilot programs and proofs of concept (POCs)
  • The corporate perspective: how large enterprises evaluate, onboard and collaborate with emerging startups
  • Collaboration best practices: bridging the gap between startup agility and corporate processes so both sides succeed

Joyce Sidopoulos, Chief of Operations at MassRobotics, moderated the discussion with Ben Waters, CEO and co-founder of WiBotic, and Colm Prendergast, Senior Director and Head of the Emerging Tech Hub at Analog Devices. Hearing from both a startup and a corporate leader made for a candid, practical conversation about what it takes to turn a pilot into a lasting partnership.

Women in Robotics Luncheon

MassRobotics sponsored the Women in Robotics Luncheon, an hour set aside for robotics professionals to connect in an environment built for thoughtful conversation and mentorship. The highlight was a fireside chat between Joyce Sidopoulos, Co-Founder and Chief of Operations at MassRobotics, and Bhavana Chandrashekhar, Senior Manager of Applied Science at Amazon Robotics.

The luncheon gave attendees a chance to form new connections, deepen existing relationships and champion greater female representation in robotics leadership, a cause that remains central to the MassRobotics mission.

Our Community on the Show Floor

It was great to see so many members of the MassRobotics community on the show floor. Several of our sponsors exhibited, including Harmonic Drive, Novanta and Advanced Motion Controls.

Our residents made a strong showing too. Haply, a MassRobotics resident, showcased its technology at a booth, and Contactile, our Australian resident through ARM Hub, presented in the startup pavilion. Seeing our startups and partners side by side with the industry’s established players is exactly the kind of visibility we work to create.

Thank You

Thank you to the RoboBusiness team for 20 conferences of bringing the robotics community together, and to our speakers from Foley Hoag, WiBotic, Analog Devices and Amazon Robotics for sharing their expertise so generously. Thanks also to everyone who joined our sessions, stopped by to say hello and helped make this year’s event a success.  To learn more about the conference, see the full agenda.