muShenzhen: 20 Days Inside the World’s Hardware Capital

You can read about Shenzhen from the outside.

Or you can come inside the system that turns ideas into products.

That was one of the biggest things we learned from muShanghai. Over 28 days, 926 global attendees and more than 1,000 local attendees co-created 255 events, welcomed more than 12,000 in-person visits and generated 23.7 million online views.

But the numbers were not the point. The point was what happened when people stopped observing China from a distance and started meeting the people building here.

One city kept coming up in those conversations: Shenzhen.

For four decades, Shenzhen has been a place where ideas move quickly from sketch to circuit board, from prototype to production line. Now AI is moving beyond screens. It can see, sense, move, manufacture and act. Shenzhen is where that intelligence is taking physical form.

From November 29 to December 18, 2026, we are bringing The Mu community to Shenzhen for 20 days of building, exploring and living together.

This is muShenzhen.

A Maker City, not a conference

muShenzhen is a temporary Maker City for builders, founders, engineers, researchers, designers, artists and curious people who want to understand how Shenzhen works by taking part in it.

Our main base is the C2 Main Hub at OCT-LOFT North in Nanshan, a converted industrial space of roughly 1,300 square metres. OCT-LOFT began as a factory district and grew into one of Shenzhen’s best-known creative neighbourhoods, surrounded by studios, bookshops, cafés, galleries, markets and live music.

The hub is only one of our two spaces. The second is the city itself.

Company visits, factory access, lab sessions, workshops and community-created events will take place across Shenzhen. A normal day might begin with coffee and deep work at the hub, continue with an afternoon visit to a robotics company or production partner, and end with demos, dinner or a conversation that runs much longer than planned.

Three frontier weeks

The future does not arrive in separate industries. AI collides with robotics. Biology collides with computation. Mobility collides with energy, autonomy and space.

muShenzhen follows those collisions across three connected weeks:

·                 Machines Week · Nov 30–Dec 4 — Robotics, humanoids, makers and consumer hardware.

·                 Life Week · Dec 7–11 — Biotech, longevity, synthetic biology and new tools of discovery.

·                 Intelligence Week · Dec 14–18 — AI, agents and physical AI.

Future Mobility runs through all three weeks, bringing drones, electric vehicles, space and infrastructure into the programme.

Tuesdays and Fridays are the main gathering days for talks, demos and long-form conversations. Between them are workshops, company and factory visits, research sessions and time to work on your own project. Saturdays are reserved for Special Days and longer shared experiences.

Three ways to take part

Frontier Fusion is the shared programme across the three theme weeks. It brings people from different disciplines into the same room so that software can meet hardware, science can meet business, and international builders can meet the people behind Shenzhen’s industrial ecosystem.

muShenzhen Garage runs throughout all 20 days. Up to 100 builders will work alongside Shenzhen engineers, suppliers, manufacturers, designers, incubators and production partners. Bring an idea, demo or early product. Use the city to build, test, break, fix and take it to the next stage.

Human Flourishing asks the question that speed alone cannot answer: what deserves to be built? Across the full programme, it brings education, well-being, art, storytelling, culture, community, ethics and meaning into the conversation.

You do not need a hardware prototype to belong here. You can join to build, explore, host a workshop, open a lab or factory, organise a dinner, lead an expedition, make an exhibition or test an idea with the community.

You are not coming to Shenzhen as an audience. You are coming as a co-creator.

Access is infrastructure

For international participants, understanding China should not stop at the first logistical barrier. muShenzhen will support participants with:

·                 visa application and invitation guidance;

·                 firewall-free internet at the main hub;

·                 help setting up local payments and essential apps;

·                 accommodation recommendations; and

·                 practical context for working with people and companies in Shenzhen.

We want participants to leave with more than information. You should know who to call, where to go and how to take the next real step with your project.

Join us in Shenzhen

Shenzhen spent its first 40 years proving that ideas can become industries. Its next chapter is already being built.

Bring your project. Bring your questions. Bring your community.

Come test something. Come build something. Come meet the people behind the system.

Where: C2 Main Hub, OCT-LOFT North, Nanshan, Shenzhen—plus events across the city

When: November 29–December 18, 2026

Programmes: Frontier Fusion, muShenzhen Garage and Human Flourishing

Apply or purchase a pass: pass.themu.toppass.themu.top

Event information: mushenzhen.xyzmushenzhen.xyz

Programme updates: Luma calendarLuma calendar

Community updates: Telegram channelTelegram channel

See you in Shenzhen.