STEEL & SALT SUMMIT 2026

The Dual-Use Prelude to Maine Blue Economy Week.

Join us in Bath, Maine and Brunswick Landing, September 27-29, 2026. 

By blending industrial agility with strategic financing, the Steel & Salt Summit brings together global founders, industry leaders, impact investors, and public sector stakeholders to ruggedize software-infused hardware across the air-sea-space continuum. Together, we are aligning the capital, policy, and infrastructure required to forge the next generation of multi-domain maritime technology and cross the commercialization Valley of Death.  

Organized by Blue Innovation Labs (headquartered within TechPlace at Brunswick Landing) and the Blue Institute (anchored in Bath), the Steel & Salt Summit serves as the specialized prelude to the flagship conference later in the week in Portland. Please join us!

Backed by Maine's world-class scientific, testing, and near-shore research capabilities, this intensive track establishes our coastal corridors as the ultimate proving ground for global deep tech startups scaling software-infused hardware for the harsh operational realities of the North Atlantic and the changing ocean frontier. Step into the forum for deep tech hardware collaboration here, rooted in Maine’s rich industrial legacy. This is where innovators, investors, academic leaders, national security specialists, and industry executives confront the unique trials of dual-use hardware development, the realities of slow capital, and the specialized workforce pipelines needed to sustain both modern innovation and traditional manufacturing. Engage where the ideas are forged.

Carry that momentum into Portland for the central corporate, financial, accelerator growth, and Flagship Conference programming starting Wednesday, witness it in action during Friday's regional field tours (featuring UMaine Orono's advanced engineering labs, commercial aquaculture farms, or UNE's ocean health ecosystem), and conclude the week with a community-wide arts and humanities celebration of our Blue Planet.

BATH, MAINE PHOTO BY RICK BERK PHOTOGRAPHY