ConfConf 2026 Proceedings

Overview

ConfConf 2026 happened in Sofia, Bulgaria on June 6-7, 2026. We brought together organizers from 23 organizations to talk about the tools we use, how we find people to help us run things, and how to keep our events going for the long term.

People shared what actually works and what doesn’t. We talked about conference software (everyone uses pretalx, kind of), how to deal with AI-generated talk submissions, finding sponsorships that make sense, and how to get younger people involved. A lot of the discussion was about what it takes to keep a conference organization alive and healthy, especially when people move on.

Sessions

• Conference Management Software - Tools and platforms used by FOSS conferences
• Volunteering Tools - Systems for managing volunteers and coordination
• Talk Selection & CFP Review - Approaches to selecting speakers and building schedules
• Standardisation & Tooling - Moving toward common formats between conference platforms
• Sponsoring & Collaboration - Building partnerships and sustainable funding models
• AI in Conferences - Opportunities and challenges with AI-generated content
• Sustaining Conferences - Long-term organizational health and community building

What worked

• Breaks between sessions. That’s where a lot of the actual conversations happened
• Good turnout and mix of people. Different sized events, different regions, different experience levels all in one room
• Good ideas from other conferences. People came with problems and left with ideas they could actually use
• Everyone was open about what they’ve learned. Organizers shared what works and what doesn’t
• Unstructured conversations and 1:1 chats were better than any scheduled session. People just talking freely about their events
• It was useful to know other organizers are dealing with the exact same stuff you are
• Having people taking notes during sessions helped. Made it easier to follow up later
• People appreciating that things are freeform and not some formal process
• First time attendees felt welcome and included
• Lots of new ideas and energy

What could be better

• Talks in the mornings overran. Sessions got too scattered because of that
• Some sessions tried to cover too many topics at once. Moderation gets harder when you mash things together
• Discussions could use better structure and clearer facilitation. Without someone keeping things on track, conversations wandered or got dominated by whoever talks the most
• Some people talk a lot, some barely say anything. Hard to balance that without cutting people off
• Recording sessions might be distracting or making people less willing to speak freely
• 9am was too early for a lot of people
• The room was noisy in some spots, hard to hear discussions
• Not everyone loved the unconference format. Some people wanted more structure
• Conflicting sessions. With parallel tracks, people had to choose and missed things they wanted to see
• A few people wanted more concrete things to come out of this. Like specific plans or follow-ups from sessions
• People are worried the Matrix channel will go quiet after the event. They want to keep talking between conferences, not just once a year

Participating organizations

• BalCCon
• C3VOC
• CCC Orga
• Chemnitzer Linux-Tage
• COSCUP
• DevConf.IN
• DevOpsDays
• FOSDEM
• FOSS for All
• FOSSASIA
• FOSSGIS
• Geodework
• German Unix User Group (GUUG)
• GrafanaCon
• IT Tour
• Jesień Linuksowa
• KubeCon
• LinuxTag
• ObservabilityCon
• OpenChain Project
• OpenFest
• P.I.W.O.
• PromCon

Organization and funding

ConfConf 2026 was organized by Gerry Demaret, Pieter De Praetere, Richard Hartmann and Vasil Kolev, and was funded by FOSDEM and Grafana Labs.