I was thinking they would have picked Canada since it would be in North America (and thus would be relatively minimal travel time for the US attendees) but a lot easier to manage for international attendees in the current climate. It’s a surprise to me but makes some sense in retrospect. WGU is doing a lot for the community and wants to host. There’s no guarantee that the situation will get better in the US so this might be the last viable time they can, depending on how things go.
It’s easy for me to go since travel between US states doesn’t require a visa, so I can certainly attend.
While I know and understand why many are either hesitant or unable to go to the US, I don’t think we should snub the conference altogether. There are a lot of relationships that are important to maintain from a business and technical perspective that we benefit from, and some conversations/activities that only happen at the conference once per year but have great impact on the platform. A reduced attendence is inevitable for us this year, but I think we should still allow those who can attend to do so.
This isn’t the first year we’ve done ‘reduced first week attendance and then everyone joins the coworking week’-- in fact that’s been the norm when the conference is hosted in the US just based on expense alone! I don’t think we actually have to modify our processes much here-- we submit talks, some get accepted, those of us who attend give what talks we can, possibly taking on ones submitted by others if they can’t make it. If there’s no one to give a talk after its acceptance, we inform Axim and they find a backup for that slot.
I think it would be risky for us to not have at least a small presence at the conference, especially with a client like WGU hosting. While I understand everyone’s extremely valid concerns and difficulties going, it is a short trip for me (2 hour flight), and I can certainly help represent OpenCraft this time around from a BizDev perspective. Hopefully I can try and get a talk accepted as well. As everyone else suggested, a different location for the coworking week that everyone can attend sounds best.
I’d be happy to. If we end up choosing a coworking location where team members live, it would be great to get some help, but otherwise I should manage!
I already know that I’ll be touring Europe in May 2026, but there might be a break during the tour, which would technically allow me to come and say hi.
For the conference week, since some of us are hesitant to visit the US, and for budget reasons, I’d be in favor of only sending people whose talks end up being accepted + Xavier + Braden + Jordan. Same as we did in 2023.
Yes, that’s exactly what I had in mind too The Open edX conference is still an important event for the community and an opportunity to see a large part of the community. Even when only the people who get accepted talks go, we still end up with a significant representation there - it’s just that we won’t flood the conference by all going there this year but it’s still definitely important to be an important contributor to the conference.
Btw given the location, even if you aren’t local @Fox you are probably the closest I think? Would you be able/willing to help organize it? And if so, would you want to own the epic, or help someone else organize it? @jordan you might also be a good person to own the epic management of the conference epic, given the importance of the event for bizdev.
Note that the conference organization can be a separate epic from the coworking week, and thus separate epic owners for each. I’ll also split this thread into two, one for the conference and one for the coworking, to keep things sane.
@antoviaque I’m happy to help organize. @Fox do you want to take on the epic, otherwise I certainly can. It’s my first one, so I’ll likely need some assistance anyways I actually went to a company meetup in Park City years ago, so I’m slightly familiar.
I’m pretty sure that @jordan is closest, at least geographically-- he said his flight would be two hours, whereas mine would be almost three.
My barriers overall might be lower, though, since I’m within the federation’s borders. I’m good to take on this epic. Happy to see we have a guide on how to pull it off.
@jordan can be epic reviewer. As for whether we’d make the coworking week a separate epic, I’m not sure which way I’m landing there. I’ll spend some time doing the initial scaffolding on the epic/seeing how the convo goes on the coworking week and then I’ll see how I feel about taking on both.
I’ve created BB-10213 as the epic for conference planning. I’ve gone over the handbook entry and it seems like if just focusing on the conference right now, I’m pretty blocked on details for the conference coming out (talk submissions, ticket prices, sponsorship tiers, etc.)
We might be able to determine (most of) the coworking week details before we have all of the conference details.
@Fox@jordan Sounds good, thank you! Having you owning it @Fox and @jordan as epic reviewer sounds perfect
And yes the fact that you would only manage the conference week should definitely make the epic smaller. Since we have never done the two weeks in different epics, it might be worth also being reviewers on the coworking week epic once it’s assigned, in case some coordination is needed, and for awareness.
I think we could probably get started on the talks brainstorms - that takes multiple iterations, and thus require time. It might also be worth trying to look into the fact that not too many proposals were accepted last year, to see if there are some trends of types of talks we should favor, or change anything in how we pick the topics?
@Fox Thanks! I would actually start putting tasks in people’s upcoming sprint this week if possible, because Christmas will be only one sprint away afterwards - that would give two sprints to have the brainstorm: the first sprint to brainstorm ideas (and maybe common reasons for rejection/acceptance at the same time, to have everyone’s input on that?), and the second sprint to pick some of the ideas and write the actual proposals?
I have personal commitments that I had made before these dates have been announced which I can’t really back out of - I’m organizing another event that falls on 28th to 31st of May. The dates are definitely not flexible at this point, as we need to book the place really early in advance. It takes ~6 months to prepare the event, and then I would need to be there at least a week before and a few days after + I would want to stay for longer after to enjoy some traveling. It quite involved and in-person, so I would be blocked from ~20th of May until mid June. For me organizing these events is an important part of my life right now. I was hoping that the conference and coworking would take place in late June or July, as they did the previous two years.
Would we be open to an idea of having a coworking week on the different dates, e.g. in April or before the conference, rather than after? Or would it be ok if left early, before the 28th, as a kind of compromise?
@maxim Doing the two weeks at different dates would make it more disruptive for people who will be attending both - ie two separate trips instead of one, and with potentially more travel time overall. So I don’t think it’s a workable solution.
I understand that the dates might not be ideal, it’s always a bit random - I also have had years where I needed to cancel or rework personal plans to attend. But it’s an essential event for the team and the company, and we only meet once per year, so it has to have priority.
@antoviaque What if I attended the coworking week from 23rd until 26th (I’m not saying I’m not going to attend the conference if my talk it accepted, it just has less overlap with my plans)? Or may be doing the coworking week before the conference, i.e. 12-19 of May, if that’s ok with everyone (we can make a poll to check with everyone, and we don’t have a location for the coworking set yet, right)? I really want to make both work, and I am looking for a compromise.
Since people would be arriving during the week-end, that would only be 2-3 days in common - this would diminish the value of the trip and not really be prioritizing OpenCraft.
Personally, I would be fine with that, but I know that in the past many preferred to do the conference first. Though since we attend differently the conference this year, that might work out?
Alright, if you can get everyone to agree to reserve May 11 to May 22 with the coworking first and conference second, then we can do that. But it needs to be unanimous - could you create a poll to confirm that everyone is OK with that, and will be able to attend with those dates? Give it a 2 weeks deadline to not have uncertainty on this for too long, and also include the original dates (May 18-29) as a multiple choice so that we can compare?
The Open edX conference is still an important event for the community and an opportunity to see a large part of the community. Even when only the people who get accepted talks go, we still end up with a significant representation there - it’s just that we won’t flood the conference by all going there this year 
but it’s still definitely important to be an important contributor to the conference.