We are taking “State of Open Con” “On the Road,” across the UK, in 2026.
As we enter our 4th year of our annual conference, State of Open Con (SOOCon), we recognise the challenges faced by the open tech ecosystem in terms of resources and funding. These challenges are impacting the sponsorship availability, individuals’ ability to travel to attend events, and the kinds of events that work..
At OpenUK we want to meet our audience where they need us, and for 2026, we have made a decision to adopt a new model for SOOCon26. In 2026, you will find “SOOCon26 – On the Road” coming to a city near you, across the UK.
We are currently working on 5 smaller local events, provisionally to be held in Bristol, Belfast, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
These will be smaller and likely single track events as opposed to our 800 attendees in two days in London. We will work on a mixture of CFP and curated content at the events and where possible we will also bring international colleagues into the speaking roster.
Dates for the events will be available in January.
We will not hold a large London conference as we have in past years in 2026, but we plan to be back in London with the usual format as a part of the FOSDEM fringe in 2027. Please save the dates for SOOCOn27 in London on 9 and 10 February 2027.
This is an exciting new chapter and one that we hope will meet the needs of our audience across the UK, bringing the key conversations to locations where we hope to engage our existing and new audiences. It will also be an opportunity for some of our international colleagues to join us in new locations across the UK.
The Current Advisory Board has been invited to stay in place for both SOOCon26 and SOOCon27. We hope that many of the Advisory Board, whether based in the UK or internationally, will be able to join us during these events, and at scale in February 2027, when we plan to be back in London.
We are delighted by the support of our sponsors and that they have all agreed to this pivot in format for 2026. For the wider community, there are as always roles for you. OpenUK will look to our supporters and those interested in volunteering across the UK at the various events where we plan to continue with our tradition of volunteer staffing across SOOCon, for staff on the day and to support the organisation of content.
Our plan is for all events to be recorded and the content shared for free afterwards. We will not be using a hybrid model and no events will be streamed.
So, keep an eye out for updates to the SOOCon26 website and follow our newsletter to be kept up to date on our plans as they evolve. Hopefully, you can become part of “SOOCon26 on the Road”, which promises to bring the key topics of open tech to you in 2026.
