Plone Conference 2026

Cosent (Guido Stevens) is organising the conference. Syslab (Alex Pilz and friends) is assisting.

Our theme: own your digital future. Ownership is practical. What can you take responsibility for? Do you understand the systems that you run? Are you able to change them or are you merely allowed to use them by the grace of some large company.

Take responsibility together, especially when things need to improve.

"We have done this before." You will see this phrase a lot this week. It means we as community do not start from nothing. We know how to learn from each other, how to adapt, how to keep going together.

The conference is larger than the programmer. It is the questions after the sessions. You don't have to take a course before you become part of the community.

Show the part that did not work. Honest failures are more useful than only success stories.

We will talk about where Plone is now and where it is going. On Friday we have a digital autonomy and AI business track. How do you have a full system that is not dependent on a major component owned by someone else. Do you have control over the software you are using. How do you do that over a multi-year horizon. Reflecting on AI: it is very fluid, we don't know the shape it will take, but we will see real case studies from the field, and reflect on constraints. It is not a loose connection of talks, but we try to make a coherent story, building it up during the day.

At the weekend we build: sprints. Start thinking about what you would want to do. There is a link on the homepage where you can write sprint topics.

Please: talk to somebody new. It is not only the responsibility of newcomers, but also of old hands. You have a place here and a way to contribute.

This week exists because of you. Thank you speakers, trainers, volunteers.

Very special thank you to tkimnguyen, known now as Cool Kim. He was always there while organising, and always kind. And Rikupekka, thank you for organising last year's conference, and showing us what was possible. It was inspiring for us. I will never forget: noni.

Practical notes:

Maastricht is a very old and compact city. Some things to visit:

• Onze Lieve Vrouwebasiliek, medieval church, completely different atmosphere, maybe even attend a mass if that is your thing.
• Walk to the Helpoort (hell gate), also medieval.

Thank you to the sponsors, and to Maastricht.

If you are a speaker, please send us your slides: conf@plone.org.

We have place for open spaces. These are not presentations but conversations. Write a topic on a flip-over. This is self-organised.

Also: each day at the end we have lightning talks. One idea, a few minutes, about then per day. Register these on the flip-over as well.

Another idea: show your set-up laboratory. Show your editor, terminal, shortcuts, hardware, workflow. What saves you a detour: This gives others new ideas.

We built the programme. What this week becomes, belongs to all of us.