OpenProject at FOSDEM 2026
Talks, digital sovereignty, and Community at FOSDEM ’26 in Brussels
On 31 January and 1 February 2026, FOSDEM returns to Brussels. For more than 25 years, FOSDEM has been one of the world’s largest and most respected conferences for free and open source software, bringing together developers, maintainers, public sector practitioners, and open source communities from around the globe.
We are excited to be part of FOSDEM 2026 with two talks and to once again connect with the wider open source ecosystem.
OpenProject: A Year Full of Updates
In this fast-paced session, Wieland Lindenthal will walk through the most impactful OpenProject updates of the past year. From powerful portfolio management improvements to long-requested service management features such as internal work package notes, the talk offers a comprehensive overview of where OpenProject is today.
Beyond new features, the session also looks ahead. Wieland will share our long-term technical strategy to bring real-time text collaboration to every corner of the platform. The goal is to enable teams to co-create work packages, meeting notes, and other project management artifacts seamlessly.
A key part of this journey is our work with BlockNote, the rich-text editor already powering applications such as openDesk’s Notes and Mijn Bureau’s Docs. You will learn how we are integrating BlockNote to bridge the gap between quick text sketches and fully-fledged project plans, and how developers can leverage our BlockNote extensions to integrate work and task management into their own platforms.
The talk will also give an outlook on our migration strategy for teams moving from Atlassian Jira Data Center to OpenProject and from Confluence to XWiki, supporting organizations on their path toward open and sovereign collaboration.
Whether you are a user, contributor, or developer, this session invites you to rethink collaboration in open source project management.
👉 Find out more and bookmark the session
From Vendor Lock-in to Resilient Digital Ecosystems: Leading Change in Europe’s Public Digital Infrastructure
As European public sector organizations pursue digital sovereignty, the technical migration from proprietary software to open source solutions is often only half the challenge. Technology is rarely the hardest part. The real complexity lies in changing mindsets, workflows, and institutional culture.
In this talk, Rosanna Sibora shares proven change management strategies drawn from leading IT transformations and guiding public sector clients through transitions from Jira to OpenProject. The focus is on how to build sustainable and resilient digital ecosystems that serve citizens rather than vendors.
Participants will learn how to:
- Co-create change through proven leadership best practices
- Create ownership for the open source solutions within public sector
- Build the business case and frame the open source narrative that resonates with public sector stakeholders and decision-makers
- Drive the mindset shift to FOSS
- Identify your use cases and foster transition to open source products
- Build internal champions who drive adoption across departments
Drawing on real-world public sector experience, this session highlights the human factors that can make or break digital sovereignty initiatives. Whether you are planning your first migration or refining your change management approach, you will leave with actionable frameworks for leading successful transitions to independent and interoperable digital workspaces.
👉 Find out more and bookmark the session
Community matters: Join our FOSDEM meetup
FOSDEM weekends are intense. Talks all day, devrooms to jump between, and hallway conversations that somehow turn into deep discussions about documentation, governance, or that one bug that still exists.
Once the laptops close, we do what open source communities do best. We meet. We talk. We grab a drink.
We are happy to co-sponsor a FOSDEM community meetup:
On Friday, 31 January 2026, we invite you to an informal open source meetup in Brussels together with our friends from XWiki, Nextcloud, and Passbolt.
No talks. No slides. Just people.
When and where:
- Date: Saturday, 31 January 2026
- Time: From 20:00 until late
- Location: Scott’s Bar & Kitchen, Rue Montagne aux Herbes Potagères 2, 1000 Brussels
We are hiring
FOSDEM is about connections. We are also having quite a few remote open source jobs in our luggage. If you want to contribute to a thriving open source project and foster Europe’s digital sovereignty, let’s talk.
We are currently looking for:
- Senior Account Manager France
- Senior Full Stack Developers
- Product Tech Lead
- Customer Success Manager
- …
Open source, remote first, European values.
We are looking forward to inspiring talks, great conversations, and meeting many familiar and new faces at FOSDEM 2026. See you soon in Brussels.
