Call4Speakers 2026

NEW FOR 2026

From this year onwards, speakers can choose between a 15-minute lightning talk and a 35-minute talk and indicate their preferred format during submission.

The official Call4Speakers for the Free Software Conference 2026 – www.SFSCON.it -, to be held on November 13th and 14th 2026 at NOI Techpark in Bolzano/Bozen, Italy will be open until June 30th, 2026. 

The SFSCON is an annual conference dedicated to Free Software in South Tyrol that is aimed in particular at developers, coders and other talents, but also at the general public and decision makers in business and in public administration. SFSCON promotes the use of Free Software in IT infrastructures as a tool to achieve greater innovation and competitiveness.

All speakers must be present to deliver their talk from the SFSCON stages.

Through the Call4Speakers, the Conference Committee will accept speaker submissions for possible inclusion in the programme.

Duration

When submitting your proposal, you can indicate your preferred talk format:

  • 15 minutes (lightning talk)
  • 35 minutes (standard talk)
  • no preference (both formats are suitable; format will be defined by the Conference Committee)

Please note that the Conference Committee will take into account that 35-minute talks have more limited availability compared to lightning talks.

Theme of the Year: Digital Sovereignty

For the 2026 edition, SFSCON focuses on Digital Sovereignty. The conference will highlight how Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) enables greater control over data, infrastructures and digital technologies. The aim is to foster discussions on the role of FOSS in strengthening independence, security and the protection of users’ digital rights.

Suggested Topics:

The Conference Committee is particularly interested in submissions on the following topics:

Artificial Intelligence

  • Ethical AI, responsible AI development and AI in Free Software
  • AI-driven automation and decision-making
  • AI technologies (Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Virtual Assistant, Intelligent Autonomous Agents, Large Language Models – LLMs)

Cybersecurity

  • AI and cybersecurity risks
  • Cybersecurity policies in the EU (Eg. CRA)
  • Cryptography (Eg. Post-quantum security)
  • Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions

Open Hardware & IoT

  • Sensors, intelligent networks and mobile infrastructure
  • 3D modeling and 3D printing
  • Automation, Home automation (Eg. Home Assistant, Ansible)

Open Data & Open Standards

  • Linked Data, Temporal Data, Data Spaces

Data Analytics

  • Data Harmonization, Data Integration, Data Visualization

DevOps

  • CI/CD, infrastructure as code and best practices

Contributing to Free Open Source Software

  • FOSS projects
  • Education
  • Programming Languages, Free Software Development Tools

Free Open Source Software in Culture

  • Cultural Heritage and Open Technologies
  • Museums, archives and libraries using FOSS
  • Open access, digital preservation and cultural data

Game Development

  • Free Software game engines and tools
  • Gaming on GNU/Linux

Community Building

  • Cultural Change, Community growing strategies

Self Hostings

  • Fediverse
  • Databases self-hosting, multi-tenant servers, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), CDN solutions

Policies

  • Compliance with EU policies (CRA, PLD, …), Accessibility
  • European Free Software projects and services
  • Data governance and user privacy
  • Licensing and contributor rights in FOSS

Free Open Source Software Economics

  • Business Models, Business Cases, Public Money – Public Code
  • Best Practices and Experience Sharing

Innovate in a fast paced world

  • Continuous Innovation, Design Thinking, Agile methods
  • Low-Code and No-Code Movement, Decentralized Applications (DApps), Blockchain technologies

The Conference Committee will evaluate and select the proposals that focus on and have a very concrete approach to these topics. These are suggested topics.

Other topics may also be taken into consideration.

Interested speakers should submit proposals using the submission button below by June 30th.

Submissions must include:

  • the proposed presentation title;
  • an informative talk abstract (min. 350 characters);
  • contact information (only for organization purposes);
  • description of the relevance to Free Software & Open Technologies;
  • speaker’s bio (min. 350 characters)
  • speaker’s nationality, company/organization and role;
  • a square picture (600×600 pixel) for the speakers’ section https://www.sfscon.it/speakers/.

Additional info (not mandatory):

  • speaker’s website and/or social link (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)

All information must be provided in English.

Once the submission period ends, our team will review and define the talks that will be presented at the conference. The conference programme will be finalised by September and speakers will be notified accordingly.

All speakers must adhere to the 100% vendor neutral / no commercial policy of the conference. If speakers cannot respect this policy, they should not submit a proposal. In addition, see also the SFSCON Code of Conducthere.

→ Prefer a hands-on format or want to lead a community discussion instead? Check out the Call4Workshops and Call4BOF pages!

Sponsorship Opportunities for the SFSCON are available here.

 

→ Unleash your ideas: submit your proposal and take the stage at SFSCON!

 

Submit your proposal