April 23, 2026

The fourth edition of FOSSY — the Free and Open Source Software Yearly conference — will be here before you know it. It's happening August 6th-9th in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

What makes FOSSY amazing is its genuine, dedicated community: the speakers, attendees, exhibitors, and volunteers. That community is getting a tremendous boost this year thanks to our organizing partnership with IEEE Vancouver, and the enthusiastic support of University of British Columbia faculty, staff, and students. This is a year you'll want to be part of.

We invite you to submit talk proposals by May 22 June 1ˢᵗ (anywhere on Earth). We want to hear about your FOSS projects, communities, research, and activism. You can see our current list of tracks (more may be added) to which talks can be submitted at on the FOSSY site -- covering everything from AI to Wildcard. We welcome both first-time and experienced speakers.

Most of the tracks are run by community experts (thank you, track organizers!) who will decide the specifics of scheduling, but generally FOSSY talks are 45 minutes long including time for audience Q&A. Selected talks will be given in-person at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Talks will be recorded and streamed.

To submit a talk you must first register an account (see the button on the CFP page, to make a speaker profile and then select the track you want to submit to along with some additional information. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to email us at conference@sfconservancy.org

We are also looking for your ideas about keynotes. We want our keynotes to be lively, timely, and super relevant for the audience. To that end, we'd love to hear your suggestions for topics, panelists, and speakers on this form. Ideas don't have to be fully formed -- just give us the spark and we'll do the rest!

Stay tuned for additional conference information in the coming days including how to apply for a booth, how to volunteer, and how to book a room at the conference's dedicated affordable on-site lodging.

If you think your employer might be interested in supporting the event, please share our sponsorship prospectus with them -- as a nonprofit, we depend on donations to make this event happen.

You can help make this the best FOSSY yet by sharing this call for proposals and encouraging your friends and colleagues to participate! We look forward to seeing you all in beautiful Vancouver, BC.