OpenUK has unveiled an impressive list of more than 140 speakers for its State of Open Con 24 (SOOCon24) event. This tech conference aims to unite the international open source technology communities and has tapped leading experts in the fields of tech, open source, law, and policy from both the UK and abroad. Among the key speakers are Dr Rebecca Rumbul, CEO of Rust Foundation, Gavin Starks, CEO of Icebreaker One, and Nithya Ruff, Director Open Source Program Office at AWS.
The event, scheduled for 6-7 February 2024, will be held at The Brewery in London. It is set to be one of the UK’s most significant tech events of the year, spotlighting the latest advancements and opportunities in open source, open data, and security. More details on speaker line-ups, including the plenary keynotes, will be announced in January 2024.
The conference is unique for its focus on the convergence of engineering, law, and policy. It is designed to attract a diverse audience from the realms of software engineering, data science, business, law, policy, academia, government, and regulation. The aim is to foster unique thought leadership and dialogue. A salient feature of the event is its promotion of diversity; the inaugural State of Open Con, held in 2023, saw almost 40% of the speakers being non-male and 49.3% of its audience non-white.
In an effort to promote skills development in the UK tech sector, conference tickets have been heavily subsidised at £199 per two-day ticket. Free tickets are also available for those who need them, including 100 free tickets for community participants and unemployed students. OpenUK is also offering complimentary media passes and media partnerships for the event.
Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, commented, "Our 24 event brings a unique experience to the UK, with a US style open source conference, built through collaboration from the CFP process for content to the volunteer staff. We engage with the global open source communities and businesses to learn about all aspects of open source, open data and of course open AI. This flagship event will fuel the UK's leading open source ecosystem by enabling attendees to understand the full potential of leveraging open solutions."
There will be a variety of conference tracks, including Open Source, Open Source Software, Open Hardware, Open Data, Government, Law & Policy, Careers & Entrepreneurship, Security and Finance. Each track features notable speakers who will share their insights on several topics including how the open-source community breathed new life into Java, the role of Open Source in Technology Sustainability and open-source as a new model for fintech.
OpenUK is the organisation for business activities in Open Technology, encompassing Open Source Software, Open Source Hardware and Open Data across the UK. It actively works on three primary pillars: Community, Legal and Policy and Learning.