PHEW! One month later and I’m still buzzing from the inaugural Matrix Conference in Berlin. This was the first time we’ve gathered such a broad cross-section of the ecosystem both upstream and downstream, bringing together contributors, vendors, and end-users in the same place at the same time.
The result was a fantastic demonstration of how much we can learn from each other, how much progress we’ve made, and how valuable it is to have The Matrix.org Foundation as an ecosystem steward that can bring us all together.
When we were planning the conference, we weren’t sure how big the demand would be. Having hit capacity and sold out of tickets weeks before the event, we know to aim higher next time! We’ll get a larger venue next year, but it was very gratifying to have sessions where the room was literally full!
You could really feel the energy: all told, we had 236 participants from 12 countries across 3 continents, representing 79 different organisations, join us across 4 days of events featuring 52 speakers.
We imagined The Matrix Conference as a gathering place for hackers, project managers, digital sovereignty leaders, and innovators. I’m proud to announce that we definitely succeeded in building a schedule covering that range of topics!
We received more than 60 high-quality proposals and ended up building 5 tracks over the course of 2 “core” conference days. The tracks cover everything from sovereignty and collaboration in the public sector to digital rights, Matrix internals, the social impact of Matrix, and Matrix as the foundation for products.
Building on the success of the Matrix Community Summit, the Foundation is joining forces with the Summit team to open the conference to wider audiences. This is the event that policy makers, public and private sector leaders, open source enthusiasts, and technologists attend to share knowledge and learn what’s next in the decentralised and secure communications sector.
This is THE gathering place for hackers, project managers, digital sovereignty leaders and innovators. With several tracks covering everything from sovereignty & collaboration in the public sector to digital rights and advocacy, all profiles will find content for their interest. Outside of the tracks there will be plenty of time and space to get to know others from the ecosystem and exchange ideas.