OEB CFP Closes May 31st - Maybe our last CFP reminder for 2026

[Michelle Hall]

Dear Apereo Community,

A quick reminder that the Call for Proposals for OEB 2026 closes on Sunday, May 31st (next week).

Apereo will attend OEB for the first time this year, and we would love to see strong representation from our project communities, member institutions, partners, and collaborators.

The conference will take place December 2–4, 2026, in Berlin, Germany.

For those unfamiliar with the event, OEB (Online Educa Berlin) is one of the longest-running and most internationally recognized conferences focused on digital learning, innovation, and educational transformation. Each year, leaders and practitioners from more than 70 countries gather to discuss the future of education, technology, workforce development, and public digital infrastructure.

What makes OEB particularly exciting for Apereo communities is its strong intersection of policy, pedagogy, technology, institutional strategy, and public-value conversations, where open source, open standards, and community-driven innovation play a critical role.

Several of this year’s conference themes align especially well with the work happening across Apereo:

• Higher Education in Reset: Research, Relevance and Advanced Capability
Topics around AI, academic integrity, governance reform, institutional differentiation, and preparing learners for rapidly evolving environments connect deeply with the work many Apereo projects and institutions are already exploring.

• Open, Sustainable and Inclusive Learning Ecosystems
This theme strongly resonates with open education, accessibility, interoperability, sustainability, digital inclusion, and community-led infrastructure areas, where Apereo communities have decades of experience and leadership.

• Sovereignty, Governance and Public Value
Conversations around technological dependency, institutional autonomy, procurement, transparency, auditability, and digital sovereignty are becoming increasingly important globally, particularly across Europe. This is an important opportunity for open source communities to help shape those discussions with practical experience and real-world examples.

• Learning & Work: Skills, Productivity and Economic Resilience
Projects and initiatives that connect students with authentic contribution, workforce readiness, experiential learning, and open collaboration models would fit especially well here.

If you have been working on innovative teaching and learning practices, open infrastructure strategies, AI governance, accessibility, digital sovereignty, open standards, sustainable communities, student contribution models, or collaborative ecosystems, this is an excellent venue to share your work.

More information about OEB and the CFP can be found here:
https://oeb.global/

We hope to see many familiar faces in Berlin this December.

P.S. While planning your conference calendars, we also encourage the community to keep several other important events on your radar this year:

• OW2con 2026 — June 2–3 in Paris, France
Apereo is once again helping organize the “Open Source in Education, Science and Research” track. Registration is free, and it is a wonderful opportunity to connect with European open source communities and public-sector innovators.
https://www.ow2con.org/view/2026/

• EDUCAUSE Annual Conference — September 29–October 2
This year’s EDUCAUSE conversations will be especially important as the Open Letter and the Open Renaissance Group continue building momentum around digital autonomy, open infrastructure, and the future of higher education technology strategy.
https://events.educause.edu/annual-conference

• All Things Open — October 19–20
We know several of our student groups and emerging contributors are planning to attend this year. We would love to help create opportunities for students, project leaders, maintainers, and community mentors to connect in person and strengthen the next generation of open source leadership. Early Bird Registration opens in two weeks!
https://2026.allthingsopen.org/ 

P.P.S. We are fairly certain this is most probably very possibly the last CFP reminder email we will send the community this year… but no legally binding promises are being made by the Communications Team. Thank you to everyone who has submitted to conferences this year! Every time you submit, you help our community!

Happy Weekend,

Michelle Hall
Communications Manager
Apereo Foundation

[Michelle Hall]

So sorry, all, the CFP closes on Friday, May 29th! 

My apologies for the confusion.