The Open Social Summit '26 takes place on Monday 28 September 2026 at the Postillion Hotel & Convention Centre WTC Rotterdam, as part of DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026.
Last year we had the United Nations, the European Commission, WAGGGS and the WE BUILD Consortium in one room. This year we are running the Summit as the opening day of Europe's largest open source event.
What the day is about
Digital sovereignty stopped being a conference topic somewhere in the past two years. It is now a line in procurement documents, a question from your board, and in several cases a deadline. The programme follows that shift, and most of it covers work that has already happened rather than plans.
We took Open Social off US-based services, and Bram will tell you what that cost and what broke. Teams inside the European Commission run their communities on the platform. WAGGGS rolled one platform out to more than 150 national organisations. Those teams are on stage telling it themselves, including the parts that went badly.
The shape of the day
Ten sessions, in four parts, on a single track:
- Why now from 09:00. The sovereignty moment, and the infrastructure underneath it.
- What we're building from 11:00. The Community Management System, the Galaxia design system, Lumina Insights and Gaia AI.
- In production from 13:30. Real-time collaboration, a live European Commission platform, and the engagement layer.
- What it changes from 15:30. Two client stories, and our commitments for the year ahead.
Who is speaking
- Fred Dixon, CEO of BigBlueButton, on open conferencing and what voice-to-text unlocks once it feeds into Gaia AI
- Philippe De Beir, European Commission, on PICS, the collaboration space for Europe's tax and customs professionals
- Erik Ballhausen, European Commission, on what it takes to run networked communities inside a large public institution
- Robyn Gibbs, WAGGGS, with their COO Paul Bigmore, on rolling Campfire out to more than 150 National Member Organisations
- Taco Potze, Bram ten Hove, Stefano Tabarelli, Victoria Vorobiova and Moritz Arendt from Open Social, on the vision, the infrastructure, and every part of the product roadmap
Two events, one city, one trip
The Summit runs all day Monday. DrupalCon Rotterdam continues at the same venue until 1 October, so you can extend the trip and go deeper into the wider Drupal ecosystem without changing hotel.
Recordings
Every session is recorded and published afterwards, so you can send them to colleagues who cannot travel. For a sense of what that looks like, the highlights and session recordings from Summit '25 are here on Community Talks, with speakers from UNDP and the European Commission.
Practical
Monday 28 September 2026, 09:00 to 17:00, doors and coffee from 08:30. Coffee, lunch and drinks are included. Drinks run from 17:00, and the International Splash Awards follow aboard the SS Rotterdam at 19:30.
The Summit is open to clients, partners and DrupalCon attendees. Tell us you are coming and we will save you a seat.
Questions, or want to be there? summit@getopensocial.com
