New Date: October 23rd and 24th
We have an important announcement to make, thank you for your attention. Due to an unexpected scheduling conflict with our venue, we are shifting our dates to ensure everything runs smoothly. The 14th annual SeaGL will be held at the University of Washington HUB on Friday & Saturday, October 23rd and 24th.
This is a big change, and trust us, we didn’t make the decision lightly. Given the reduced timeline, we’d like to remind everyone that SeaGL is entirely run by volunteers and we’d love to have you join the team!
CFP open through June 30th
First off, a big thank you to everyone who submitted proposals over the past month! We’ll be reaching out shortly to verify that you can still make it if accepted, given the new dates.
Now some good news: For those of you who missed the cut-off or are just hearing about SeaGL, do we have good news! We are re-opening the CFP and accepting proposals through the end of June. So please spread the word and send in those submissions!
Like any good open source project, SeaGL thrives on community contributions. Please share the news, brainstorm a topic you’re passionate about, and submit your proposals to help build this year’s schedule!
We need your help to make the 14th edition of SeaGL the best conference that it can possibly be! The SeaGL 2026 Call for Presentations (CfP) is now open, and we want to hear your talk ideas. You have until May 31, 2026 at 23:59 Pacific Daylight Time to submit. Please don’t delay; submit early, submit often!
We’re a small community-focused event which aims to bring together new and experienced open source hobbyists. Our audience includes university students, security professionals, software engineers, technical writers, and open source contributors across a wide range of disciplines.
We welcome introductions to free/libre/open (FLO) software, hardware, and tools, as well as more technical deep-dives. In addition to technical talks, we invite presentations on FLOSS alternatives to proprietary products, hacking for good, personal security and privacy, and open source in non-tech domains such as education and art.
We do not accept sponsored talks. If your company wants to get involved, you can find more information on our sponsorship page.
This year’s Program Committee is run by Dina Buric and Dawn Cooper.
Keynote nominations
We also need your help to find our 2026 keynote speakers! We have four keynote speakers each year, and have done since 2018. Two slots are reserved for people with previous keynote speaking experience. The other two slots are for first-time keynoters.
Our keynote speakers are generally well-known in the open source community. They may be involved with community organising, contribute to free software, or use open source products in innovative ways. If that sounds like you, or someone you know, please submit their name to our keynote suggestion form.
Once the submission form has closed for the year, our volunteers vote on the submitted names and send out invites to our top choices. If you want to be part of that process, please consider joining our volunteer team!
Spread the word
Don’t have a talk idea, but still want to help?
- Share our CfP at your workplace and in community groups. The more the merrier!
- If you know someone who might make a good keynote speaker, share their name with us.
- Tell your friends about SeaGL, and ask them to tell their friends!
- Distribute our flyers in shared spaces and on bulletin boards.
- Share our sponsorship page with projects and companies that may be interested in partnering with us.
SeaGL wouldn’t exist without our community, and we greatly appreciate your help in promoting our event.
Remember to submit early and often, and watch our blog for more updates. We hope to see you at SeaGL 2026!
SeaGL 2026 is coming together nicely, and we have a handful of exciting updates to share with the community! 🎉
Help us choose our keynote speakers
🔑 Keynote speakers are a vital part of our conference and we’d love the SeaGL community’s help finding voices to highlight on the main stage! If you’re an attendee, past speaker, volunteer, or simply someone who cares about free/libre/open values, we’d really appreciate your suggestion of someone who would make a meaningful and inspiring keynote speaker at an upcoming SeaGL.
Consider nominating people whose work you admire, who have engaged in advocacy that has made a difference, or those that hold a perspective you think would challenge and energize an audience of free and open source enthusiasts.
Note that we reserve two of the four keynote positions for those who rarely, if ever, have been invited to the main stage. Nominees do not need to be widely known; they just need to have a passion that they want to share with the FLOSS community and a connection to the values that SeaGL is built on.
Please fill out our Keynote Nomination Form to submit your suggestions today!
Although this form is open year-round, the SeaGL organizing team will be considering all nominations submitted by April 26th for this year’s event. 🗓️
Find us at LinuxFest Northwest
🐧 The SeaGL team will be on the ground with a booth at LinuxFest Northwest on April 25 & 26. If you are there too, please stop by and give us a squak!
This is an excellent opportunity to meet some of the people who bring SeaGL together year after year. Feel encouraged to ask questions about how the conference works, find out how to get involved, or simply spend a few minutes talking about the free/libre and open source tools we all care about.
Community events like LinuxFest Northwest are a big part of what keeps the FLOSS ecosystem vibrant, and we are glad to be a part of it. 💚
Call for Proposals opens April 24th
📢 If you have a talk, workshop, or session idea that you have been sitting on, now is the time to dust it off and polish it up: the SeaGL 2026 Call for Proposals opens on April 24th!
SeaGL welcomes speakers at every level of experience, from folks sharing something publicly for the very first time to seasoned presenters with years of stage time behind them. If you have something to share, we want to see your proposal.
Full details about the CfP process, including topics, formats, and submission guidelines, will be shared when it launches. We encourage you to start thinking about what you know, what you are passionate about, and what you think the SeaGL community would benefit from hearing. We cannot wait to see what you submit! 🚀
Keep in touch
🫂 There is plenty more news on the way as SeaGL 2026 takes shape. Follow us on social media and keep an eye on our website for updates on the CfP, the program, and everything else we have in store for our community.
If you are interested in volunteering or getting more involved with the organizing effort, visit our Get Involved page or fill out our Volunteer Application Form. We’d love to have you join the gullery!
As always, thank you for being part of what makes SeaGL a welcoming space that bridges experiences and strengthens the free software movement! 🐦
SeaGL runs on volunteer energy, shared effort, and a lot of care; and we are looking for more organizers to help bring SeaGL 2026 to life! If you have been thinking about lending a wing, our biggest need right now is for coordinators on three committees: Attendee Experience, IDEA, and Policy & Protocol.
Coordinator openings
Each SeaGL committee benefits from having coordinators who keep work moving, organize meetings, recruit helpers, and make sure important details do not get dropped. You do not need to be an expert in every part of the committee’s work to help coordinate it.
- Attendee Experience (AX): This committee focuses on the day-of-event experience for attendees. That includes details like exhibitor maps, room flow, coffee breaks, snacks, signs, and the many small things which help the conference feel welcoming and well organized.
- IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access): This committee helps SeaGL stay inclusive and accessible. Its work supports a conference where people feel welcome, represented, and able to participate fully.
- Policy & Protocol: This committee reviews and maintains key policies for attendees and presenters, including the Code of Conduct and Health & Safety Policy.
Volunteers wanted across SeaGL
We are also looking for volunteers across our other committees. If you want to offer your assistance but coordinating is not the right fit, there are still plenty of ways to get involved!
- Partnerships: Help SeaGL connect with organizations that may want to support the conference as sponsors or community partners.
- A/V (Audio and Video): Help prepare the audio and video setup needed for presentations and other event spaces.
- DevOps: Help support the technical infrastructure behind the conference, including the systems and tooling that keep things running.
- Promotion & Outreach: Help spread the word about SeaGL across social media, physical spaces, and beyond. We especially need people with design skills who can create posters, graphics, and other digital assets.
You can read more about SeaGL’s committee structure on our Get Involved page.
Get in touch
If you are interested, please fill out our volunteer application form, reach out on Matrix, or send an e-mail to participate@seagl.org. If you are not sure where you fit yet, that is fine, we are happy to help you find a committee that matches your interests and skills.
Thank you for being a part of the SeaGL community. We couldn’t do this without you!