Sponsor Keynote Digital Sovereignty - SUSE's Perspective as Global OpenSource Enterprise
Holger Pfister (General Manager DACH, SUSE)

SUSE is seeing strong interest in sovereign solutions rising fast globally. Organizations are turning to us for help building them — and partners are coming to us to propose sovereign products we can take to market together. This is especially true in Europe. As the only European global enterprise open source infrastructure company, SUSE is already heavily involved in collaborating on European-based solutions, such as Gaia-X, Project Sylva, Linux Foundation Europe, and more.
What are the reasons for the rising demand for sovereign solutions? Will this trend remain and what would be required from a European perspective to become more sovereign?

Keynote Sustainable Open Source: XWiki’s Paying Apps Model in Practice
Ludovic Dubost (Founder and CEO, XWiki SAS)

As the demand for robust, privacy-focused, and open-source collaboration tools grows, sustaining long-term development without compromising on openness remains a challenge. In this talk, Ludovic Dubost, founder of XWiki and CryptPad, presents how XWiki SAS has built a sustainable business model around 100% open-source software—without falling into the trap of open core or proprietary licensing.

Keynote How to Build Sovereign Software for the Public Sector
Leonhard Kugler (head of open-source platform - openCode, Zentrum für Digitale Souveränität (ZenDiS))

The development of a sovereign digital infrastructure is essential for the provision of services of general interest in the 21st century. With openCode, we show how the security of software supply chains can be strengthened, how software can be reused and how the state's digital capacity to act can be ensured.

Digitalisation opens up new opportunities for the state and society, but also brings with it dependencies and implementation problems - especially for public services. To remain digitally resilient, a sovereign, open-source and decentralised tech stack is needed for public administration. Digital sovereignty requires places that promote collaboration, reuse and cultural change - publicly funded, publicly usable. With openCode, there is a platform that shows how open source can succeed in public administration: from smart city projects and shared UX standards to sovereign office solutions. Applications are developed jointly, knowledge is shared and guidelines are updated transparently. A software directory supports subsequent use and security. This creates a transparent digital software supply chain in the long term - the basis for the government's ability to act. In 3 phases, the keynote shows how the platform is developing and what strategic steps are needed to set up the digital infrastructure for the future.

Keynote From work-life balance to AI: what's important to open source professionals
Elzbieta Godlewska (Business Development Executive, Linux Professional Institute (LPI))

Free and open source software appeals to organizations and employees alike and is widely used in professional settings. Thus, an understanding of what motivates those who work with open source is important.The second Open Source Professionals Job Survey (OSPJS), from Linux Professional Institute (LPI) and Open Source JobHub (OSJH), asked respondents about their current job roles and level of experience and to rate the importance of 10 factors when choosing a job. The survey also asked about the potential impact that artificial intelligence (AI) may have on their careers.

Keynote From European Commission’s NGI to Open Internet Stack: 7 years of funding Open Source
Jean-Luc Dorel (Programme Officer, European Commission)

In this intervention 7 years of funding Open Source will be reviewed and next steps will be identified.

Keynote Flight lessons. Community-driven creation of the national LLM.
Michał Domański (Chief of Staff at Omniviser, Founder of Bielik Consulting, Bielik.AI Ambassador)

This talk will chart the unexpected rise of Bielik, Poland’s open-source large language model, from a modest dataset project into a thriving ecosystem with national impact.
What began as a grassroots, pro bono initiative evolved into a major force shaping AI policy, infrastructure, and innovation in Poland — and increasingly, beyond.
Michał Domański will unpack how Bielik grew into a collaborative movement: not just a model, but a community, a platform for social and commercial initiatives, and a lobby for open, secure AI. This story is a case study in how bottom-up innovation can redefine national strategy and global relevance.

Keynote Poland's open source opportunity: avoiding fragmentation, embracing collaboration
Paula Grzegorzewska, Strategic Partnerships Senior Manager, Linux Foundation Europe

Poland has a unique opportunity to create and support a strong, collaborative open source ecosystem in the public sector. With its strong IT capabilities, dynamic digitalisation efforts, and potential for cooperation with European partners, the future of open source in the country looks very promising. Paula Grzegorzewska, born and raised in Poland, has been working on open source policy in Brussels for the past six years. In this talk, she will share her thoughts on the new Digitalisation Strategy for Poland 2035 in the context of other national frameworks and the European efforts to increase digital sovereignty and drive innovation.

Working Group 1: Strengthening and growing the Open Source industry in Europe

Ensuring investments, growth, and scale to meet new demand is crucial for the Open Source industry in Europe. How can we foster a sustainable ecosystem that attracts investments and ensures long-term growth? What are the key barriers to scaling, and how can we create an environment that supports Open Source companies in becoming global leaders?

Working Group 2: Best national structure for Open Source businesses representation: top down or bottom up?

Historically, national clusters in EU have had different approaches, be it coming from regional organizations or from a national perspective. This working group aims at sharing local experiences, evolutions, and help companies that want to create such structure.

Working Group 3: Ensuring sustainable funding from the EU, what works?

The EU and the nations it is composed of, have two ways of funding open source. Either that funded innovation projects, or via business contracts. The former can be exemplified with the NGI scheme, while the latter with the Open Desk or La suite approaches. This workshop aims at gathering feedback from members who have been involved in either funded projects or contracts with Open Desk or La suite, sharing what worked and what not.

Working Group 4: Sharing best practices for generating substantial revenues from Open Source business models

The aim of this workshop is to gather practitioners who want to share what business models approaches worked (or not), be it as software makers or as consultants. Participants will be encouraged to contribute, and also to find potential collaborations between each other.