2018 Schedule Overview & Highlights

Every year a lot of time and energy goes into putting the schedule together. Anyone that has ever organized a conference will tell you content ultimately drives attendance, and delivering value to attendees is the difference between failure and success.

And the job was a lot tougher this year. More talks were submitted than ever before for consideration and all were very, very good. Tough choices were made, ones we struggled over, and although we’ll make future updates as we get closer to October the majority of the sessions are now confirmed.

As you review the online schedule, the pdf, or the mobile app here are a few highlights we’d like to point out:

Primary conference days will be Monday, October 22 and Tuesday, October 23

We’ve considered expanding the conference to three days for years now, but each year in post-event surveys the results are the same – the overwhelming majority (70+ % in 2017) want the event to remain two days. We are offering Sunday programming for the first time this year (the Inclusion in Open Source event) and we’re offering more extended sessions / workshops than ever before over the two primary days, but traditional conference days will remain Monday and Tuesday.

Early Check-In and Registration opens at 1:00 pm ET on Sunday and runs until 6:00 pm

This represents a change from the 5:00 pm ET time we’ve hosted early check-in and registration the last couple of years. We moved it up to coincide with check-in for the Inclusion in Open Source & Technology event scheduled for 2:00 pm at the Convention Center. In addition, attendees now have 5 hours to check in / register early instead of just two (2). We’ve also increased the number of t-shirts we’re giving away. The first 1,500 to arrive and check in will receive a free shirt.

Sunday Inclusion Event

We’ve wanted to do this for years, and we’re excited to finally make it happen. Inclusion in open source and technology in general is an important topic and one worthy of a stand-alone event. We’ve structured what we feel is a good program to examine the topic and the talks, panel discussion, audience participation, and overall dialogue should be excellent. The event is free and open to the public. More details can be found here.

Keynotes will again be featured in the AM both days

Keynotes set the tone for the conference and are chosen each year based on topic, content, and overall level of applicability to our audience. Both days will begin with 10-15 minute plenary talks from some of the most well-known technologists in the world, and those perhaps not so well-known but just doing amazing things or working on interesting projects. Keynotes will begin at 8:45 am sharp on Monday, October 22 and at 9:00 am ET on Tuesday, October 23. An announcement identifying 2018 speakers will be made soon.

200+ Sessions will again be Featured

More than 200 total sessions will again be featured across 20 tracks each day. We make an honest effort to cover the wide range of “open”, to include both technology and processes. Although not comprehensive, we feel most attendees should be able to find a session relevant to them. Our challenge is always not to offer too much content each day, and we know that’s a fine line.

More extended sessions and workshops than ever before

While post-event surveys make it clear attendees want two days of primary programming they also make it clear more extended sessions / workshops are wanted. We’ve tried to address both requests by scheduling more extended sessions than ever before. Just a few to be featured will include: (more will be added soon)

Sunday, October 21:

• Inclusion in Open Source & Technology (a three hour program)

Monday, October 22:

• The 2018 Startup Pitch Competition – made possible by WeWork
• Your First Open Source Contribution – Cynthia Rich, GitHub
• Machine Learning OpenHack Technologies workshop with Python/Jupyter/SciKit – hosted by Microsoft
• Build Intelligent Applications with Azure Cognitive Service and CNTK – Bhakthi Liyanage, Bank of America Merill Lynch
• Big Data made easy with a Spark – Jean Georges Perrin, Oplo
• How to Undo (Almost) Anything with Git – Lee Faus, GitHub
• React Native for Beginners – Azat Mardan, Indeed
• Extreme Web Exploitation – Ultimate Hacking Techniques – Viral Parmar, Mozilla Foundation & Mehul Patel, Auth0

Tuesday, October 23:

• 2018 Lightning Talks – hosted by Opensource.com
• Vue Vixens workshop – Under-represented session focused on teaching VueJS – Jen Looper, Progress
• Using Kubernetes: The open source container orchestration system – Phillip Wittrock, Google
• Istio – Weaving, Securing and Observing microservices – hosted by IBM
• Node APIs Without Tears – Sai Vennam, IBM
• Andreas M. Antonopoulos – Continuation of keynote talk / Q&A session with audience members / book signing
• Building prototypes, apps, and libraries with Vue CLI 3 – Chris Fritz, Vue Core team
• How to 2FA-enable Open Source Applications – Michael Schwartz, Gluu

More socials and networking events are being hosted than ever before

We fully understand socials and networking events offer tremendous value to attendees, and we’ve scheduled more this year than ever before. We are also making it a priority to schedule events that are not solely bar-focused and oriented. While an official announcement will be made in a few weeks and more will be added, here are just a few:

Sunday, October 21:

• The official All Things Open Welcome Social. A great way to get things started, meet new friends, and see old ones. Programming will be announced soon as will the location.
• Run Around Raleigh. For all runners, a guided running tour of downtown Raleigh and the surrounding area. Details coming soon.

Monday, October 22:

• The annual Hardware / IoT Showcase, hosted by RIOT – Raleigh Convention Center. This immediately follows All Things Open programming and will feature stand-alone talks by hardware/IoT experts from all over the United States and the world as well as more than 70 exhibits from top startups and industry leaders. Nearly 1,000 attended in 2017. Details / announcement coming soon.
• Networking Social, taking place at Jimmy V’s on Fayetteville Street. This follows programming as well and provides a great opportunity for attendees to relax and meet new friends. We reserve the entire restaurant, including the outside patio area flowing into the street.
• Speaker / Sponsor Dinner. The ATO team says “thank you” to speakers and sponsors for making the conference possible. A great networking opportunity following the days events.

Tuesday, October 23:

• The official Send-Off Social. A huge hit every year, we give attendees an opportunity to have some fun while networking and meeting new people. Details coming soon.
• User group meetings. Didn’t get enough tech and open source at All Things Open? We’re partnering this year to host user group meetings on Tuesday evening with world-class speakers and great content. All meetings will be free to attend and in safe, welcoming environments. Details coming soon.