This year’s QGIS User Conference will be embedded within the FOSS4G conference. That means that you should refer to the FOSS4G web site for all registration and event details with the exception of the QGIS Hackfest (22-26 August) which follows our normal organisation procedure on the QGIS Wiki.

There are five main activities for QGIS Users to enjoy at the conference:

1. The QGIS Hackfest: This is our twice-yearly meet up to work on and improve the QGIS code base. Come along to this event if you want contribute documentation, bug fixes, bug reports, features and other ideas for improvements to the QGIS project. The hackfest is a side event to be held on the island of Zanzibar and will happen before the main conference. Again refer to the QGIS Hackfest wiki page for details and to register.
2. The Workshops: FOSS4G is always popular for the wide range of workshops presented. The workshop presentations are very often by the developers of the software being explained, which gives you a unique opportunity to talk face to face with the people using the software you are using. There will be a number of QGIS specific workshops at FOSS4G – you will be able to identify them easily on the mobile app that provides the conference programme by filtering on ‘QGIS’ in the workshops section. For a current list of all the workshops at the event please refer to: https://2018.foss4g.org/workshop-schedule/ 
3. The Presentations: There will be a wide range of QGIS related presentations during the main conference. 17 QGIS related presentations have been registered. See https://2018.foss4g.org/programme/list-of-presentations/ for a full list of the conference presentations.
4. The Academic Track: This year a large number of academic papers have been submitted, a good number of which relate to QGIS. Watch the conference web site for more details to be published soon!
5. The QGIS Plenary / Panel Discussion: During the conference we will have an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session with QGIS developers and community members forming a panel to field any questions you might want to ask! This is a unique opportunity to find out more about the project, its roadmap or just come along to say ‘thank you’ to the dedicated team of community members who put so much work into making QGIS!

If you have not already registered for FOSS4G2018, do so now to enjoy early bird rates! Visit the Registration Page for more details! We are looking forward to meeting you in Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar!

About the FOSS4G2018 Conference

The annual Free and Open Source Software 4 Geospatial. (FOSS4G) conference is the largest community gathering focused on open source geospatial software. FOSS4G brings together developers, users, decision-makers and observers from a broad spectrum of organizations and fields of operation. Through six days of workshops, presentations, discussions, and code sprints, FOSS4G participants, learn, exchange, and create new collaborations, geospatial products, standards.

FOSS4G is a global conference, with attendees from around the world! Last year, Boston, USA was the host city, before that in 2016 it Bonn, Germany. Now is the time for Dar es Salaam, Tanzania! FOSS4G 2018 will host numerous workshops over 27 – 28 August with exciting keynotes and presentations at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre 29 – 31 August, and finally Code Sprints and community building events September 1 & 2. In addition to bringing together the FOSS4G community in Dar, the 21st QGIS Developer meeting will take place in Zanzibar (a short 60min ferry trip away!) the 22 – 26 of August – the Geospatial Savanna is on the rise in East Africa!

The vision for the conference is to make it as accessible and inclusive as possible, bridging the gaps between the various communities that make us so strong, to make us stronger. This will be achieved through a Travel Grant Program that will enable economically disadvantaged participants the opportunity to attend, covering travel, lodging and conference costs. This will be bolstered by an exciting conference program, taking the very best that the open source geospatial community can offer. This ranges from locating schools to the instrumentation of communities with cheap, open source, 3D printed weather stations that improve community resilience to climate change.

The theme for FOSS4G 2018 is “Leave No-One Behind”. We live in a world where our users and developers have the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of everyone, whether it’s those in extreme poverty looking for access to clean water, to those using routing algorithms to calculate the fastest route to work. Location and geography are at the heart of these challenges and a FOSS4G 2018 in Dar es Salaam will invigorate our existing projects, bringing them to new users and developers while supporting and nurturing the existing community.