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Back to Ludwigsburg: Q&A with EclipseCon 2022 Program Committee Chair

Tuesday, May 10, 2022 - 04:15 by Gael Blondelle

EclipseCon is the leading conference for developers, architects, and open source business leaders to learn about Eclipse technologies and share best practices. This year it’s taking place in Ludwigsburg, Germany, October 24 - 27.

Cédric Brun,CEO at Obeo, will be acting as the program committee chair again this year. I talked to Cédric to find out what we have to look forward to at EclipseCon 2022, and why you should submit a talk. For more information on the program committee and what they are looking for in a talk, check out this blog from EclipseCon 2021

EclipseCon is heading back to Ludwigsburg, are you excited?

Cédric: I am thrilled to return to an in-person event. Even though the last two virtual editions were great, we are now fully aware how much of a difference it is to meet in person. I miss seeing everyone face to face, chatting in the alleys, meeting new people from so many different countries, having a feel for how everybody is doing, and being focused on Eclipse, its projects, and its community for full days and evenings! The location being Ludwigsburg feels right to me as it means reconnecting to a familiar place tied to numerous good memories since 2008.

Participating in this conference is an incredibly efficient way to learn about areas I'm not directly involved in, but am interested in. There are so many new working groups since our last "face to face" event, so I'm eager to meet with those groups to learn about what they’ve been up to during the last few years. Obviously this also works the other way around, as we've been developing new and innovative open source technologies in recent years. Web-based Modeling is now enabling a whole new class of tools and use cases, and it's highly motivating to me to share these results, discuss, and shape the path of where we go from here with the community at large.

What new topics and tracks can we expect to see at EclipseCon 2022?

Cédric: One of the first tasks of the Program Committee is to name and describe the categories of talks we are looking for, covering the breadth of Eclipse and its ecosystem — from Java, cloud native, web and desktop IDEs, IoT, modeling, quality and security — up to the open source business models, community and governance talks. 

We want the list of tracks to reflect the community at large, and looking at the constant increase of working groups and projects centered around automotive and mobility use cases, we felt the need to create a new "Automotive & Mobility" category.  Currently, there are 5 such working groups and 11 projects grouped under the automotive top-level project, and there is more to come. 

If you are involved in these or similar activities, this is your opportunity to share news, applications, and experiences, or to tell a story around your automotive open source adventure.

Are there any other changes you’re excited about?

Cédric: I'm delighted to take the role of the PC chair one more time. I have a great team on board who have made stellar contributions to the past few editions of EclipseCon, and I'm happy to welcome two new members: Dmitry Aleksandrov and JB Onofré.  Both are true believers in open source and community-driven initiatives.

Dmitry brings his experience and knowledge of the Java Community and the latest technologies to the Program Committee, while JB, in addition to his perspective on the Eclipse Foundation Working Groups he is participating in, will also bring experience from the Apache community, which he has been involved in for 15 years now.

So far we had really good discussions within the PC and I have no doubt every proposal will get a lot of attention from the PC and we'll be able to select a strong program. That being said, it all comes down to what the community will submit. 

Just looking at the first few weeks of the call for proposals being open, I feel we'll have many high quality proposals and maybe even set a new record! 

Let me give you a tip: go ahead and submit now to have the  chance to be selected as an early bird!

How can the community help make EclipseCon 2022 even better?

Cédric: EclipseCon is an event for the Eclipse Community. If you have suggestions on how to make this year’s event even better, send us an email.

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Submissions are now open for EclipseCon 2022

Submit your proposal by June 15, 2022 for your chance to speak at this year’s event.