A result of my appearance at Open Source Community Day in Madrid last year was to an invitation to host a workshop about Operating Open Source at Cluj Innovation Days 2026 in Cluj, Romania. In addition, I was participating in a panel about AI for Society: Opportunities, Risks, and Skills Europe Needs.

The 30 participants in the workshop were eager to learn and got a thorough walk-through of most aspects of open source. The majority of them were master students at the University of Cluj and most of them didn’t have any prior experience with open source.

The main conference day had a mix of keynotes and panels in the big plenary room. Around 120-150 people attended, listened to, and participated in the panels and talks. It was a very interesting mix of topics and profiles of the speakers. From developers to politicians and everything in between.

After the conference, Cluj IT Cluster organised a trip to a Transylvanian village where we enjoyed the scenery, local cuisine, folk dance, culture, and good company. The trip also included a half day workshop with interesting discussions, mostly about AI and how it affects us all. We didn’t see Dracula. And we didn’t see any bears. But we know they’re all out there…