The Eclipse Foundation is announcing today that it will hold its annual EclipseCon conference as a virtual event.
For over 15 years, EclipseCon events have been held as face-to-face gatherings of the Eclipse community, attended by committers, adopters, and contributors to the array of 375-plus Eclipse projects. EclipseCon is the primary gathering place for everyone in the Eclipse ecosystem, and offers a unique opportunity for our diverse communities to come together to share ideas, to learn from each other, and to celebrate our collective accomplishments and successes.
The impetus for this change is, of course, the Covid-19 crisis. As of today, we are uncertain how long it will last; if it will be a seasonal event coming back in autumn, or what the economic and social impact will be for the remainder of 2020.
The Eclipse Foundation takes the health and safety of our community as being of primary importance, and we believe taking this decision today will allow our contributors to plan with certainty their participation in EclipseCon as a virtual event, and to maximize the benefit of their participation.
The Call for Proposals will open on April 15 as planned, and we encourage all in our community to submit talk proposals.We expect to have many exciting keynotes, talks, and meetings again this year, and will work with our speakers to find a format that makes presentations as engaging as possible.
We recognize that EclipseCon is an important means for many sponsors to engage with the Eclipse community, and we commit to work closely with our sponsors to ensure they can continue to participate and engage with members of the community.
The specifics of the format for EclipseCon 2020 will be fleshed out over the coming weeks. We look forward to the creative input of our many stakeholders as we finalize the format.
We look forward to EclipseCon 2020 being a great experience for all involved!