Conference wrap up

content/blog/2025/10/2025-10-29-conference-wrap-up.md

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+date = "2025-10-30T12:00:00Z"
+title = "Matrix Conf 2025 was a blast!"
+
+[taxonomies]
+author = ["Thib"]
+category = ["Foundation","Conference"]
+
+[extra]
+image = "/blog/img/conf25-crowd.jpg"
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+
+
+[The Matrix Conference 2025](https://2025.matrix.org/) is over, and it was a significant success for Matrix, its Foundation, and its ecosystem! If you couldn't make it to the Conference, here is what you missed and how you can catch up.
+
+The first success was of course in attendance. With more than 250 attendees on-site and hundreds of attendees online, the Conference was _attractive_ to many. This is particularly remarkable because the majority of our audience is in Germany, and this year's Conference was held in France. We want to thank our community for being so dedicated to Matrix and for following us here!
+
+{{ figure(
+    img="/blog/img/conf25-keynote.webp"
+    caption=""
+    alt="A picture of Amandine, one of the Guardians of The Matrix.org Foundation, standing in front of a large crowd in a packed room. Her slides read 'The Foundation Update'."
+) }}
+
+<!-- more -->
+
+The Conference started by a Barcamp/Unconference: it's an informal workshop day where people join and share the topics they want to talk and hear about. In the evening we all gathered for a Welcome Party at bar Le Météor. Rocket.Chat and Element sponsored the evening, so attendees only had to come and grab food and drinks. We're grateful to both Rocket.Chat and Element for offering us this great night of socializing!
+
+{{ figure(
+    img="/blog/img/conf25-barcamp.webp"
+    caption=""
+    alt="A photo of a people sitting at a table in a busy area, talking to one another and working on their computers."
+) }}
+
+The second and third days were the heart of the conference. The global show-up rate was high! Indeed, 96% of people who bought a ticket showed up. We asked people to optionally add their country of origin, and for those who replied 20 countries were represented. Matrix is already crossing seas and continents: the bulk of our audience came from Europe, but we also got representatives from Brazil, Canada, and Japan! We got 68 speakers, including 2 remote sessions and 1 hybrid session. We concluded the conference by a slower day of workshops on Saturday where people remained very engaged.
+
+_More than a day's worth of video_ was recorded by the excellent Audio/Video team. The [Chaos Computer Club Video Operation Center](https://c3voc.de/) (VOC) indeed brought their audio and video equipment and expertise, and have set up a professional recording and streaming set up. They trained volunteers to use their equipment and home-developed software. Volunteers found it easy and great fun to operate the camera and audio/video mixers. We're grateful to VOC for their expertise, patience, enthusiasm, and calm all along the conference. They have been excellent people to work with.
+
+Amazingly, talks were not only live-streamed, they were then available on [our YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvdlk3kz4wY&list=PLl5dnxRMP1hUgnYEbpEsEEhIqY_KlO3NG) and on the Chaos Computer Club's [own streaming platform](https://media.ccc.de/c/matrix-conf-2025) _within minutes_ after the speaker stopped talking. Even more impressive? The VOC team members are volunteers.
+
+{{ figure(
+    img="/blog/img/conf25-av.webp"
+    caption=""
+    alt="A photo of a woman wearing a purple hoodie with the logo of The Matrix Conference embroidered prominently. She is looking at another volunteer, smiling. The other volunteer is operating video mixing software on a laptop."
+) }}
+
+We owe this conference to volunteers. More than 30 of them signed up to give their time and enthusiasm to the Conference. They took shifts to welcome people at the check-in booth, operated cameras, controlled the video mixers, helped during build-up and tear down, and generally happily _asked for more things to do_. We are sincerely grateful to everyone who showed up to lend a hand. It is heartwarming to be part of such an engaged community! If you want to join this welcoming community, drop us a line in [the Events Working Group room](https://matrix.to/#/%23events-wg:matrix.org).
+
+{{ figure(
+    img="/blog/img/conf25-stage-host.webp"
+    caption=""
+    alt="A photo of a man in a purple hoodie, holding a microphone and smiling at the audience while reading remote audience questions from his phone. In the background, the speaker is waiting to answer."
+) }}
+
+But all the goodwill in the world won't go anywhere without the finances to rent a venue, get catering, and cover the general expenses to organize a conference. We also owe this conference to the sponsors who showed up en masse to support the event! Our gratitude goes particularly to:
+
+- Our Anchor and Video sponsor [Element](https://element.io/). You can find [their Keynote, _The Element Update: Shininess, Scalability and Sustainability_ on our YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZgcdgv2NXk&list=PLl5dnxRMP1hUgnYEbpEsEEhIqY_KlO3NG&index=27).
+- Our Champion sponsors [Rocket.Chat](https://rocket.chat), [Automattic](https://automattic.com/), [Connect2x](https://timmy-messenger.de/), [Famedly](https://www.famedly.com/)
+- Our Sustaining sponsors [ERCOM](https://cds.thalesgroup.com/en/ercom), [Futurewei](https://www.futurewei.com/) and [RISE](https://www.rise-world.com/de/)
+
+{{ figure(
+    img="/blog/img/conf25-rocket.chat-booth.webp"
+    caption=""
+    alt="A picture of the booth of one of the Conference sponsors, Rocket.Chat, staffed by two people. Two attendees are standing in front of the booth and asking questions to the staff. On the booth table there are Rocket.Chat branded T-shirts folded."
+) }}
+
+If you missed the Conference, you will be able watch the videos on demand and find the talks slides on the [Conference website](https://conference.matrix.org/watch) right after we finish adding the photos. In the meantime you can find them on [our YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hvdlk3kz4wY&list=PLl5dnxRMP1hUgnYEbpEsEEhIqY_KlO3NG) and on the Chaos Computer Club's [streaming platform](https://media.ccc.de/c/matrix-conf-2025).
+
+If you wanted to get some Conference gear but couldn't get one of those fantastic Black & White T-shirts or hoodies, you have until Monday 3 November to [order yours](https://conference.matrix.org/register/#tickets).
+
+Your next opportunity to catch up with us is at FOSDEM in Brussels, on January 31 and February 1, where we will be coordinating the Decentralized Communications Devroom. We also asked for a booth, but booth allocations haven't been announced yet. Heads-up that we will also organize a Fringe Event this year again, so make sure to be there a few days before FOSDEM!
+
+You can follow what we're up to on our socials ([Fediverse](https://mastodon.matrix.org/@matrix), [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/matrix-org), [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/profile/matrix.org)), you can follow our blog via RSS, or join our [Matrix Space](https://matrix.to/#/%23events-wg:matrix.org).