Once again I had the opportunity to attend the global LibreOffice Conference, this time, its 2026 edition. It was very nice to see some friends again. This time it was held in Pordenone, Italy, hosted by Unipordenone (Consorzio Universitario di Pordenone) and the PNLUG (Pordenone Linux User Group). Thanks to The Document Foundation for the invitation and support! This is what makes community possible and encouraging! I can’t speak for the Foundation but in my view, the ultimate goal behind all this is to support the people interactions face-to-face. In a world where it’s easier to try to be right behind a screen than to try to work together towards a common goal, this changes everything, especially for a project of this size.
Content
Once again, the conference didn’t disappoint. It was filled with interesting talks, as it can be shown in the conference schedule. Because of how the schedule was organized (with three simultaneous tracks) it was impossible to attend every single talk. However, most talks were recorded and uploaded to The Document Foundation YouTube channel (or better, directly go to the LibreOffice Conference 2026 playlist). According to the Foundation, more videos are to come and eventually they will all be mirrored to their PeerTube channel.
I had three favorite talks this time: Formatting Best Practices for LibreOffice Guides by Olivier Hallot, Seamless Collaboration: Versioning Flat ODF Documents with Git by Marco Marinello and Gabriele Ponzo, and Ten thoughts on community leadership […] by Florian Effenberger.
Unfortunately, by the time I wanted to submit my own, the Call for Papers had already closed. I won’t spoil what it would had been about but, if there is a next time, I promise the talk will be there. What I will spoil, though, is that there might be two talks!
The Community
I was glad to see Juan José (J. J.) there, not only because of him, but because more Mexicans are participating in the Free and Open Source ecosystem. It’s not like I did anything to make this happen, but it has always been my dream to see more Mexicans get involved in high-profile Free and Open Source projects. I know there are many already, but it is always delightful to see more and more people involved.
Also I got to meet Guilhem and Eol for the first time but it was very nice to say hi and discuss with others, many who I had already met.
Beautiful Pordenone
Pordenone might sound like a small and not-so-known town, and it in a way, it is, but it’s also not: it has been named Capitale Italiana della Cultura 2027 (Italian Culture Capital 2027). Well deserved. Every year, Pordenone hosts the Pordenonelegge and the Giornate del Cinema Muto. I took the opportunity and visited the Immaginario Scientifico in Pordenone, a great interactive scientific museum with interesting experiments to understand scientific phenomena that I would never otherwise see that is a thing in this universe.
It’s without a doubt a beautiful city, but if I were to be strict about my findings, a sample of one is not enough. I need to continue visit again to confirm my findings. Maybe one day. 🙂