Details are scarce, but All Things Open is planning to hold a special All Things Open AI conference in March. The two-day event will be held in Durham, North Carolina, about 30 miles from ATO’s home venue.
Maybe this is what I get for schlepping out of All Things Open early.
I just discovered that coming up in March, All Things Open is going to be launching a new event called All Things Open AI. There’s no news yet about whether this is a precursor to what will become an annual event — but I’m betting that Todd Lewis and his team are planning to pull out a lot of the stops to see if this one sticks (how’s that for mixing one’s metaphors?).
I’m also betting that Lewis said something about this at ATO, either at the end of the day on Monday, or during the closing ceremonies at the end of day two — but if he did, I missed it. For the first time ever when attending ATO, I slipped out the back door before both presentations this year. Silly me, I should’ve known.
It was only this morning that I learned about the in-the-works AI show — and I heard about it from two sources.
Arriving first was a mention in Mark Hinkle’s newsletter, The Artificially Intelligent Enterprise, which was waiting for me in my inbox when I got out of bed:
“This week, I attended the All Things Open conference in Raleigh, NC. It’s one of my favorite events centered around open source software, so this week, I am sharing something.
I’ve partnered with them to produce an All Things Open AI conference in Durham, NC, in March of next year. I am very excited to be able to bring in-person AI events to the area. Feel free to join the mailing list on the site to get exclusive updates and early access to discounted tickets and training opportunities.”
The other was also by email. It came later, not long before lunchtime. It was in a post-conference survey from ATO that included a notification of the event mixed in with a few other promotional notices:
“All Things Open AI – March 17 & 18, 2025
We’re thrilled to announce a new event for spring of 2025 – All Things Open AI! It’s a two-day “AI Practitioners Conference Focused on Technologies, Processes and People”. Save the date now and plan to attend this boutique conference. And be on the lookout for big announcements soon, including the opening of the CFP!”
“Wowie zowie,” I thought. “I don’t usually put exclamation marks in headlines but I’m going to make an exception when I write about this one.”
What I Don’t Know
I don’t know much of nuttin’ about this one except that AI was all over the place at this week’s All Things Open. In fact, one of the two big reveals at the conference was centered on AI — that being Open Source Initiative’s release of version 1.0 of the Open Source AI Definition (and if you’re wondering why OSI is versioning OSAID when all they needed was one version of the original Open Source [software] Definition — well, it’s complicated and I’ll have an article out about that early next week).
It’s probably safe to say that this one will be considerably smaller than ATO, not only because it’s an inaugural event, but because its venue, the Carolina Theater in downtown Durham, doesn’t have the meeting spaces to handle the number of tracks that ATO features. That being said, it does have enough meeting rooms to accommodate something close to the number of tracks ATO had a dozen years ago when it got started.
There’ll definitely be some kind of price tag connected to this event, but it probably won’t be much, since All Things Open has always intentionally kept its events affordable. For example, if you waited to the last minute to purchase tickets to this year’s ATO you would’ve paid $297, which is a bargain compared to what comparable open source events charge. Careful shoppers could’ve grabbed tickets for even lower prices, however. If purchased before October 12, two-day admission was $197, and the event’s Early Bird Special, which ran until June, priced tickets at only $99. Before that, from December 5–31, there was a “flash sale” in which tickets could be purchased for only $79.
For this year’s Open Source 101, a one day event that ATO puts on each spring, unless you waited to purchase your ticket on your way into the event, regular admission was $99, with an early bird special that priced tickets at $49. Day of event admission was $149.
I can tell you zilch about what’s on the schedule at the All Things Open AI event. Again, ATO said today to be on the lookout for a Call for Papers announcement. Until then, even they don’t know.
What I Do Know
About the only thing I know right now is that the event is scheduled to be held on March 17-18 at the Carolina Theater in downtown Durham, North Carolina (which is about 30 miles from downtown Raleigh, where ATO takes place). As we get more information, we’ll add it to the conference’s listing in our Calendar of Open Source Events.
Christine Hall has been a journalist since 1971. In 2001, she began writing a weekly consumer computer column and started covering Linux and FOSS in 2002 after making the switch to GNU/Linux. Follow her on Twitter: @BrideOfLinux
