Spacewalk 2026 will kick off ATO’s year with a slate of AI‑focused talks in Raleigh — and organizers say open source will still be woven through the entire evening.
On Monday, All Things Open released the agenda for this year’s Raleigh, North Carolina Spacewalk, and Artificial Intelligence is taking a front seat. While not entirely expected, it’s really not much of a surprise. Nor is the fact that the AI focus won’t necessarily be confined to open-source AI for the annual event, which since 2020 has kicked the year off for ATO.
That doesn’t mean that open source won’t continue to be Spacewalk’s binding glue next week when it takes the stage at Raleigh’s IMAX Theatre. How can it be otherwise, considering the event takes its name from the spaceman motif that’s been a part of ATO since it got off the ground in 2013. Spacewalk has traditionally been the launching pad for announcing the schedule for October’s big tent All Things Open event, and that’s not going to change.
“AI will be a focus of Spacewalk this year,” Todd Lewis, the organization’s founder, chairperson, and overall head honcho, told me in an email. “We’re still getting lots of questions and requests about AI from our community, and we’re prepping for All Things AI, of course. We know there’s some ‘AI fatigue,’ but interest seems to remain high.”
“Prepping for All Things AI” is an important part of this year’s Spacewalk scenario, and probably will be in years to come. Since last year, the event serves as the opening salvo not only for All Things Open, but also for All Things AI, the organization’s other big tent event.
The latter AI-focused event had a successful opening last spring in nearby Durham as All Things Open AI, and will have its sophomore outing at a larger venue — also in Durham — under the new moniker All Things AI in late March. Granted, it’s not as big as ATO which last year saw 6,500 registrations, but if last year’s freshman outing is any indication, give it time.
Not surprising, given that AI is a tech-wide phenomenon, AI has increasingly played a role at ATO as well. At October’s 2025 event, three tracks were devoted to machine learning and AI, and numerous presentations in other tracks centered on AI as well.
Spacewalk 2026 In a Glance
While ATO and ATAI are international events that attract attendees from across the globe, ATO’s Spacewalk and monthly Meetups primarily serve the Piedmont Triangle, a metro area with a heavy tech influence that includes Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and Research Triangle Park. These events generally take place on weeknights, last for about three hours, and generally feature internationally known speakers.
This year’s Spacewalk will include the following speakers and topics:
- AI Tooling in 2026 Mark Hinkle, CEO/Founder @ Peripety Labs
- AI Governance: Nithya Ruff, Head of the Amazon Open Source Program Office/Chair Linux Foundation Board
- Severing the Tether: Why Cloud AI Can’t Run the Real World: Robert Thelen, CEO & Co-Founder, LlamaFarm
- AI-Powered Voice Agents and Production-Ready Voice AI Systems: Andre Lassiter, Managing Partner, MS3IT Business Solutions
- Tech Education in the Age of AI: Eli “the Computer Guy” Etherton, Silicon Dojo
In our email exchange, Lewis admitted that there’s a bit of a tightrope walk happening with this AI-themed program at a traditionally open source event, but not as much as it might appear at first glance.
“We’re asking everyone to consider/mention/address open source as part of their talk, but not everything will be I’m sure,” he said. “For example, AI Tooling (Mark Hinkle) will include open source tools for sure, AI Governance (Nithya Ruff) will address open source also.”
He mentioned that the unabbreviated full name of Andre Lassiter’s presentation contains the phrase “open source”: “AI-powered voice agents and production-ready voice AI systems using open source technologies.”
“The talk titles don’t reflect the ‘open source’ component per se, but open source will definitely be a focus,” he added.
When, Where, and How Much
Spacewalk 2026 will be taking place at Marbles Museum/IMAX Theater, 201 E Hargett Street in downtown Raleigh. Doors open at 5:30 pm EST for networking and food and beverages. Live programming in the IMAX theater begins at 6:30. Oh, there will also be “a lot of swag – t-shirts, hats, stickers. Arrive early to ensure you get something.”
Like all of ATO’s Spacewalks and Meetups, Spacewalk 2026 will be totally free, but you must register to attend. You also don’t have to live in the Piedmont Triangle to easily attend, because the event will also be livestreamed.
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
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