Justin Wheeler
77d95f70ae
Three accuracy corrections identified during a documentation review: 1. The venue changed ownership from Wyndham to Orea Hotels in January 2026. Updated the link to the working orea.cz URL and noted the former name for continuity with existing contracts and references. 2. The sponsor dinner was listed on Day 2 (Tuesday) as if confirmed, but the April 8 planning call revealed a miscommunication about Tuesday vs. Sunday. Moved it out of the schedule table into a separate TBD line until the team confirms the date asynchronously. 3. The "Publish initial schedule" milestone (Mar 23-27) has slipped. Annotated the timeline to reflect current reality rather than the original plan, since the schedule is still being finalized as of April 9. Assisted-by: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) Signed-off-by: Justin Wheeler <jwheel@redhat.com> |
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| LICENSE.txt | ||
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Flock to Fedora 2026
June 14--16, 2026 | Prague, Czech Republic
Flock to Fedora is the annual contributor conference for the Fedora Project. It brings together Fedora contributors, users, and upstream developers for talks, workshops, hackfests, and social activities focused on the project's future.
Flock 2026 will be held at the Orea Hotel Anděl's Prague (formerly Vienna House by Wyndham) in the Anděl neighborhood of Prague. The conference follows DevConf.CZ (June 18--20 in Brno), making it possible for attendees to participate in both events during a single trip.
📅 Schedule at a glance
| Day | Date | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Sunday, June 14 | Meetups, workshops, and hands-on contributor sessions |
| Day 1 | Monday, June 15 | Opening keynote, plenary sessions, breakout rooms, main social event |
| Day 2 | Tuesday, June 16 | Plenary sessions, breakout rooms, closing remarks |
Saturday, June 13 is the travel and arrival day. The sponsor and community leadership dinner is scheduled during the event (date TBD). The conference hotel room block covers June 13--17 and includes breakfast.
🎤 CfP themes
The Call for Proposals was organized around Fedora's four foundations:
- Freedom: The Open Frontier -- FOSS approaches to AI, open hardware (RISC-V), open standards, and data privacy
- Friends: Our Fedora Story -- Mentorship, team collaboration, onboarding, and partnerships with other FOSS communities
- Features: Engineering Fedora's Core -- Infrastructure, release engineering, quality assurance, packaging, and community tooling
- First: Blueprint for the Future: Fedora Linux 45 & 46 -- Near-term innovations for F45/F46, the foundation for RHEL 11 and EPEL 11
📦 About this repository
The Fedora Council and the Flock Organizing Team use this repository to plan and coordinate the Flock conference. It is hosted on the Fedora Project Forgejo instance.
What lives here
- Issue tracker -- The primary tool for tracking planning tasks across all workstreams (sponsorships, speaker management, venue logistics, design, marketing, registration, etc.)
- Scripts and tooling -- Automation to support the planning team's workflow (e.g., Forgejo API scripts for label/milestone management, issue triage)
- Documentation -- This README and supporting reference material for the planning team
What lives elsewhere
| Resource | Location |
|---|---|
| CfP platform (Pretalx) | cfp.fedoraproject.org |
| Registration (Pretix) | rsvp.fedoraproject.org |
| Event website | fedoraproject.org/flock |
| Planning deck (slides) | Google Slides |
| Shared drive | Google Drive -- Flock 2026 |
| Budget | Flock 2026 Expense Scratchpad |
| Design epic | Fedora Design Team GitLab epic |
| Sponsor prospectus | Google Slides |
👥 Planning team
Flock is organized by volunteers and Red Hat community team staff working under the direction of the Fedora Council. Responsibilities are tracked using a RASCI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Supports, Consulted, Informed).
Team members
| Name | Affiliation | Primary focus |
|---|---|---|
| Dorota "Dorka" Volavkova | RH Events Team | Venue logistics, ITA travel coordination, on-site operations, swag orders |
| Juliana Furlow | RH Events Team | Event operations support, ITA travel coordination |
| Jason Brooks | OSAIPO Manager | Oversight and accountability for AV, website, attendee comms |
| Shaun McCance | CentOS / OSAIPO | Budget management, sponsor contracts and legal, CfP/speaker/schedule accountability |
| Justin Wheeler | Fedora (FCA) | Sponsor outreach, promotion, volunteer coordination, travel sponsorships, registration, social events |
| Lidija Balija | OSAIPO (Ops) | CfP platform, schedule building, speaker comms, sponsor contracting and payments |
| Emma Kidney | Fedora Design | Visual design, branding, swag design, stream overlays |
| Madeline Peck | Fedora Design | Visual design, branding, swag design |
| Ananya Nalavathu | OSAIPO (Intern) | Content and promotion support (Marketing and Community Intern, based in Cork, Ireland) |
| Jess Chitas | OSAIPO (Design) | Flock website redesign |
Responsibility by workstream
The table below shows who is Responsible (owns the work) and Accountable (ensures completion) for each workstream. The full RASCI matrix with Supports, Consulted, and Informed roles is maintained in the planning team's shared drive.
| Workstream | Responsible | Accountable |
|---|---|---|
| General: event planning and budget | Dorka, Justin | Shaun |
| General: volunteers | Justin, Lidija (supports) | Shaun |
| General: session recordings | (discussion needed) | Jason, Shaun, Justin |
| General: event recap | Dorka, Justin | Shaun |
| Venue: contract, room block, catering | Dorka | Shaun |
| Venue: AV coordination and setup | Justin | Jason |
| Venue: safety (ISAAC) | Dorka | Shaun |
| Venue: on-site setup (venue, reg desk) | Dorka | Shaun |
| Sponsors: prospectus | Shaun, Emma/Madeline | Shaun |
| Sponsors: outreach and comms | Justin | Shaun |
| Sponsors: contracting and payments | Lidija | Justin |
| Sponsors: on-site fulfillment | Justin | Shaun |
| CfP: platform and promotion | Lidija | Shaun |
| CfP: reviewer recruitment | Justin, Lidija | Shaun |
| CfP: review coordination | Lidija | Shaun, Justin |
| Schedule: drafting and publication | Lidija | Justin |
| Speakers: comms and management | Lidija | Shaun |
| Marketing: website | (discussion needed) | Jason, Shaun, Justin |
| Marketing: design (banners, branding) | Emma/Madeline | (self-directed) |
| Marketing: design (swag, badges, stream, signage) | Emma/Madeline | (self-directed) |
| Marketing: promotion (social, Fedora channels) | Justin | Shaun |
| Marketing: attendee and post-event comms | Justin | Jason |
| Travel: sponsorship form and prioritization | Justin | Jason |
| Travel: ITA coordination and flights | Dorka | Justin |
| Travel: room block arrangements | Justin | Jason |
| Registration: platform and promotion | Justin | Shaun |
| Registration: swag and reg desk orders | Dorka | Justin |
| Registration: on-site printouts and signage | Dorka | Justin |
| Registration: post-event survey | Justin | (self-directed) |
| Socials: sponsor dinner | Justin | Shaun |
| Socials: additional evening activities | Justin | (self-directed) |
| Socials: main conference social venue | Dorka | Justin |
Communication channels
- Flock Staff mailing list: flock-staff@fedoraproject.org
- Sponsor inquiries: sponsors@fedoraproject.org
- Planning calls: Bi-weekly (switching to weekly closer to the event)
- Chat: Flock Staff channel on Red Hat Slack; Fedora Matrix channels
🏷️ Issue tracker guide
Issues in this repository represent planning tasks for Flock. They are organized using labels and milestones.
Labels
Labels are split between the council org-level labels (shared across all Council repos) and repo-specific labels defined here.
Repo labels: area (what workstream -- non-exclusive, multiple can apply)
| Label | Description |
|---|---|
area/CfP & Schedule |
Call for Proposals, schedule building, session management |
area/Design & Swag |
Branding, t-shirts, stickers, badges, signage |
area/Marketing & Comms |
Blog posts, social media, website, announcements |
area/Registration |
Pretix platform, attendee management, check-in |
area/Social Events |
Evening activities, sponsor dinner, walking tours |
area/Speakers |
Speaker communications, onboarding, confirmations |
area/Sponsors |
Sponsor outreach, contracts, invoicing, fulfillment |
area/Travel & Financial Aid |
Travel sponsorships, BEAR approvals, reimbursements |
area/Venue & Logistics |
Room setup, AV, catering, hotel, accessibility |
area/Volunteers |
Recruitment, orientation, on-site coordination |
Repo labels: priority (how urgent -- exclusive, one per issue)
| Label | Description |
|---|---|
priority/critical |
Blocking the event; resolve immediately |
priority/high |
Important for the current milestone |
priority/medium |
Should be done this milestone if possible |
priority/low |
Nice to have; can slip |
Org labels (inherited from council)
These labels are managed at the organization level and available across all Council repositories.
They cover roles (role/fca, role/fpl, role/foa, role/engineering, role/mindshare, role/initiative lead), triage states (?/needs triage, ?/needs changes, ?/needs reporter feedback, ?/needs vote), scope (scope/new, scope/improvement, scope/bug), workflow state (state/approved, state/blocked, state/duplicate, state/invalid, state/wontfix), and community tags (good first issue, help wanted).
Milestones
Milestones map to phases of the planning timeline:
| Milestone | Due | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| April 2026: Schedule & Speakers | Apr 30 | Publish schedule, fill final slots, speaker checklist |
| May 2026: Pre-Event Prep | May 31 | Venue/AV finalization, swag, sponsor fulfillment, volunteers |
| June 1--13: Final Sprint | Jun 13 | Shipments, comms, volunteer orientation, last venue check-ins |
| June 14--16: Event | Jun 16 | On-site execution |
| Post-Event | Jul 31 | Survey, recordings, retrospective, reimbursements, sponsor follow-up |
🗓️ Timeline
Key dates
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Nov 4, 2025 | Announce date, location, and timeline |
| Oct--Dec 2025 | Contact sponsors |
| Dec 8, 2025 | Open CfP and registration |
| Feb 2, 2026 | Soft close CfP |
| Feb 8, 2026 | Hard close CfP |
| Feb 9--28, 2026 | CfP review |
| Mar 2--6, 2026 | Speaker confirmations |
| Mar 8, 2026 | Deadline for financial aid form |
| Mar 23--27, 2026 | Publish initial schedule (slipped; in progress) |
| Apr--Jun 2026 | Final logistics, swag orders, venue confirmation |
| Jun 14--16, 2026 | Flock to Fedora 2026 |
| Jun 18--20, 2026 | DevConf.CZ (Brno, CZ) |
Planning phases
The event checklist is organized into phases that correspond to milestones in the issue tracker:
- September--November -- Venue, budget, sponsor prospectus, public announcement, design kickoff, registration and CfP platform setup
- December--February -- CfP promotion, CfP review, sponsor outreach, travel sponsorship form, website updates, design assets
- March--April -- Speaker notifications, schedule building, sponsor contract finalization, social event planning, swag orders, travel coordination
- April--June -- Venue confirmation (A/V, catering, rooms), speaker updates, registration push, volunteer recruitment, swag shipping, final comms
- Event week -- Opening remarks deck, venue check-in, volunteer orientation, shipment tracking
- Follow-up -- Post-event survey, photo/recording publication, retrospective, reimbursements, budget reconciliation, sponsor thank-you notes
💰 Sponsorship
Flock is made possible by the support of Red Hat and external sponsors. Sponsorship tiers are Bronze, Silver, and Gold, with optional add-ons. Red Hat is listed as a Gold sponsor.
For sponsorship inquiries, contact sponsors@fedoraproject.org.
The Sponsor Prospectus contains full details on tier benefits and pricing.
🤝 Contributing
Flock planning is a community effort. If you would like to help, here are some ways to get involved:
- Browse issues labeled
help wantedorgood first issuefor tasks where the team needs assistance. - Join the conversation on the Fedora Matrix channels or mailing lists.
- Volunteer on-site -- closer to the event, we recruit volunteers for registration desk, A/V support, and attendee assistance.
📜 Code of Conduct
Flock to Fedora follows the Fedora Code of Conduct. All participants, including speakers, sponsors, and volunteers, are expected to abide by it.
⚖️ License
Content in this repository is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted.