[Funding Request] SCaLE 23x 2026 #93
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About you
Name:
Alejandro Acosta
FAS username:
aacosta
How do you primarily contribute to Fedora? (2-3 sentences):
I participate in different events promoting Fedora, like LUGs, expos, universities and conferences.
About the event
Event name(s):
Southern California Linux Expo - SCaLE 23x
Event dates:
from March 5th to 8th, 2026
Event location(s):
Pasadena, CA. USA
Event URL(s):
https://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale/23x
Event description(s) (2-4 sentences per event):
SCaLE is the largest community-lead Linux event in North America. Each year we interact with guests to see how they find Fedora useful, versatile, and feature-rich in their daily lives and bring the Fedora community together. Since this event is the only one of its kind in this geographical area, we provide Fedora outreach and education to attendees.
Requested support
NOTE: The budget amount you request is a hard limit. If actual spend exceeds the requested budget, the extra amount will not be reimbursed. It is suggested to pad your requested budget with a buffer amount, in case of changing travel costs, hotel rates, etc.
Support requested:
hotel | travel—air | travel—taxi/ride-share/parking
Budget estimates:
USD $1,830
USD $5,600
Accessibility needs & requests:
Other needs:
Please see the Event page for budget proposal details
This event & Fedora
Are you a speaker or presenter? If yes, give the title and description of your presentation:
we have submitted talk proposals, but they're still in review. We'll update the page event when defined
Are you an organizer or volunteer? If yes, explain your role:
We're requesting budget for ambassadors @douglax , @perryrivera ,Chavero, Monroe, Williams, @nbebout to attend and help with the Fedora booth.
Why is it a good idea for the Fedora Project to have a presence?:
Our community relies on our presence to see that their support needs are met. Not showing up may result in community flocking to other distributions that make the effort to show up.
Why do you want to represent the Fedora community here?:
We plan to provide booth demonstrations of the distribution and to entertain feedback and discussion. Our goal is to educate attendees about the various spins and environments available.
Are there others in the Fedora community who could help this event be successful? If yes, name any key individuals, teams, or SIGs in the Fedora community needed for success:
Everyone with ideas, suggestion or recommendations for improving the experience for this edition is welcomed. @jwwheeler
Other
Please review as soon as possible. Quick approval will facilitate travel arrangement. Thank you.
set status to To do
changed the description
changed the description
changed the description
Wow that is really expensive.
Not specifically for you, @douglax, but conveying here would help you trickle this information down to the other attendees. I noticed that the hotels take up quite a lot of the budget (almost ~75.37% of the total request), which makes me wonder if all the avenues have been searched for the same. Have you looked into relatively affordable offerings around the region that might require a little travelling? A comfortable stay is definitely important, but please help us understand if we are not compromising on any other front to do so.
Also, since I like to see this as the FOSDEM equivalent of the west, could you please provide us more information on which talks have been confirmed and if the Fedora Project booth is something that has been confirmed or not? I have made it a point to (rather religiously) follow the event summaries on Fedora Commblog, but I would definitely appreciate more postings (regardless of the platform, it could be Instagram, Reddit or a personal blog too, for all I care) from the folks participating in the event - not just from @douglax and @perryrivera.
@gridhead we did search for alternatives but we couldn't find anything more affordable (at least at a reasonable walking distance). The option we're considering is convenient because it is the hotel that has a discount rate for the event. We know that the amount we request is final, so as a cautionary measure we've added a small amount to cover unforeseeable lodging expenses in order to play safe, but if everyone requesting lodging budget have booked a room with the discount rate, those $1,400 would come down to 1,224.69 each. See event page history for reference.
Also, the earliest the flights can be booked the higher the chances to get a cheaper rate.
Regarding the talks, unfortunately we have not been notified yet if any of our proposal have been accepted or not 😞 , but as for the booth, the organization always considers a community booth for us and I think @perryrivera already has started working on that.
@gridhead @ekidney @theprogram @jwwheeler looking at the meeting minutes I saw that you needed some clarification before casting your vote. Please let us know if there's still something that needs to be detailed or if there are still doubts that need to be cleared. we'll be happy to go as deep as needed to make sure that you're confident that your vote is fully backed up.
Discussed during the 2026-01-08 Mindshare Committee meeting.
We discussed this funding request at length during today's meeting, noting the significant budget portion but also the reduced cost compared to 2025 and the new dedicated track. We clarified questions regarding the booth status and hotel costs, but some members still require further context before finalizing their decisions.
As this request falls under the Large Events Policy, the voting window is now open with a strict deadline for a final decision. Share questions and requests for information here for @douglax and @perryrivera to resolve any remaining questions. Mindshare Committee members must cast final votes (
+1/0/-1) by Friday, January 16, 2026.changed start date to January 05, 2026 and changed due date to January 16, 2026
+1 for $7,430 USD
I am working with @douglax and @perryrivera since November 2025 on the SCaLE 23x event. I know they have done a lot of hard work in making a tight budget for 2026. The budget is reduced by nearly ~$2500 USD from 2025. I think this represents a great improvement from last year, especially knowing that we are also gaining an entire track of content at the conference at no additional cost, just for Fedora and CentOS.
Additionally, Alex and Perry have been organizing this specific event for a long time too. Even though the cost is one of our most expensive events for the calendar year, this is not something I think is necessarily bad. I trust the event owners here to stay within the budget, execute a great event for the Fedora community, and share their experiences back with the global community after the event. I have high expectations, but I have a lot of trust that this event team can meet the responsibility too.
I encourage other Mindshare Committee members to ask questions to help guide their vote ahead of the 16 January deadline for this ticket.
Purchasing power parity is a thing, unfortunately. 😅
It would be good to update on all of the known Fedora talks that have been submitted, even if they are not yet accepted. This could go on the Wiki page today, and knowing whether a submitted talk was accepted or not would be good feedback too. This way, we can better understand what the CFP reviewers for an event are looking for.
I also think the post-event communications and reports are soooo important. Our SCaLE organizing team has a lot of lived experience from doing this event for several years. If we can share those learnings and insights on a global platform in Fedora, this makes the sticker price of the event more worth it, in my opinion!
@douglax @perryrivera Are both of you, @vwbusguy, and @nbebout staying at Hotel Dena? Or somewhere else? It would be good to know what hotels are booked already, or if they are not booked, what rates you are seeing as of now. Looking at the Wiki page, it is not clear to me where everyone is staying. Knowing this would be helpful to think about other cost-saving measures, e.g. carpooling into SCaLE together or booking a large cab to ride in together with the event box.
@douglax I think there are some follow-ups here for you and @perryrivera to weigh in on. If you can provide as much of this clarity before the Friday, December 16th deadline, I think this will go a long way to provide confidence in making the vote, since this is the most "expensive" event we do in Fedora for the entire year outside of Flock. Because of the cost, it is expected to get more scrutiny, but I know y'all have a lot of wisdom, experience, and skills to execute this and show the rest of the Fedora community how to do this sort of work. :muscle_tone1:
@gridhead @ekidney @josephgayoso @lbazan @gwmngilfen @sumantrom Please take a look at this ticket soon and ask any questions you have with enough time for Alejandro and Perry to respond.
+1 from my end as well, mostly based on the historical impact that the event has had in the past and the dropping cost as compared to the past years, as mentioned by @jwwheeler. I would still insist on expanding the documented impact further by recording the event's proceedings in not just Fedora Commblog, like you already do, but also on other platforms of your choice.
Folks need to know about the endeavours that Fedora Project contributors have been taking to be approachable around a certain geographical region, to ensure that they come to the conference next to join in the fun. Definitely, provide the contextual details that we asked for here, and that would not only help SCaLE but also other events of similar scale (no pun intended).
I don't think I can add more to what @gridhead said, but I'm +1 within those expectations.
+1 from me too!
+1from me too. I agree with Akash, it will be awesome to do some more PR about Fedora's participation and the amazing things you folks are doing.
+1
Unfortunately I haven't had the time to dive into the details of how this budget request compared to previous years or other requests we have accepted in the past. However, I do believe that a presence at SCaLE is important. If Fedora is going to be a SCaLE, especially with our own track, then we should support it.
+1 from me too!
assigned to @douglax and @perryrivera
changed health status to needs attention
changed due date to March 30, 2026
@aacosta @lajuggler We are approaching the 30 days after SCaLE. I don't have any reimbursement requests or event reports for SCaLE yet. Do you have any updates for us?
Please make sure you have reviewed and follow the Fedora Reimbursement Requests guide.
@jflory7 I'm sorry, I filled out the form a while ago in Pagure (def wrong), but here's the ticket in Gitlab
https://gitlab.com/redhat/osaipo/sponsorship/-/work_items/86
My event report is is the gitlab ticket
Thank you for the clarification!
@jflory7 Thank you for the reminder. Work and home life has been busy. I'm in the process of submitting Part 2 of my expenses and waiting for an expense report to be returned for correction . I am also trying to get some receipts re-printed for Part 3.
Event report is also on my list.
Thank you.
@aacosta and @lajuggler, thank you so much for your detailed reports on the event.
Reading through them almost made me want to be there in person to join in the fun!
Could you folks please once check with Nick Bebout for a event report from their end?
Once we are able to hear back on this, I think we are very close to completing this.
Hello @t0xic0der : We do hope to see you in 2027 so you too may join us.
There will not likely be an event report; unfortunately, Nick Bebout could not join us due to certain circumstances.
It sounds like we are at completion, right @jflory7 ?
Thank you.
Kind regards,
@lajuggler
Closing this out. SCaLE 23x took place March 5-8, 2026 in Pasadena, CA. Thank you @aacosta and @lajuggler for your hard work organizing Fedora's presence at SCaLE this year.
Budget: $3,610.01 spent of $5,820 budgeted (62% utilization). One of three funded attendees was unable to attend, accounting for most of the underspend. For the two who traveled, spending tracked closely to budget at 92% utilization.
Event reports:
Highlights: The joint Fedora/CentOS booth saw heavy traffic across all three days, with roughly 3,000 attendees at the broader event. Fedora Hatch Day (a dedicated Friday track) was a standout, described as a "mini-Flock inside SCaLE" with sessions at or near full capacity. A WiFi Retromodem demo running Fedora 43 was an effective conversation starter, and 58 attendees claimed the SCALE 23x Fedora Badge.
Feedback and suggestions for SCaLE 24x:
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