OpenSearchCon North America 2026 Speaker Guide

We welcome you as a speaker for OpenSearchCon North America 2026, taking place September 22-24, in San Jose, California.

This is your official event speaker guide. Please bookmark this page for easy reference and continue to check back as the event gets closer for additional speaker information.

• Schedule Announced: Wednesday, June 3 
• Speaker Registration Deadline: Wednesday, June 17 
• Additional AV Needs Deadline: Friday, August 21
• Slides Due Date: Monday, September 21 
• Event Dates: Tuesday, September 22 – Thursday, September 24 

You should have received registration information in your speaker notification email. If you need those details again, please contact Carolyn Ingalls at [email protected].

If you require a visa letter, please register for the event first, and then complete the visa letter request form.

We also ask that you please note the following:

• The Linux Foundation strongly recommends requesting a visa letter at your earliest possible convenience and to contact your local Embassy/Consulate with any visa questions you may have.
• Provision of a visa letter by The Linux Foundation does not guarantee visa approval as final approval is made at the sole discretion of the government of the event’s host country.
• The Linux Foundation processes most visa letter requests in (3) business days.

OpenSearchCon North America 2026 will take place at:

San Jose Marriott
301 South Market Street
San Jose, CA 95113

Hotel Accommodations

Rooms will most likely sell out in advance of the room block close date (August 30). We encourage you to book early to secure a room at the conference rate. Please visit the Venue & Travel page for more information.

The schedule will be announced by Wednesday, June 3, and posted on our website using sched.com. You will receive an email from sched.com asking you to create your account; please upload your bio and photo if needed.

If you have a conflict with the timing of your talk, find that it conflicts with the content of another talk, or are having problems uploading your bio and photo, please contact Carolyn Ingalls at [email protected].

Please note the following technical requirements:

• All speakers must supply their computers and adapters to use during their talk.
• Speakers should format their presentation slides in 16:9.  
• You can download a conference-branded presentation template here; use of the template is optional.
• The room will include a screen, projector, and (2) microphones

If you require additional AV, please email Carolyn Ingalls with those needs by Friday, August 21. The Linux Foundation will make every effort to accommodate other AV needs; however, final approval for additional AV requests will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Due by Monday, September 21

All speakers are required to submit their final presentation slides ahead of the event. In addition to providing a hard copy for accessibility purposes, we find that adding the presentations before the event helps to drive interest in attending the session.

Please note that your presentation slides should be uploaded to Sched.com as a PDF file formatted in 16:9.

You can download a conference-branded presentation template here; use of the template is optional.

To upload slides:

• Log into your OpenSearchCon North America speaker profile through Sched.com
• Click “Manage & promote your sessions“
• Click on the session title
• Underneath the session title, select Add Presentation
• Upload your pdf document (note: there is a 50MB size limit)
• The presentation will automatically save to your session
• The above steps, along with screenshots, can also be found here
• Or send to Carolyn Ingalls, and the file will be uploaded on your behalf

If you plan to use speaker notes, please follow the steps below to ensure your laptop is set up correctly. This will allow you to view your notes while the audience sees only your slides.

Use “Extended Display” mode (not Mirrored)

The Linux Foundation, in collaboration with the National Center for Women in Technology (NCWIT), has created an online course designed to teach the viewer about inclusion, diversity, and unconscious bias. We highly recommend all of our speakers watch the course to learn tips/tools to use when speaking to encourage inclusivity in presentations and messaging.

Please read and abide by our Code of Conduct, which you can find here. Our Code of Conduct is strictly enforced. We ask that speakers especially review this Code of Conduct and are careful to be inclusive in the words and images used during their presentations.

If you have any other platform, speaker, or schedule-related questions, please contact us at [email protected].