Returning to the US: see you at All Things Open 2025

When I still worked for a US company, I traveled every few weeks to the US, so much so that I had gold status on several airlines. Ever since the Covid pandemic hit and I got laid off by my last employer as part of a 10k employee cut, I stuck to Europe. Other reasons were my partner hating aircraft and long trips and – * gestures vaguely at everything *.

But, I am always up to support folk, which is why I am coming back over the pond to speak at All Things Open on the 12-14th of October 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

To this end, I am preparing a fire and brimstone talk on AI and open technology called With AIs Wide Open…. Here’s what I challenged myself with in terms of talk outline:

We are in the middle of a revolution of human and computer interaction. We’re also in the middle of a ridiculous hype that burns money, up-ends the lives of people and changes the market we work in. How can we survive this change and come out as winners? How can we ensure that decades of open efforts aren’t being taken over by corporate greed and hidden in closed environments? In this talk Chris Heilmann shows how this “revolution” isn’t new but has been tried before and gives you active advice on how to make yourself indispensable in a world of agents and services. Open isn’t dead, open just needs to lead the way. AI is here to stay and it is up to you to see it as a threat or as a chance to steer it into a good future.

So, if you’re East Coast and want to meet, see you at all things open. As you may have already heard, we’re also planning a US edition of the WeAreDevelopers World Congress next year, so if you’re a speaker at the event or have a booth, hit me up for opportunities in that regard.