Open Compliance Summit 2026

The Open Compliance Summit 2026 is coming to Edinburgh from 10 to 11 December, a two-day gathering that brings together the open compliance community. It's a bit of a niche one, so if you're not already in that world, it's worth knowing what it's about before you commit your December. The summit focuses on open compliance—the idea of making the rules, standards, and processes that govern how software and systems are built and checked open and transparent, rather than locked away in proprietary silos.

Because it's a two-day event, it's more of a destination than a quick drop-in. The first day kicks off on Thursday 10 December, and the second follows on Friday 11 December, so you're looking at a full couple of days in the city. If you're coming from outside Edinburgh, you'll want to plan for an overnight stay, as the sessions run across both dates. It's the kind of thing that works best if you can stick around for the whole run rather than just popping in for a single afternoon.

As for what actually happens, the summit is built around the open compliance community. That means the days are filled with talks, discussions, and workshops where people working on these standards share what they're doing and debate where things are heading. It's less about a polished series of presentations and more about the actual work being done in the open—the kind of thing that usually happens in mailing lists and GitHub issues, brought into a room for two days. If you're into the technical side of how software is governed and verified, that's where the meat of it is.

It's held in Edinburgh, so you've got the city around you for the gaps between sessions. The dates are 10 and 11 December 2026, so it's a mid-week affair in the run-up to the holidays.