This year’s theme was “Prepping Craft” – in a world where safety and normality are slipping away, how do we make our code, our communities, and our lives truly resilient? I loved the topic when I first heard it, and it’s only become more urgent by the day. – Alex Chan
In a moment when institutional trust is declining, political environments are hostile, and the open source ecosystem is under genuine strain, a conference that centers human connection, psychological safety and community resilience isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a model for what the industry needs more of. – Alyx McQueen
Monkigras is my favourite conference of the year, sorry to all the other conference friends I have, and it is not even truly my industry. Every year the conference has a theme and this year’s is about being prepared. – Dave Letorey
“Listening to inspiring speakers from around the world helped me understand how to navigate challenges—both as an individual and within a community. I also had the opportunity to gain different perspectives from experienced professionals in tech and individuals working in tech-related fields. Hearing their journeys and insights really broadened my thinking and inspired me to keep growing.” – Rahwa Haile
So I guess we did OK, then. Monki Gras 2026 was a couple of weeks ago. The feedback from delegates was lovely. The theme this year was “Prepping Craft” — examining what it means to be prepared for whatever comes next, technically and culturally. What it means to be prepared: for the impact of AI on the industry, for geopolitical uncertainty, for the challenge of product rollouts, for (distributed) systems failure. We explored strategies, tools, and philosophies that make people, communities, products, and platforms safer and more resilient. All of the quotes above and below are from blog posts about the conference. They’re all well worth a read!
I would like to thank all my amazing speakers:
Laura Tacho kicked off with a clear eyed view on data versus hype, considering what is going on in the AI and generative coding space. Anna Hevesi asked how we win in the age of robots. Ashley Rolfmore made the case that trust has to come before truth when building explainable AI systems. Sue Smith raised the question of whether our fingers still remember how to code as we become increasingly reliant on AI tooling. Liz Fong-Jones brought something deeply personal and important about rights generally and trans rights specifically— what do you do when you may need to change up your citizenship? After lunch, Hazel Weakly got intentional — about her life and how she crafts herself. Daniel Roe took us into the world of the npmx project, but also atproto, federation, and resilience in open source. Holly Cummins and Sanne Grinovero tackled the open source bus number problem – what happens if something happens to your key project maintainers? Finally Adrian Cockcroft made the case that resilience requires conscious observability, which in many respects was a talk for what you need to do to prepare for a long and successful career.
Day two pushed the prepper theme further. Danilo Campos prepared us for unimaginable change – and a world of abundance in energy and cognition (have you ever considered just how magical it is that you can simply flush a toilet?). Chad Metcalf shared his own story as a the owner of an old gold mine near Yosemite in California. Adam Zimman offered a trans guide for CIS parents. Heidi Waterhouse and Kim Harrison looked at resilience in communities, highlighting work in Minneapolis and Oaxaca. Matt LeMay closed things out by reframing how we plan for uncertainty itself. We closed things out with a book signing with the Progressive Delivery crew.
Another important word – a huge and epic thank you to our sponsors – you can’t run an event like this without the help of amazing sponsors. We live in capitalism, and we need to appreciate that.
- Bishop & Dinner: AWS (the cheese mountain, oysters, and amazing Indian food)
- Abbot: Heroku by Salesforce
- Dean & Diversity and Inclusion: Oracle
- Ops: Chronosphere
- Lunch: PostHog (Turkish on day one, Vietnamese on day two).
- Buy a Round: Dynatrace, The CNCF, Betty Junod
- Amazing Coffee: MongoDB, GitLab (amazing coffee from Scenery coffee roasters, served by the excellent people at Handles).
Many thanks to Dan McGeady, my production manager, Handsome Rob on beer and beverage operations, and their respective teams. Jessica West for being my spar. To Elena Barker, our D&I manager (amazing job!) And of course our incredible designer Gail Myerscough – her take on punch cards really pulled the whole event together. She is open for commissions, does brilliant design work, is flexible and works really quickly.
So let’s close out for now with some more commentary from delegates, because really it’s their conference after all.
I’d barely set foot into the venue when James introduced me to Elena Barker from Code Your Future to enlist me as a mentor for the folk coming along under the auspices of the diversity & inclusion programme. It was a real pleasure to meet some of the participants and talk about how we’re all on a learning journey. Working with early career folk has been one of the highlights of Atsign over the past five years, so this was a chance to chat with some similarly talented and enthusiastic people. – Chris Swan.
I think many would agree – these were two days full of pure joy. No clichés, no repetitive speeches – just unique, thoughtful and often deeply personal talks. At times, it was emotional for both speakers and the audience, and that’s exactly what made it so special. In a world that often feels uncertain, this space reminds you it’s okay to feel, reflect and connect. – Elena Barker.
The talks themselves covered everything from AI hype versus real data to resilience engineering and the future of software careers. Some sessions were technically deep, while others were unexpectedly personal. I loved the mix of technical depth and humanity. Sessions from speakers like Liz Fong-Jones and Hazel Weakly weren’t just about systems and resilience they were about people, responsibility, and the realities behind the work we ship every day – Hawwah Okunmoyimbo
What’s better than a conference that combines TED talks with beer? Two conferences! Monktoberfest in the autumn and Monki Gras six months later in the spring. This year’s Monki Gras was my first. Open source wouldn’t exist without its community, and Monki Gras brings together some of the brightest minds in that domain. – Tarus Balog
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