The wait is over, videos from The Matrix Conference 2024 are here!

PHEW! One month later and I’m still buzzing from the inaugural Matrix Conference in Berlin. This was the first time we’ve gathered such a broad cross-section of the ecosystem both upstream and downstream, bringing together contributors, vendors, and end-users in the same place at the same time.

The result was a fantastic demonstration of how much we can learn from each other, how much progress we’ve made, and how valuable it is to have The Matrix.org Foundation as an ecosystem steward that can bring us all together.

When we were planning the conference, we weren’t sure how big the demand would be. Having hit capacity and sold out of tickets weeks before the event, we know to aim higher next time! We’ll get a larger venue next year, but it was very gratifying to have sessions where the room was literally full!

You could really feel the energy: all told, we had 236 participants from 12 countries across 3 continents, representing 79 different organisations, join us across 4 days of events featuring 52 speakers. You can find the slides and video recordings on the website, or see the photo albums.

And the world noticed, with press in The Guardian, Heise, and Fast Company.

None of this would’ve been possible without the vision of Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape, a deep collaboration between the Foundation and the Matrix Community Events team – namely Kim Brose, Nadine Minagawa, and Yan Minagawa, the help of the production team at Plain Schwarz, more than a dozen on-site volunteers, and the hospitality of the venue staff at Mitosis LAB.

And at the center, working behind the scenes to orchestrate everything? The Foundation’s own Thibault Martin, whose attention to detail, warmth, and expert juggling brought it all together.

Now, as you may know, events like this are not cheap to produce. We couldn’t have pulled it off without our event sponsors, Element, DINUM, Famedly, Connect2x, and Nordeck, as well the Foundation’s funding members, Element, Beeper, Futurewei Technologies, Fairkom, Famedly, Fractal Networks, Gematik, IndieHosters, Verji Tech AS, and XWiki.

Even with all that support though, we ran The Matrix Conference at a loss. It’s not unusual for first year events to run at a loss, it’s just not something that the Foundation can afford to do again as we are still working toward financial sustainability. We had hoped to break even, but we knew that the Foundation needed to take the risk in order to demonstrate its value to the ecosystem and attract more funders.

Because not only did The Matrix Conference create opportunities to connect across the ecosystem, learn from each other’s experiences, recruit talent, make deals, and convene the Governing Board… It also fostered our sense of community, harmonized our efforts, and laid the groundwork to ensure Matrix is a stable, modern protocol that we can all rely on far into the future.

We need your help building on that groundwork to secure the future of Matrix. Join the Foundation as a funding member, and secure your sponsorship of next year’s conference which will be held in Strasbourg, France in the autumn of 2025 – if we can hit our funding targets.

And with any luck, together we’ll produce an even better and more valuable event for the ecosystem in 2025!